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Has anyone had experience with Avios expiring in Finnair Plus?
I transferred Avios from my BA Executive Club account into Finnair Plus, only to find they had expired just six days later due to “inactivity”. I wasn’t aware that a transfer doesn’t count as qualifying activity, and I received no warning or expiry notice from Finnair.
Customer service says nothing can be done, but I’ve submitted a formal complaint. Just wondering if anyone has managed to get expired points reinstated, or if it’s worth escalating to the European Consumer Centre or elsewhere?
Appreciate any advice.
I take if from this that they were about to expire in your BA account and you assumed moving them to AY would update their expiry date?
From the AY website
Do Avios transfers extend the validity of my Avios?
No. Transferring Avios between your Finnair Plus account and The British Airways Club account or between Finnair Plus accounts is not counted as Avios activity and does not affect the Avios expiry date. Your Avios are valid for 18 months from collecting or using Avios.
Has anyone had experience with Avios expiring in Finnair Plus?
I transferred Avios from my BA Executive Club account into Finnair Plus, only to find they had expired just six days later due to “inactivity”. I wasn’t aware that a transfer doesn’t count as qualifying activity, and I received no warning or expiry notice from Finnair.
Customer service says nothing can be done, but I’ve submitted a formal complaint. Just wondering if anyone has managed to get expired points reinstated, or if it’s worth escalating to the European Consumer Centre or elsewhere?
Appreciate any advice.
This happened to me in July last year – the Avios in my BAEC account weren’t about to expire as I have plenty of activity, I had just transferred them to AY+ while I looked at a potential reward flight booking from HEL. Within 10 days they were removed from my AY+ account due to ‘expiry’. CS said as I had no activity on my AY account for the last 18 months they were correct in removing them. I argued with an online chat agent who could do nothing, so I raised a complaint on the website showing screenshots of the recent activity in my BAEC account, and asked them to reinstate as a goodwill gesture. My argument was what is the point of a common currency if I have plenty of activity in one program, yet the points get removed almost as soon as I move them to another program. I also said I loved their product (I do) and would dearly love to continue flying them in future (I would), and what a shame that this reflected badly on their program.
I got the Avios back shortly after that, and moved them straight back to BA within the hour!
This is a very valuable data point to have – presumably people need to now be aware that they should earn a few avios in the AY account before transferring in from another programme? I vaguely recall having to do something like this when I opened an IB account – IIRC I bought something for a few euros on Spanish eBAy and credited the avios earned to IB.
I can confirm that moving avios into Finnair seems to only give you a 10 day expiry date however once i used my points i had a few leftover and redeeming a flight seems to extend the validity.
Recently moved 2m Avios through Finnair back-to-back to move from one BA account to another. Totally oblivious to this rule – seems crazy if there’s a common currency (I have very frequent activity in my BA account as you’d expect). I’m guessing this doesn’t apply to Qatar etc – but should check !!
Common currency does not mean the same rules.
All the schemes have their own rules and redemption prices.
Don’t assume they are the same.
Totally agree / that’s never been where my mind was. But Finnair’s position unless I’m misunderstanding is if no activity for 18 months – and transfers don’t count – then any Avios transferred in will evaporate after 10 days. That can’t be right. I’ll look at tomorrow…
It will say on your Finnair account that Avios
will expire if there are no transactions. I even got an push notification about it on the app. I almost got caught in the above. Transferring 1000 MR did the trick or you could buy Avios directly from Finnair.Recently moved 2m Avios through Finnair back-to-back to move from one BA account to another. Totally oblivious to this rule – seems crazy if there’s a common currency (I have very frequent activity in my BA account as you’d expect). I’m guessing this doesn’t apply to Qatar etc – but should check !!
Qatar tells you when your avios will expire – I haven’t been able to make sense of the dates that my account showed, but even when I had no actual activity in QR and only transferred in from BA it was always years away.
