Finnair and its loyalty program Finnair Plus have been a constant source of bad news over the past months. The airline makes sure that this isn’t about to change. After switching to a revenue based system and devaluing award miles (soon to be Avios) earlier this year, another significant change has been implemented starting March 2024: Connecting flights (that used to be included in long-haul award travel) will have to be purchased separately.
Today’s press release details these changes. In the past, purchasing an award ticket from Amsterdam via Helsinki to Bangkok used to cost the same as the nonstop from the Finnish capital. From March 9 onward, you will have to pay any additional segment. This does not affect feeder flights from Northern Europe or Scandinavia, but almost any other short-haul connection. The airline also introduced new zones for award ticket pricing.
Reward Feeder Flights No Longer Included
As mentioned in the introduction, the difference between and award ticket from Germany to Bangkok or from Helsinki to Bangkok was a higher amount of taxes & surcharges. The actual points needed for the ticket used to be the same.
Based on the official conversion rate (3 Finnair Points = 2 Avios, which is quite fair), pricing for a business class reward ticket from Berlin to Singapore developed like this within nine months:
- Until July 2023: 80,000 Points + €82
- Until March 2024: 95,000 Points + €222
- After March 2024: 80,500 Avios (=120,750 Points) + €202
The connecting flight from Berlin to Singapore adds 12,000 Avios (in Economy) or 18,000 Avios (in Business) to the 62,500 Avios ticket to Singapore. Since you don’t need to pay an extra fuel surcharge for this flight, the cash portion of the ticket gets a little cheaper.
Connections from Zone 1 (Finland and most of Scandinavia) do not need to be purchased separately, but remain part of the long-haul award ticket.
Finnair Overhauls Zoning
The airline also reorganized the zones that determine award pricing. Finnair used to have three zones: Northern Europe (incl. Iceland), Rest of Europe and Long-Haul.
Come March 2024, that will be expanded to seven zones:
- Zone 1: Northern Europe (blue)
- Zone 2: Central Europe (orange)
- Zone 3: South- and Western Europe (green)
- Zone 4: Canary Islands, Madeira, Israel (red)
- Zone 5: Middle East (violet)
- Zone 6: North America & Asia (teal)
- Zone 7: Los Angeles, Singapore & Japan (dark green)
Especially flights to Iceland become less attractive when departing from Central Europe. A roundtrip award ticket used to cost 30,000 points from Germany – now it will be 38,000 Avios (=57,000 points).
Here are the award prices for tickets with departure from Helsinki:
| Zone | Economy | Premium Economy | Business Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 1: Northern Europe | 6,500 Avios | – | 10,000 Avios |
| Zone 2: Central Europe | 12,000 Avios | – | 18,000 Avios |
| Zone 3: South and Western Europe | 13,000 Avios | – | 20,000 Avios |
| Zone 4: Canary Islands, Madeira, Israel | 15,000 Avios | – | 25,000 Avios |
| Zone 5: Middle East | 28,000 Avios | 42,000 Avios | 55,000 Avios |
| Zone 6: North America & Asia | 30,000 Avios | 43,500 Avios | 62,500 Avios |
| Zone 7: Los Angeles, Singapore & Japan | 30,000 Avios | 43,500 Avios | 62,500 Avios |
Finnair also changed award pricing for partner airlines like Alaska Airlines, American, LATAM or Japan Airlines. These are usually overpriced or unavailable, but we have been able to find some minor improvements. For example, American domestic flights become more attractive redemptions. You can find details about that here.
Bottom Line
Finnair sticks to the claim that award pricing will remain largely the same after the switch to Avios. The fact that the airline switched currency, zoning and billing procedures determines that is a lie. The announced alterations only can be deemed small if you are travelling out of Finland, Sweden or the other Zone 1 airports. Even then, prices to most other airports will go up.
The best chance for many loyal Finnair Plus customers is the opportunity to transfer their points (once they’ve become Avios) to British Airways Executive Clubs with little to no losses. The only attractive redemptions left in Finnair Plus are upgrades (i.e. 40,000 Avios for economy to business class on long-haul flights).
Translation by Felix
Comments (3)
This is just so typical of what Finnair has been doing over the past 6 months. We decided some time ago to switch from AY to either BA (their new Business Class is very good) or QF. Also, we are most certainly in the “don’t like” section when it comes to the new AY business “seat”. Another reason we no longer consider AY ( although to be fair it is out of their control) is that they no longer have a flight duration enhancement over other carriers flying from/to Singapore to/from Europe.
I used to fly with them to SE Asia, but after the flight schedule changes that require an overnight in Helsinki, the fact that flight became much longer due to the war the Russians started and the current devaluations and service it became a no go. Now even more so.
Finnair’ s communication to the public has always been full of lies. When something is bad it is communicated as an improvement and when something is really bad it is not communicated at all.
The only reason upgrades are (maybe) cheap as you write is that Finnair long haul Business Class is really, really cheap. except for the seats that some like, some hate it is hardly different from any reasonable economy class product (no not premium economy but standard economy). Food is simple and very little (and served in a similar fashion as in economy), drinks selection is awful and very cheap, amenity kit consists of a tooth brush. A very sorry development over the last decades. Poor flight attendants, they are nice but what can they do when the company has focused only on savings degrading itself to a third class experience.