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Looking at buying a Finnair redemption directly from Finnair, as the fees are lower than buying it from BA.
Will the ticket have the same flexibility? What are the cancellation fees?
Rob – as there are now so many routes for booking the same Avios flights – BA, IB, EI, QA, and AY – it would be useful to have an article (or series) explaining the pros and cons of each option.
(If there has already been a series that I have missed, could someone link to it please?)
My itinerary would be out on AY booked through AY, and back on QR booked through BA. BA cheaper than QR for the QR flights! But I also need to get a quote from BA for both journeys on a single itinerary priced up from the multi carrier award chart.
QR/AY bring so many new opportunities, but so much more complexity.
Found the answer
“If the journey is cancelled after the ticket has been issued, but before the beginning of the journey (latest three hours before), Avios are returned to the member’s account in exchange for the unused ticket. The member is charged a cancellation fee of €50 per ticket or the equivalent sum in another currency.”
Totally agree with you and we need to do ‘something’ but we’re not sure what! Doesn’t help that I doubt there is a simple answer – highly likely that, say, Cathay to HK may be cheaper via one scheme but Cathay to Oz may be cheaper elsewhere.
It would be a great idea but easier said than done. I was surprised with your AY assertion because via BA flights are much cheaper. For example HEL-SIN is £27 via BAEC and on AY it’s 137e.
https://ibb.co/7tNPkJn
Via ayhttps://ibb.co/K2MPp9Z
Via baDoes BA charge the same amount of avios as AY for AY-operated flights departing AY Zone 1 such as Stockholm or do they still price them up as two sectors?
Does BA charge the same amount of avios as AY for AY-operated flights departing AY Zone 1 such as Stockholm or do they still price them up as two sectors?
Same. I personally bought CPH-SIN on BA with low taxes. It adds a tenner or so per leg.
Thanks @zapato1060,, good that they are the same, and you saved me a little time messing about with it. Were you able to reserve your seats FOC ok via AY MMB or did you have to use RJ?
BA/AY comparison.
LHR-TYO.
BA – 80,500av + £451.09
AY – 80,500av + £362.39One person, one way business class, 23 Apr 25, through ticket.
If you split the ticket and buy LHR-HEL and HEL-TYO separately, it is much cheaper
BA – 80,500av + £247.29
AY – 80,500av + £178.39Either way, AY is cheaper than BA for the AY flights
Your AY quote is for Business Class, but your BA quote is for Economy
(third time I have tried to reply to this)
It would be a great idea but easier said than done. I was surprised with your AY assertion because via BA flights are much cheaper. For example HEL-SIN is £27 via BAEC and on AY it’s 137e.
https://ibb.co/7tNPkJn
Via ayhttps://ibb.co/K2MPp9Z
Via baYour AY quote is for Business Class but your BA quote is for Economy!!
It would be a great idea but easier said than done. I was surprised with your AY assertion because via BA flights are much cheaper. For example HEL-SIN is £27 via BAEC and on AY it’s 137e.
https://ibb.co/7tNPkJn
Via ayhttps://ibb.co/K2MPp9Z
Via baYour Finnair quote is for Business class. Your BA quote is for Economy. So of course BA is cheaper, but you are not comparing like for like.
Heathrow LHR to Osaka / Kansai KIX for April 2025.
I found booking Finnair award seats through BAEC led to cheaper taxes & charges than booking through Finnair themselves.
By splitting the two legs it cost me (at the time) a total of:
80500 Avios + £160.80@Alex G, I think zapato was referring to prices exHEL not exUK.
Heathrow LHR to Osaka / Kansai KIX for April 2025.
I found booking Finnair award seats through BAEC led to cheaper taxes & charges than booking through Finnair themselves.
By splitting the two legs it cost me (at the time) a total of:
80500 Avios + £160.80Then I guess there is no consistency.
HEL to KIX on 21/4/25 is currently £115.80 on AY and £184.70 on BA (same as TYO). So AY currently cheaper.
Re splitting the tickets at HEL, do Finnair check baggage through on separate tickets?
@Alex G, I always travel HBO but comnents here suggest they generally check through, even on two tickets.
Not too fussed on the price differences, we can always shop around AY, BA, QR etc. More important that value is preserved and not devalued.
We can always shop around, but how many people know that, or know that the different airlines charge different amounts for the same Avios redemptions?
Or know that you can save a significant amount by buying two tickets instead of one?
Perhaps it’s best that most people don’t know, so the loopholes don’t get closed!
Heathrow LHR to Osaka / Kansai KIX for April 2025.
I found booking Finnair award seats through BAEC led to cheaper taxes & charges than booking through Finnair themselves.
By splitting the two legs it cost me (at the time) a total of:
80500 Avios + £160.80By splitting the two legs, you avoid the UK long haul APD which is about £200 in business class. APD is only charged for the LHR-HEL sector, hence the significantly lower tax.
Heathrow LHR to Osaka / Kansai KIX for April 2025.
I found booking Finnair award seats through BAEC led to cheaper taxes & charges than booking through Finnair themselves.
By splitting the two legs it cost me (at the time) a total of:
80500 Avios + £160.80By splitting the two legs, you avoid the UK long haul APD which is about £200 in business class. APD is only charged for the LHR-HEL sector, hence the significantly lower tax.
Not disputing that.
My point was that it was cheaper for me to book the Finnair reward seats through BAEC than it was to book directly with Finnair themselves.I’ve just found the same an IB redemption. I’ve just booked MAN-MAD-VGO return for next July and paid 26k avios plus £80 via BA (and can select seats, oh joy!) Yet IB wanted the same cash but 40k avios for the same itinerary (plus, presumably, the inability to select seats like with my other IB bookings).
My point was that it was cheaper for me to book the Finnair reward seats through BAEC than it was to book directly with Finnair themselves.
No doubt that was the case for you at that time for those flights. But for the flights I am looking at, it is currently cheaper to buy them from Finnair.
Either things have changed at BA, or there is no consistency.
Always worth shopping around, and considering split tickets (which I would happily do on a 3 hour AY to AY connection at HEL, but not on a 1 hour connection)
Can I ask just how are people finding reward flights from Helsinki with avios (I’m looking for Aus & NZ) – I can’t see any coming up on BA or Seatspy for next few months??
Do i need to join Finnair and transfer avios or is there just zero availability??
Finnair don’t fly to Australia (or NZ). They sell tickets to Australia, but it’s a Finnair flight to SIN or HKG and then an onward codes share on Qantas or Cathy.
I don’t think seatspy shows Finnair awards?
You might find availability searching sector by sector that doesn’t show on BA. You might need some stopovers to achieve this.
If you join Finnair Plus, you can immediately transfer Avios back and forth with BA.
And if you find the availability, consider asking BA to price it up from the multi partner award chart.
Thanks for the tips
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