This is a very valuable data point to have – presumably people need to now be aware that they should earn a few avios in the AY account before transferring in from another programme? I vaguely recall having to do something like this when I opened an IB account – IIRC I bought something for a few euros on Spanish eBAy and credited the avios earned to IB.
Correct, IB required (requires?) “activation” by earning 1 Avios (at least) before you could transfer in (or purchase, I think). Path of least resistance is to transfer 1k from Amex, same is probably the case for AY. That starts the clock ticking, then presumably a transfer in will adopt the same expiry date as that initial transaction (and be extended by any subsequent, eligible transactions).
As for the old way of IB, they used to sell packs of Avios on Spanish Groupon too, via their shopping portal or something – anyway, you’d end up with the Avios you bought, plus Avios from the transaction. Haven’t heard of that in a while, so assume it’s no longer a thing. The 9k per flight offer was the best thing IB have ever done though.
Don’t forget the Iberia Plus Store shopping portal which I’ve used before to send a few Avios into a dormant Iberia account.
Does Finnair have anything similar?
Thanks all for your comments. Really appreciated.
Just to clarify, I have had an active BAEC account and managed to retain Silver status before the changes, so I did not move my Avios to sidestep any expiry rules. I only transferred them to Finnair Plus because you cannot see award flight availability unless you have Avios in your Finnair account, as some of you also mentioned.
Since my original post, I have done a bit more digging. Finnair converted to Avios on 9 March 2024, and according to their website, Avios expire only after 18 months of account inactivity. There is no mention that older points would carry over expiry dates from the previous scheme. So, technically, no Avios should be expiring yet, as we are only 13 months into the programme. My points expired just six days after being transferred in, despite the account being well within the valid window.
I have emailed Finnair (twice now) and will update here if I receive a reply. It is good to hear a few people have had success getting points reinstated. That gives me a bit of hope.
Does Rob or any of the team read these forums? It feels like this could be worth a closer look. I doubt I am the only person to lose Avios unexpectedly under the new Finnair setup.
They do. Finnair Shop
Don’t forget the Iberia Plus Store shopping portal which I’ve used before to send a few Avios into a dormant Iberia account.
Does Finnair have anything similar?
I take if from this that they were about to expire in your BA account and you assumed moving them to AY would update their expiry date?
From the AY website
Do Avios transfers extend the validity of my Avios?
No. Transferring Avios between your Finnair Plus account and The British Airways Club account or between Finnair Plus accounts is not counted as Avios activity and does not affect the Avios expiry date. Your Avios are valid for 18 months from collecting or using Avios.
No, I didn’t assume that. I have an active BA account. I didn’t move them with an expiry date in mind. As the Finnair Avios scheme is only 13 months old, no points should be expiring yet.
Has anyone had experience with Avios expiring in Finnair Plus?
I transferred Avios from my BA Executive Club account into Finnair Plus, only to find they had expired just six days later due to “inactivity”. I wasn’t aware that a transfer doesn’t count as qualifying activity, and I received no warning or expiry notice from Finnair.
Customer service says nothing can be done, but I’ve submitted a formal complaint. Just wondering if anyone has managed to get expired points reinstated, or if it’s worth escalating to the European Consumer Centre or elsewhere?
Appreciate any advice.
This happened to me in July last year – the Avios in my BAEC account weren’t about to expire as I have plenty of activity, I had just transferred them to AY+ while I looked at a potential reward flight booking from HEL. Within 10 days they were removed from my AY+ account due to ‘expiry’. CS said as I had no activity on my AY account for the last 18 months they were correct in removing them. I argued with an online chat agent who could do nothing, so I raised a complaint on the website showing screenshots of the recent activity in my BAEC account, and asked them to reinstate as a goodwill gesture. My argument was what is the point of a common currency if I have plenty of activity in one program, yet the points get removed almost as soon as I move them to another program. I also said I loved their product (I do) and would dearly love to continue flying them in future (I would), and what a shame that this reflected badly on their program.
