Finnair Plus Program Guide: Everything You Need To Know

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Finnair Plus is the latest airline to become a fully-fledged member of the Avios ecosystem. The airline adopted the currency in March 2024 and overhauled its program at the same time. Among the many new features of the Finnair Plus program are new elite status tiers and revenue-based earning.

Although Finnair now uses Avios, you cannot transfer Avios between Finnair and other members yet. However, this functionality will be available later this year, creating further advantages for the airlines sharing this currency.

Here's everything you should know about the Finnair Plus program in its current form.

Finnair Plus Elite Status Tier Requirements

The Finnair Plus revamp moved the program from being distance-based to revenue-based. You can no longer earn status through a set number of flights. Now, you'll earn status through tier points. New tier points requirements for the various elite status levels in the program are as follows:

The program also announced new requirements to reach lifetime status as follows:

Earning Avios and Tier Points With Finnair Plus

Within Finnair Plus, not all earnings are treated the same. Earnings depend on whether you are flying on Finnair metal or a partner.

Earning from Finnair flights

With Finnair going revenue-based, your earnings will depend on your elite status and the cost of your fare.  You will earn Avios and tier points on the cost of your base fare, extras, and carrier-imposed surcharges, excluding taxes and fees. Your status determines the rate at which you earn tier points and Avios as follows:

One thing to note regarding the Finnair program changes in March 2024: If you booked your flight before the changeover but the travel date was after the change, you still earn tier points and Avios according to the older system. This is based on your fare class and distance flown.

Credit: Finnair

Earning from partner flights

Earning Avios and tier points from Finnair partner-operated flights is different, including codeshares. Your earnings are based on your booking class, travel class, and distance flown.

One thing to note: Historically, Finnair used kilometers to perform distance-based calculations. From March of 2024, that's no longer the case, and Finnair Plus now uses miles for these calculations.

This is a sneaky devaluation of partner earnings since 1 mile equals 1.61 kilometers. Therefore, if Finnair does not adjust the earning rates, you will need to fly 61% more distance to earn the same number of points as you earned before the change.

Milestone Limits and Rewards

Finnair Plus has Milestone limits and rewards. These rewards will give you additional benefits when you hit certain thresholds — on top the benefits of your elite status level. The new Milestones are as follows:

One thing worth mentioning is that the lounge passes can only be used when flying with Finnair from Helsinki Airport at either of the following lounges:

• The Finnair Business Lounge in the non-Schengen area
• The Finnair Lounge in the Schengen area.

Related: The Best Ways To Redeem Avios in the Americas

How do upgrade benefits work?

Using the upgrade benefits is not straightforward, and you will need to use a different number depending on your route (short-haul versus long-haul) and desired upgrade class. The upgrade benefits can only be used on Finnair-operated and -ticketed flights. The number of upgrade benefits needed for a given one-way upgrade is as follows:

To use upgrade benefits, Finnair classes all flights within Europe as short-haul. However, long-haul flights include routes between Europe, Asia, North America, and the Middle East.

Increased Award Availability With Finnair Plus

Finnair Plus seems to be monitoring what Virgin Atlantic is doing with its award space. With the revamped program, Finnair will guarantee a set number of award seats on every flight. The implementation date should be announced later this year. The guaranteed seats are as follows:

This increased award space is a real boost to Finnair Plus and adds substantial value to the program. This is especially true if you are looking for flights from the West Coast to Asia via the transpolar route. However, you may have to wait on that bookings since the route is non-operable due to the closure of Russian airspace to Finnair and other European carriers.

New Avios Award Charts and Rules

Finnair Plus announced new award charts, zones, and pricing rules as part of its revamp and switch to Avios.

New pricing structure

By far, the most devastating change Finnair is ramming down the throats of its members is the new award pricing structure. Whether you are flying with Finnair or a partner, your award pricing is calculated per segment flown. According to the Finnair page:

“When your award booking includes a connecting flight, Avios will be charged separately for each flight, except for flights within zone 1 (Finland and Northern Europe*).”

The changes to per-segment pricing and redefining what Zone 1 and Northern Europe are…they're not pretty. That's not to mention a price increase when converting points to Avios, making this change a massive devaluation of both Finnair and Partner awards.

Redefining Northern Europe and Zone 1

Finnair has also indulged in some creative geography while redoing its award charts. Zone 1 used to include the following destinations.

• Bergen
• Copenhagen
• Gdansk
• Gothenburg
• Krakow
• Oslo
• Reykjavik
• Riga
• Stockholm
• Tallinn
• Tromsø
• Vilnius
• Visby
• Warsaw

However, the new Zone 1 (effective as of March 9, 2024) has several destinations missing but a couple of additions:

• Bodø
• Copenhagen
• Gdansk
• Gothenburg
• Oslo
• Riga
• Stockholm
• Tallinn
• Trondheim
• Vilnius
• Visby
• Warsaw

The additions are great news if Bodø or Trondheim are on your travel list since they are now included in Zone 1. However, if Krakow or Reykjavik were on your travel list, you are out of luck since they have been removed. Perhaps an Icelandic volcano's activity moved the country a little further away, and now Reykjavik no longer qualifies.

This redefinition is disappointing since it eliminates two major European cities, thus increasing the costs of awards between them and other connecting destinations.

