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Which Finnair long-haul routes have ultra-low taxes when using Avios?

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Early last month, Finnair adopted Avios as its loyalty currency. We covered the story here.

You CANNOT yet move Avios back and forth between Finnair Plus and British Airways Executive Club, but this should be possible from late May / June.

This doesn’t stop you redeeming Avios for Finnair flights, of course.

Which Finnair routes have ultra-low taxes for long haul Avios redemptions?

You have ALWAYS been able to redeem Avios for Finnair flights on ba.com because both airlines are members of the oneworld airline alliance.

What has changed is that BA and Finnair have agreed to charge exactly the same for Avios flights on Finnair. In many cases this has led to a decent reduction in the cost of flights.

Finnair is more useful than you might think. Helsinki is ‘on the way’ to Asia from much of Europe, meaning that a connection there is not a lot slower than flying direct. (It is slower than it was, however, due to the ban on using Russian airspace.)

Finnair has NO ‘carrier surcharges’ on many of its long haul flights. This makes them exceptionally good value if you want to avoid taxes and charges.

There are some exceptions. To North America, Finnair is part of the BA / AA / Iberia / Aer Lingus joint venture. To Japan, Finnair is part of the BA / Japan Airlines joint venture. Finnair is obliged to charge higher surcharges on these routes under the terms of the joint venture agreement. Surcharges are also higher to Shanghai, possibly due to the China Southern codeshare deal.

For other long haul routes, you’re laughing.

Finnair now has guaranteed award availability

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

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.

Which Finnair routes have ultra-low taxes for long haul Avios redemptions?

What do Avios redemptions cost on Finnair?

Here is the new reward chart. Remember that the same chart applies whether you book on finnair.com or ba.com.

Note that there are no peak / off-peak prices.

These are one way prices from Helsinki. Connections are charged separately except for ‘Northern Europe’ – I discuss this below.

Finnair Avios reward chart

Where are the best redemption routes for low taxes?

Here is a list of Finnair long haul routes from Helsinki. Pricing is for Business Class, return, flights.

Finnair also flies to Doha from Stockholm and Copenhagen. Taxes are even lower than the number shown below, and getting to those cities should be cheaper than getting to Helsinki.

I have highlighted those where the taxes and charges are under £100 return.

DestinationAvios (Business, return)Taxes & charges
Bangkok125,000£59
Chicago125,000£526
Dallas125,000£526
Delhi110,000£55
Doha110,000£72
Dubai110,000£69
Hong Kong125,000£77
Los Angeles125,000£526
Miami125,000£526
Nagoya125,000£381
New York125,000£526
Osaka125,000£382
Phuket125,000£59
Seattle125,000£526
Seoul125,000£57
Shanghai125,000£286
Singapore125,000£79
Tokyo125,000£382

Where are the biggest savings over direct British Airways flights?

Our list of Avios pricing by route when flying on British Airways from London is here.

Finnair business class seat

Here are the routes with the biggest overall Avios and cash savings compared with a PEAK British Airways Club World return flight from London:

Bangkok

  • BA – 220,000 Avios + £550
  • Finnair – 125,000 Avios + £59

Delhi

  • BA – 200,000 Avios + £450
  • Finnair – 110,000 Avios + £55

Doha

  • BA – 180,000 Avios + £350
  • Finnair – 110,000 Avios + £72

Dubai

  • BA – 180,000 Avios + £350
  • Finnair – 110,000 Avios + £69

Hong Kong

  • BA – 220,000 Avios + £550
  • Finnair – 125,000 Avios + £77

Singapore

  • BA – 240,000 Avios + £600
  • Finnair – 125,000 Avios + £79

British Airways does not fly to Nagoya, Osaka, Phuket or Seoul.

I cannot stress enough how good value Singapore is. Even if you have a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher, you should save it for another trip and pay full Avios to go with Finnair.

Which Finnair routes have ultra-low taxes for long haul Avios redemptions?

Of course, don’t forget ….

There are snags, of course:

  • you need to get to Helsinki, which will cost you in cash or Avios (BA has dropped it but Finnair flies from Heathrow, Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin, various low cost carriers also fly it)
  • if your flight to Helsinki is on a separate ticket, you will need to build in a big gap to ensure you don’t miss your connection – but Finnair will through-check your luggage if both flights are with them (according to the comments below)
  • if your flight to Helsinki is on the same ticket, you get protection from a missed connection but will also have to pay long-haul UK Air Passenger Duty
  • you can’t use a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher or Barclays upgrade voucher on Finnair

Avios bookings made on the Finnair Plus website allow a free connection in ‘Northern Europe’. This is defined as Bodø, Copenhagen, Gdansk, Gothenburg, Oslo, Riga, Stockholm, Tallinn, Trondheim, Vilnius, Visby, Warsaw and all flights within Finland.