I got the Avios back shortly after that, and moved them straight back to BA within the hour!
Thanks for the reply. Gives me a little hope that I may get my points back. I will send them my BA activity, so that they can see I have an active Avios balance. I usually fly Qatar when going east, but after seeing a few good videos on their new business class product, I thought I would give them a try. Little did I know how expensive it would be to go nowhere.
Thanks all for your comments. Really appreciated.
Just to clarify, I have had an active BAEC account and managed to retain Silver status before the changes, so I did not move my Avios to sidestep any expiry rules. I only transferred them to Finnair Plus because you cannot see award flight availability unless you have Avios in your Finnair account, as some of you also mentioned.
Since my original post, I have done a bit more digging. Finnair converted to Avios on 9 March 2024, and according to their website, Avios expire only after 18 months of account inactivity. There is no mention that older points would carry over expiry dates from the previous scheme. So, technically, no Avios should be expiring yet, as we are only 13 months into the programme. My points expired just six days after being transferred in, despite the account being well within the valid window.
I have emailed Finnair (twice now) and will update here if I receive a reply. It is good to hear a few people have had success getting points reinstated. That gives me a bit of hope.
Does Rob or any of the team read these forums? It feels like this could be worth a closer look. I doubt I am the only person to lose Avios unexpectedly under the new Finnair setup.
I tried this argument as well – Avios had only been around for 4 months when I lost my points, they weren’t having it! Ask them as a gesture of goodwill, I got a nice apology in reply.
Thanks all for your comments. Really appreciated.
Just to clarify, I have had an active BAEC account and managed to retain Silver status before the changes, so I did not move my Avios to sidestep any expiry rules. I only transferred them to Finnair Plus because you cannot see award flight availability unless you have Avios in your Finnair account, as some of you also mentioned.
Since my original post, I have done a bit more digging. Finnair converted to Avios on 9 March 2024, and according to their website, Avios expire only after 18 months of account inactivity. There is no mention that older points would carry over expiry dates from the previous scheme. So, technically, no Avios should be expiring yet, as we are only 13 months into the programme. My points expired just six days after being transferred in, despite the account being well within the valid window.
I have emailed Finnair (twice now) and will update here if I receive a reply. It is good to hear a few people have had success getting points reinstated. That gives me a bit of hope.
Does Rob or any of the team read these forums? It feels like this could be worth a closer look. I doubt I am the only person to lose Avios unexpectedly under the new Finnair setup.
I tried this argument as well – Avios had only been around for 4 months when I lost my points, they weren’t having it! Ask them as a gesture of goodwill, I got a nice apology in reply.
Who did you contact? I could only find 1 customer relations email address on their site.
Sorry to hear that your Avios has vanished into Finnair @Dean_K
<—-I’ll get my coat.
@Dean_K it was quite a while ago but I think it was via the online feedback form – there is an option where you ask for a response: https://www.finnair.com/gb-en/customer-care-and-contact-information/contact-and-request-forms/feedback-and-compensation
@Skywalker lol!Would a transfer from one finnair member to another count as “activity“?
Transferring 1000 MR did the trick or you could buy Avios directly from Finnair.
This is very useful, thank you. When we thought airlines cant get worse than BA…
Would a transfer from one finnair member to another count as “activity“?
Yes, it seems to. Just checked my account and I had 50,000 Avios that based on all the above should have expired. But for my account receiving Avios from OH’s account. Seems I may have got lucky. Now to transfer 1000 MR points in (and the 50,000 out just to be sure). Wondering if I should hold all Avios balances in BA given instant transfers.
Except it seems Finnair no longer a MR partner…
Would a transfer from one finnair member to another count as “activity“?
I would say no. This is from the Finnair website.
Please note: Avios transfers between Finnair Plus accounts or between Finnair Plus account and The British Airways Club account are not counted as Avios activity and do not affect the Avios expiry date.
States that transfers between Finnair accounts are not counted as activity.
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