How the Award Chart Changes Stack Up

There is no doubt that these changes are negative by a large margin. While some routes will see a devaluation in the tens of percentage points, for others, it is in the hundreds of percentage points.

The worst case: Flights between Krakow and Reykjavik

The route between Krakow and Reykjavik connecting in Helsinki takes the biggest hit by a huge margin. Before March 9, 2024, a one-way award between the city pairings would set you back as follows:

• 10,000 points (equivalent to 6,667 Avios) plus taxes and fees in economy.
• 15,000 points (equivalent to 10,000 Avios) plus tax and fees in business class.

With the new pricing, the increase is horrible since you have to pay per segment. The same awards now price as follows:

• 25,000 Avios (12,000 + 13,000) plus taxes and fees in economy.
• 38,000 Avios (20,000 + 18,000) plus tax and fees in business class.

The scale of increase is mind blowing and goes well beyond what can be called a devaluation. The percentage increases are as follows:

• Economy awards go from 6,667 Avios to 25,000 Avios — a 274% increase.
• Business awards go from 10,000 Avios to 38,000 Avios — an 280% increase.

Credit: Joshua Leong/Unsplash

Other devaluations: Los Angeles to Europe

Things look equally dismal on awards from the U.S. to Europe with a connection in Helsinki. Take, for instance, an award from Los Angeles (LAX) to Milan (MXP). Under the old pricing structure, one-way awards would have these costs in Avios:

• Economy: 30,000 Avios plus taxes and fees.
• Premium economy: 43,333 Avios plus taxes and fees.
• Business: 63,333 Avios plus taxes and fees.

From March 9, 2024, the same awards now cost:

• Economy: 43,000 Avios (30,000 + 13,000) plus taxes and fees.
• Premium economy: Pricing is unclear since Finnair does not publish Intereuropean Premium Economy pricing.
• Business: 82,500 Avios (62,500 + 20,000) plus taxes and fees.

Crunching the numbers, the scale of devaluation is clear to see:

• Economy awards increased by 43% from 30,000 Avios to 43,000 Avios.
• Business awards increased by 30% from 63,333 Avios to 82,500.

Finnair Plus partner award options

As a general rule, Finnair partner awards have provided poor value. They were overpriced, and you could do much better booking elsewhere. This remains largely the case with the new partner award pricing, primarily due to the per-segment pricing. However, in some cases, the change has been positive. This is especially true if you look at one-way awards without connections.

Take, for instance, the route between New York (JFK) and London (LHR). Several carriers, including Finnair's Oneworld alliance partners American Airlines and British Airways, operate the busiest airline route in the world. One-way AA awards under the old pricing structure would cost:

• Economy: 78,000 points (51,480 Avios) plus taxes and fees.
• Business: 126,000 points (83,160 Avios) plus taxes and fees.
• First: 162,000 points (106,920 Avios) plus taxes and fees.

From March 9, 2024, the same route prices as follows:

• Economy: 23,000 Avios plus taxes and fees.
• Business: 65,000 Avios plus taxes and fees.
• First: 85,000 Avios plus taxes and fees.

Crunching the numbers, we see substantial savings:

• Economy awards decreased by a massive 55%.
• Business awards decreased by a reasonable 22%.
• First-class awards decreased by a reasonable 21%.

One thing we see with the new partner award charts is that direct awards yield reasonable value sometimes. When you factor in the cumulative pricing per segment, the value of the award plummets, and you are better off looking elsewhere.

Credit: Nimu/Unsplash

Transferring Avios Between Partners

With Finnair adopting Avios, that brings the number of airlines using this currency to five:

• Aer Lingus
• British Airways
• Iberia
• Finnair
• Qatar Airways

The stand-out feature of Avios, compared to other airline mileage programs, is that you can transfer them between different airlines. For instance, Avios in your Qatar Privileges Club account can be transferred to British Airways at a ratio of 1:1 with no fee.

At this point, Finnair Plus has not said whether you will be able to do this. However, every airline that uses Avios as a currency allows transfers to other Avios users. So, it is reasonable to expect that the ability to move Avios between airline accounts is only a matter of time.

Finnair Plus Transfer Partners

Historically, the value of the Finnair Plus program has been limited due to the lack of flexible point transfer partners. You can only transfer Capital One miles to Finnair Plus at present, which is very limiting.

However, if the ability to move Avios between accounts is announced (it's not guaranteed), this would be a game changer for the Finnair Plus program. Overnight, you'd be able to transfer points from every major flexible points currency to Finnair Plus. The following points can be transferred to an Avios partner and then could be moved on to Finnair, assuming this function becomes possible:

• American Express Membership Rewards
• Bilt Rewards
• Chase Ultimate Rewards
• Citi ThankYou^® Points
• Marriott Bonvoy

Our Take

As a rule, program revamps are an unspoken code for an incoming devaluation. Generally, it’s a matter of how bad it will be, not if it will occur. This time around, Finnair exceeded expectations with how bad the devaluation is. The airline did not hold back and delivered some astonishingly bad news hidden in an avalanche of information.

With the new version of Finnair Plus, you have to wonder what the point of the program is for anyone living outside of Finland or Scandinavia. Maybe the airline wants to drive away all non-Nordic-based loyalty members since they have a terrible habit of booking expensive partner awards. It is hard to see how the ability to transfer Avios (at some point in the future) could rescue a program that now offers such poor value.

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