How to transfer Avios from Finnair Plus to British Airways Executive Club, and vice versa

Yesterday was the first day that that you could transfer Avios between Finnair Plus and British Airways Executive Club.

Whilst Finnair switched to Avios back in March, IT issues meant that transfers have only now gone live.

I looked at some of the reasons why this could be useful to you in this article on Monday.

How do you move Avios between Finnair and British Airways?

I was keen to try this out because I have 200,000 Avios in Finnair Plus which I wanted to move.

I’m assuming that you already have a Finnair Plus account as you are looking to make a transfer so I won’t go through that process. If you don’t, it is easy enough to do at finnair.com.

For your first conversion, you need to start at finnair.com because you must enable 2FA on your Finnair account.

After your first conversion, you are quicker going directly to the Finnair Plus transfer page on ba.com here, because this is where the Finnair website redirects you anyway. Unlike transfers to/from Qatar Airways, you can only authorise them at ba.com.

Setting up 2FA for your Finnair account

Once logged in at finnair.com, click on your name in the top right and navigate to ‘My Finnair Plus’. On your account home page, you want ‘Balances and Transactions’.

You will see this:

You must set up 2FA on your Finnair Plus account in order to transfer Avios. This can be done via an authenticator app – options vary depending on your device type – or via text message.

If you choose the text message route and your mobile number was already in your profile, all you need to do is click ‘Enable’. Job done.

Go back to ‘Balances and Transactions’ and you are now offered a different option – to link your Finnair and BA accounts:

You are sent over to the BA website to log in here.

Frustratingly, you then need to log in to your Finnair account again and go through the 2FA process you just set up for a second time.

You are then asked how many Avios you wish to move and in what direction.

Guess what? You need to log in to Finnair AGAIN (third time now!).

The transfer then completes and is instant:

For future transfers, now that you have 2FA set up, it is quicker to go directly to the special transfer page of ba.com here.

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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:

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.

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.

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.

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

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.