Finnair has joined Avios – but you can’t transfer points in or out yet

Finnair has now adopted Avios as its loyalty currency. This was announced last August and has now gone live in impressively speedy fashion.

It joins British Airways, Qatar Airways, Iberia, Vueling and Aer Lingus in adopting the currency.

With ‘just’ 4 million members, Finnair Plus is a minnow compared to British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club, adding just 10% to the total member base. However, it brings new options to earn and redeem Avios on non-airline partners, as well as letting BA members use Avios to upgrade Finnair flights.

Full details of the changes are on the Finnair website here.

Important: you can’t transfer Avios to/from BA yet

The one aspect of the transition which is not yet live is, unfortunately, the one we actually need.

You won’t be able to transfer Avios between your British Airways Executive Club account and your Finnair Plus account until May / June.

This means:

• you can’t (yet) transfer Avios into Finnair Plus to upgrade a Finnair flight

• you can’t (yet) transfer Avios into Finnair Plus to redeem for a partner which only works with Finnair

• you CAN earn Avios in a Finnair Plus account from a company which is not a BA partner (eg Hertz) but you can’t merge them with your BA balance (yet)

• you CAN redeem for Finnair flights via ba.com – there’s nothing new in that

Got Finnair Plus points? They are now Avios, converted at 3:2

The entire Finnair Plus programme underwent a 3:2 REvaluation. Not a DEvaluation, a REvaluation. This was done to bring their pricing in line with other Avios partners.

If you had 30,000 Finnair Plus points, you now have 20,000 (Finnair) Avios.

However, a flight that used to cost 30,000 Finnair Plus points should also now cost 20,000 (Finnair) Avios.

The delay in letting you move Avios to/from British Airways accounts gives us a two month window to see what deals – if any – may be available via the Finnair Plus reward chart.

Whilst, in theory, Finnair reward flights should cost the same at ba.com and finnair.com, it is possible that – for example – a Cathay Pacific flight could be cheaper when booked via the Finnair platform. Let’s see what turns up.

What new opportunities will this give you as a British Airways Executive Club member?

When Qatar Airways Privilege Club adopted Avios, it opened up a huge new list of car rental, airline and hotel partners. You can now earn Avios via Hertz and Virgin Australia, for example.

This is what Finnair Plus will bring you (I have only listed non-BAEC partners):

• Car hire – earn Avios via Hertz, Sixt, Europcar

• Hotels – earn Avios via GLO, Scandic, Sokos, Strawberry / Nordic Choice, Shangri-La

• Hotels – spend Avios via GLO, Scandic, Sokos, Strawberry / Nordic Choice, Clarion Hotels Finland

• Airlines – there will be two new airline earn and spend partners: Braathens (13 routes within Sweden) and Juneyao Air, a Chinese carrier

There are also a lot of individual earn and spend deals with specific hotels in Finland, plus leisure options such as restaurant vouchers.

The IHG partnership appears to be a victim

You were always able to transfer Finnair Plus points into IHG One Rewards.

The rate wasn’t great. Given the 3:2 revaluation, I was expecting to see 13,333 Avios = 10,000 IHG One Rewards points.

However, IHG has disappeared completely from Finnair Plus website.

Strawberry – the top luxury hotel group in Scandinavia – is still there. However, Strawberry is merging its reward programmme with airline Norwegian and I can’t imagine Finnair Plus wlll want you transferring points into a competitor airline. I suspect this transfer option will disappear in time.

Reminder: Finnair Plus has moved to a spend-based programme

As part of the Avios move, Finnair has moved to spend-based Avios earning. You will earn 6 to 10 Avios per €1 spent, excluding taxes etc, depending on your Finnair Plus status.

If you were not bothered about British Airways tier points, you may want to do the maths to see if you would be better off crediting any cash Finnair flights to Finnair Plus rather than BAEC. Remember that you won’t be able to move the Avios across to your BA account until May / June.

Reminder: Finnair now guarantees four to eight award seats

Finnair will now guarantee a minimum number of award seats for Avios redemption on each flight. This should make it significantly easier to redeem Avios for Finnair flights.

Finnair is offering:

• 4-6 award seats on shorthaul European flights (two in Business where it exists, four in Economy)
• 8 award seats on long haul flights (two in Business, two in Premium Economy and four in Economy)

These should be bookable via ba.com so there is no need to wait until you are able to transfer Avios into Finnair Plus.

Conclusion

Whilst, strategically, a big deal for IAG Loyalty, the impact for British Airways Executive Club members from this Finnair move isn’t huge.

The key things to look out for are:

• the ability to upgrade Finnair cash flights with Avios (but you can’t do this until May/June when you can transfer Avios across)

• guaranteed Avios availability on every Finnair flight (already up and running, and showing at ba.com)

• the ability to earn and spend Avios with additional car, flight, hotel and leisure partners (already up and running, but you won’t be able to transfer the Avios out of your Finnair Plus account to your BA account until May/June)

You can find out more on the Finnair website here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.