Collecting Avios/Tier Points with Finnair

[macy312]

Hi,

I am due to travel from London to NY from 16th – 21st March for work in business class. My preference would be to book a BA flight directly through the BA website, however, for whatever reason flights are very expensive on these dates (c.£8k return). I went on Skyscanner and noticed that Finnair business class (operated by American Airlines) can be booked for much cheaper via a travel agent (£2.8k return). However, the same flights via Finnair directly are around £8K. The large price difference seems strange and worrying.

I also want to ensure I can receive Avios (in line with my Silver status) and tier points.

I therefore have the following questions:

1) If I book a Finnair flight, which is operated by American Airlines, via a Travel Agent, can I subsequently enter my BAEC number and receive Avios/tier points? How are Avios/tier points calculated?
2) Has anyone booked via Travel Junction or The Travel House? Is there a good reason why there is more than £5k difference between the travel agent and Finnair directly? Should I be worried?

Many thanks!

[LittleNick]

Personally the price difference of £2.8k vs £8k would have me questioning whether the travel agent is reputable? Have you done your homework on them?

Assuming you book the travel agent fare and it tickets, you earn BA Tier points on the current scheme which would be 2x140TPs. No idea how the avios would be calculated as it depends if BA would see the fare data or not.

Not personally heard of Travel House/Travel Junction. The reason why it’s expensive is because there’s not Saturday night stay. If you book directly with BA/AA and your work is paying the expensive fare you will get a lot of avios though!

[Wanderlost]

If this helps at all, from BA regarding Finnair TP earning:

Tier Points awarded (percentage of miles flown)
From 1 April 2025:

Economy Lowest (Q, O, A, G, Z): 4%
Economy Low (K, L, M, V, S, N): 7%
Economy Flexible (Y, B, H): 15%
Premium Economy Lowest (E, T, P): 12%
Premium Economy Flexible (W): 25%
Business Low (R, I): 25%
Business Flexible (J, C, D): 50%

Just note as an aside that [quoting from BA] For transatlantic flights marketed by AY but operated by British Airways, awards will be as per the British Airways awards. It would be worth checking if the same small-print would also apply to AA flights

Re Skyscanner prices, I’ve seen some very different prices show up when I’ve clicked through to an actual booking.

[LittleNick]

Wanderlost wrote:

If this helps at all, from BA regarding Finnair TP earning:

Tier Points awarded (percentage of miles flown)
From 1 April 2025:

Economy Lowest (Q, O, A, G, Z): 4%
Economy Low (K, L, M, V, S, N): 7%
Economy Flexible (Y, B, H): 15%
Premium Economy Lowest (E, T, P): 12%
Premium Economy Flexible (W): 25%
Business Low (R, I): 25%
Business Flexible (J, C, D): 50%

Just note as an aside that [quoting from BA] For transatlantic flights marketed by AY but operated by British Airways, awards will be as per the British Airways awards. It would be worth checking if the same small-print would also apply to AA flights

Re Skyscanner prices, I’ve seen some very different prices show up when I’ve clicked through to an actual booking.

This is completely irrelevant to the original question as the flights are in March so the new scheme does not apply!

[Wanderlost]

Ahh, fair point.

Still, my comment related to Skyscanner remains valid.

[macy312]

Thanks for the responses.

As an update, there’s a much cheaper jet blue flight so my work said they will not pay £8k for BA. So no avios for me unfortunately 🙁

Looks like I’ll be trying out Jet Blue mint. Hoping I can at least convince them to let me book the big suites in row 1!

[Biki]

macy312 wrote:

Thanks for the responses.

As an update, there’s a much cheaper jet blue flight so my work said they will not pay £8k for BA. So no avios for me unfortunately 🙁

Looks like I’ll be trying out Jet Blue mint. Hoping I can at least convince them to let me book the big suites in row 1!

I think you can credit to Qatar and get avios?

[macy312]

Biki wrote:

macy312 wrote:

Thanks for the responses.

As an update, there’s a much cheaper jet blue flight so my work said they will not pay £8k for BA. So no avios for me unfortunately 🙁

Looks like I’ll be trying out Jet Blue mint. Hoping I can at least convince them to let me book the big suites in row 1!

I think you can credit to Qatar and get avios?

I did not know that so thank you for letting me know. At least I’ll earn some avios for in the trip.

[Candor]

I flew with Jetblue in December, each flight credited Qatar with the Avios within 5 days of flying as well
So pretty efficient as well

[jf1982]

To go back to your original question, OTAs such as the travel house and travel junction have access to discounted fares (I have booked with both)

However often you will find that the pricing is not live, for example you’ll go through to book then won’t be able to or you’ll get a phone call suggesting different flight times or telling you it’s more expensive (but still cheaper than booking direct)

For example I recently went to book LHR to JFK return, mon-Thurs for work.

BA return would’ve been 8k in CW. Via kayak I could see prices for 1.9k however when i tried to book it was actually 2.5k.

When you get a booking confirmation you receive a finnair confirmation where you can add your BAEC, you can also see a flight locator details for the airline you are flying with.

So I went to Finnair, added my details and it automatically appeared in my BA app where I could do seat selection etc with all my Gold benefits.

Also worth nothing if you book via an OTA you will not see any upgrade offers or be able to upgrade with points.