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Finnair launches Avios Subscription – is it cheaper than the British Airways version?

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Finnair has taken a leaf out of the British Airways book and launched Avios Subscriptions.

It is very similar to the UK version of Avios Subscription which we covered here.

You can choose to pay a monthly or annual fee (paying annually gets you 12 months for the price of 10) and in return you will receive 2,000, 4,000, 10,000 or 20,000 Avios per month.

Finnair launches Avios Subscription

There is NO price arbitrage at the top end so there is no reason to bother with this unless you have maxed out the UK version and want more.

Indeed, the cheapest option (240,000 Avios per year, paid annually) is priced at the rather weird sum of €2,808 – which only makes sense if Finnair was trying to match the cheapest ‘price per point’ offered in the UK, which is 0.99p.

One upside is that Finnair allows a maximum annual purchase of 240,000 Avios compared to 200,000 Avios with the British Airways version. You can, of course, do both if you wish.

You can find out more on the Finnair website here, although you need to log in to see pricing.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 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 Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express Credit Card

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 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 points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 on the FREE standard card and 1 Avios per £1 on the Pro card. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 Read our full review

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 Card

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.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

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

The American Express Business Gold Card

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

Finnair and Finnair Plus

Comments (19)

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

  • Gerry says:
    24 May24 May 04:55

    Any insight as to whether the Finnair subscription payments are processed directly by Finnair or by a third party (like points.com)?

    • Tony says:
      24 May24 May 06:36

      It is via points.com not Finnair

      • MCO says:
        24 May24 May 11:32

        Is there a reason why airlines prefer to use points.com instead of selling their own services? Why pay someone else when they have the capability to do it themselves?

        • John says:
          24 May24 May 12:26

          Airline get coded differently for CC spend. This can then depending on the market/processor trigger different levels of fees.

        • Nick says:
          24 May24 May 13:22

          But they don’t have the capability to do it themselves, that’s a huge assumption! Everything airlines sell directly is accounted for using IATA-standard documents, which don’t exist for points sales. The cost and complexity of setting up a separate process would far outweigh any saving they’d get, not to mention the need to set up different merchant agreements with Amex, etc. It may be something AGL does in future, if sales increase enough, but airlines are unlikely ever to do it themselves.

          • Ziggy says:
            24 May24 May 15:45

            American Airlines manages to see its own miles without the need for an intermediary so, presumably, if AA can do it, so can others.

          • Rob says:
            24 May24 May 16:23

            BA sells its own miles now – they dropped points.com.

            Worth noting that it has been trying to get other carriers to adopt it but no-one will touch it. Points.com is well regarded.

    • David says:
      24 May24 May 08:25

      Might be able to double dip with TCB like US points.com buys?

  • RobH says:
    24 May24 May 05:57

    The only reason my wife and I still have the BA Avios subscription is because we got the launch price which is £1,789/year (0.8945p) rather than the current £1,989/year (0.9945p). Very cunning of BA to keep the original price while you remain subscribed (when it hits the renewal every year) – otherwise we’d cancel it

    • AndyC says:
      24 May24 May 13:05

      @RobH – we, too, had the ‘original’ price beyond the initial year, but, bearing in mind BA’s propensity for drop-of-the-hat points devaluations, reluctantly decided not to renew, just in case the worst happened.

  • Liz says:
    24 May24 May 07:51

    OT but Finnair related. The other day I asked about when the AA flights came up on BA .com as I will be booking flights from LAX to Honolulu soon and the cost is 20k Avios and £4.20 taxes in economy. Someone mentioned I could use Finnair at a cost of only 15k Avios. I set up a Finnair account to check it out snd find out the taxes but it just keeps saying no flights available for the several dates I tried even though plenty were showing on BA. Can anyone help with this – what am I doing wrong and is it possible? Thanks.

    • Scottpat78 says:
      24 May24 May 08:27

      I’m planning on looking into this myself, and just signed up to a Finnair account to do so. I’ve not looked yet, but read previously that you are best to use a laptop (not mobile/ipad) and when in the Finnair search, there is a selection option for including partner flights.
      Let us know how you get on.

    • David says:
      24 May24 May 08:27

      Finnair flights with Alaska or AA can only be booked and done via chat function. Also keep in mind it’s t-330.

  • Tony says:
    24 May24 May 08:37

    The VS Holidays discounts are a farce!!

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

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