This would allow you to book, say, Copenhagen to Helsinki to Singapore for the same cost as Helsinki to Singapore. This will benefit some people as Helsinki is a longer and pricier flight from the UK than many cities on the list above. You can’t book this until transfers into Finnair Plus are allowed – you won’t get a free connection if you book at ba.com.

What’s the new Finnair Business Class seat like?

The new Finnair ‘no recline’ seat is now on virtually all routes. I won’t go into it again but you can read my review here. Rhys is off to Nagoya soon to test it on a long haul route. Image above.

Conclusion

Finnair offers exceptional value for a solo traveller or a couple without a BA Amex voucher on long haul business class flights to much of Asia, the Middle East and Delhi.

You have to factor in a transfer in Helsinki, but it’s a great city for a 24 hour stopover (if you want one, image above), the redeveloped airport is lovely and the lounges in the non-Schengen area are excellent – if you are British Airways Gold you can visit the Platinum Wing which we reviewed here, and have a sauna whilst you wait.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

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Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

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

Category

British Airways and Avios, Finnair and Finnair Plus

Comments (160)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • sturgeon says:
    16 Apr16 April 09:24

    I’m flying from Stockholm later this week after picking up an ‘error’ fare for 20k Avios and about £50. I’m sceptical of the non declining seat but looking forward to trying it and will ask for more pillows if needed. The food doesn’t get rave reviews on Finnair though…

    • BJ says:
      16 Apr16 April 09:52

      Food on AY shorthaul J is better than most provided it’s something you like. Longhaul is more hit and miss. For fish I find them better than most and if it’s reindeer I’m really happy. Tne rest is as variable as any other airline on the day. In the past the food was generally lighter, simpler and fresher which I think was the problem for many but it really suited me as I don’t like to overeat when sitting down or sleaping for hours. In recent years offering has I feel become more typical of other airlines.

      • Qrfan says:
        16 Apr16 April 10:01

        I found the service painfully slow, they ran out of certain choices mid cabin, and if I recall correctly it was a one-tray service, which to me is unacceptable in long haul J. I usually fly American going west and I would say their flagship business soft product is miles better than finnair. The Asian airlines going east are on a whole other level. However, the price is keen and the seat is good, so on balance I’m still happy.

        • meta says:
          16 Apr16 April 10:52

          Yes, reindeer meat has been enhanced. You can pre-select meal (three choices usually meat/fish/vegan dish). Desserts are not as great. Breakfast is better than BA as you get both proper continental breakfast, cold cuts and egg dish. Service is on one try and I generally prefer that on night flights or where the food offer is not as great as Asian airlines because it means service is over sooner and I can sleep or work sooner.

    • Hbommie says:
      16 Apr16 April 13:20

      The food is the weak point and nowhere near QR standards long haul.

      • meta says:
        16 Apr16 April 13:26

        QR food is just as terrible in my opinion. Their Arabic mezze is one of the worst I ever tried. The only difference is dine on demand.

      • BJ says:
        16 Apr16 April 13:47

        You mean the missing soup on my last QR EDI-DOH sector, and the cereal, yoghurt and fruit platter that were all missing on the subsequent DOH-BKK sector?

  • babyg_wc says:
    16 Apr16 April 09:29

    this new trend of just to 2 J seats makes it tricky for families… weirdly BA seem to be the most generous in releasing more than 2 J seats, but QR, IB and from my quick search AY rarely do… but good to have more Avios options thou!

    • Rhys says:
      16 Apr16 April 09:32

      Given Finnair didn’t guarantee any seats per flight previously, this is obviously an improvement.

      • NicktheGreek says:
        16 Apr16 April 10:08

        and most others don’t guarantee anything. I think it’s the most valuable feature of Avios. being able to know there’s seats you can secure (albeit maybe at midnight GMT with some work) is immensely valuable, and I believe underappreciated by those here (rightly so perhaps) being so used to good availability. Spend some time browsing Qantas forums etc….

      • babyg_wc says:
        16 Apr16 April 10:42

        kind of…. before QR adopted AVIOS i had no issue getting 3 seats.. now its almost impossible…..

    • Rob says:
      16 Apr16 April 10:47

      BA was 2 for many years but IAGL pushed them to release more – because, as I’ve always said, the core Avios collector via business travel is 30-45 and very likely to have kids.

      • KS says:
        16 Apr16 April 11:17

        Why is it 30-45 Rob? I am about to turn 45 and am indeed running my last few Avios down on some final redemptions. I assumed that I was a bit of an anomaly but perhaps not. For me, the change of approach is largely due to difficulty of finding redemptions that we want to go for and which are available during the kids holidays.

        • Rob says:
          16 Apr16 April 11:44

          Once you get beyond 45, people tend to get promoted into managerial roles with less travel, or simply step back due to family commitments or an unwillingness to swallow the jet lag. I haven’t done a HfP flight outside Europe for 18 months.

          More than happy to let Rhys go to Boston for 24 hours and Dubai for 24 hours as he is doing virtually back to back later this month, or go to Hong Kong for 48 hours as he did recently. I will continue to raise my hand for 2-3 nights breaks at luxury European hotels though 🙂

          • Bob says:
            16 Apr16 April 12:04

            What a dream job Rhys has. Lucky git! *Yes, hard working too.

          • Rob says:
            16 Apr16 April 12:21

            You really want to fly to Boston for 24 hours and then pretty much turn around and fly to Dubai for 24 hours?

          • BJ says:
            16 Apr16 April 13:50

            Exploitation springs to mind in more ways than one 🙂

          • BJ says:
            16 Apr16 April 14:18

            @Bob, think again, Rhys went to do a lounge review once and he said they would not even let him have a drink or try the food! There is nothing much glamorous about flying longhaul premium just to return even two days later. Sounds hard work to me. Venerally I prefer just to keep journey times as short as possible and sleep as much as possible regardless of class or carrier. Rhys and Rob have to concentrate on all sorts of minir details we rarely give a seconds thought to, record them all and report on them. I imagine allcthat takes muvh of the gloss off.

          • Gordon says:
            16 Apr16 April 16:04

            I have a friend Graham Clarke, who runs a company called RMA Track days.

            It caters for wealthy people who have the desire to race their sports and super cars off road, he basically hires race tracks around Europe, including F1 circuits, and he ships their cars over to the destination, organising everything, I’ve tried one weekend at brands hatch, which was fun, but exhausting.

            I said to him once wow you have a dream job travelling around Europe, and getting paid a large sum for it. He said, it’s not all it seems when looking in from outside. He hardly gets the chance to go out on circuit, he’s too busy organising the tight racing slots also dealing with organising flights, Insurance constant emails, the H&S red tape etc.
            So I can understand that a job looks like a dream job, like people think Rob and Rhys has, but it’s not the dream job some people think it is.

            I have a hard job dealing with jet lag, as a leisure traveler let alone working constantly through it, and once you reach your destination, all in such a short time.

            And get three articles out a day, seven days a week. The guys do well.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      16 Apr16 April 11:54

      It’s still only relatively recently that BA started to release 4 in Club though.

      It used to be 2 for a long, long time.

  • Alex G says:
    16 Apr16 April 09:57

    A few issues to be aware of with Finnair.

    The lounge at HEL doesn’t open until 6am. Not great if you are due to arrive from Tokyo at 04:40, but actually arrive at 04:00, and your connection to the UK leaves at 08.00

    Unless you have at least BA Silver status (or equivalent), seat selection is theoretically chargeable, even at OLCI.

    The food isn’t great, and the cold starters and hot main all arrive at the same time on a tray.

  • Amy C says:
    16 Apr16 April 10:25

    Currently waiting to board my flight to CPH to catch the later AY flight to DOH courtesy of the aforementioned ‘error’ fare. It’ll be on an A330 so I don’t think the new seat. My first LH on AY and looking forward to it.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:
    16 Apr16 April 10:37

    Does Billund count as Northern Europe? Seems strange that Oslo is along with Copenhagen and Billund is only a tiny bit further

    • Rob says:
      16 Apr16 April 10:45

      The list is a cut and paste from the Finnair website but would be easy to do a dummy booking to test.

  • swifty says:
    16 Apr16 April 10:44

    Did it to Phuket, seat super uncomfortable in upright position and the lack of recline the reason for this, I have back issues. Food was good. Didn’t sleep a wink sadly as was given a caffeinated coffee at 11pm when I had asked for a non caffeinated coffee. Cabin crew were scary. That is all. Won’t repeat the experience, I’d rather go Iberia to south americas, and yes, I *have* been on a long haul bus flight on ib before.

  • Tina says:
    16 Apr16 April 11:47

    This might be a daft question, but how do you book Finnair flights using Avios from the BA website? When I search for HEL-BKK, all I see is an error message?

    • Rob says:
      16 Apr16 April 12:24

      That’s an error 🙂 ba.com will sort itself out eventually. I just got the same message.

      • Hugo says:
        16 Apr16 April 14:06

        If you keep repeating the search, it works. took about 4 attempts for me – great IT as always!

  • riku says:
    16 Apr16 April 11:53

    Finland isn’t really on the way from the UK to Asia anymore. The last time I flew Helsinki-Tokyo we spent the first three hours flying south to Turkey to avoid Russian airspace. It took many hours before the distance to Tokyo started to decrease rather than increase!

    • BJ says:
      16 Apr16 April 13:57

      The short HEL connections work though, lrovided we make them ok. For example, EDI-HEL-BKK is faster than EDI-DOH-BKK because the connections are usually only 45 or 60 minutes.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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