Strategically buying points for premium travel can be a great value. Finnair Plus has just launched its newest promotion on purchased Avios, offering up to a 50% discount. This is the fourth offer we’ve seen from the program since Finnair Plus adopted Avios as its rewards currency, and it’s the best one yet.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased Finnair Plus Avios
Through Wednesday, November 20, 2024, Finnair Plus is offering a discount on purchased Avios. This promotion offers tiered rewards, as follows:
- Buy 5,000-19,000 Avios, get a 35% discount
- Buy 20,000-49,000 Avios, get a 40% discount
- Buy 50,000-74,000 Avios, get a 45% discount
- Buy 75,000-200,000 Avios, get a 50% discount
Ordinarily Finnair charges 2.1 cents (in EUR) per purchased Avios. If you were eligible for the 50% discount, you could purchase a total of 200,000 Avios at a cost of €2,100 (~$2,286), which is a rate of 1.14 cents (in USD) per Avios.
Which credit card should you buy Finnair Plus Avios with?
Finnair Plus Avios purchases are processed by points.com, meaning they don’t count as an airfare purchase for the purposes of credit card spending. Therefore I’d recommend using a card on which you’re trying to reach minimum spending, or otherwise, a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spending.
In this case the best option is the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review) or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review), which offer 2x miles and have no foreign transaction fees.
Personally I consider the Capital One Venture X to offer a 3.4% return on spending. So if you want to do the math differently, that lowers the real cost per purchased Avios even further.
Is buying Finnair Plus Avios worth it?
With Finnair Plus having adopted Avios as its rewards currency, the program has completely overhauled award pricing. So, what can you expect to pay nowadays?
Below you can find the one-way Finnair Plus award redemptions rates for travel on Finnair.
Awards also have surcharges, though they’re at least mild. If you have a connecting itinerary, you’ll only be charged the surcharge correlated to the most expensive segment flown.
When your award booking includes a connecting flight, Avios are charged separately for each flight, except for flights within Finland and Northern Europe; for example, a Frankfurt to Helsinki to New York business class award would cost you 82,500 Avios (20,000 Avios plus 62,500 Avios). One awesome thing is that Finnair Plus has an award seat guarantee, meaning there’s pretty consistently award availability when booking far in advance.
Finnair Plus also allows redemptions on partner airlines, though the pricing isn’t particularly attractive, for the most part. The more important thing to keep in mind is that it’s possible to transfer Avios between the various “flavors” of the currency.
Therefore this promotion is also an opportunity to earn Avios that you can transfer 1:1 to programs like Aer Lingus AerClub, British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, etc. That opens up more redemption opportunities.
Bottom line
Finnair Plus has launched a promotion on purchased Avios. With this, you can receive up to a 50% discount when purchasing Avios, which is an opportunity to buy them for 1.14 cents each (in USD).
This could be worth it if you have an immediate use in mind for Avios. Also keep in mind that this is an opportunity to earn rewards with other “flavors” of Avios, thanks to the 1:1 transfer options.
Does anyone plan on taking advantage of this promo on Finnair Plus Avios?
I see a 70% bonus offered in April 24 - but you mentioned the 50% is the best one yet - was the 70% a typo?
In fact, there's a difference between a 70% bonus and 50% discount. A 70% bonus is just approx. 58.8% discount (41.2% off), and 50% discount is 50% off. So, the current offer is the best.
Thanks for the clarification. I did not notice that it was a bonus as opposed to a discount. I did make 2 purchases (came to 1.16 cents per mile) and transferred it to Qatar for a round trip to South Asia.
I did find the Hawaiian airlines bonus offer (1.27 cents per mile) to be cheaper overall as Alaska charges lesser taxes for Qatar airlines compared to Qatar.
Hello! if I just open a new Finnair account, and buy the Avios. Will I be able to immediately transfer avios to BA? does anybody know if there is any restriction (e.g. zeroing the account, or not valid for just recent opened ones?)
Thanks!
I've had a Finnair account open for a while and I'm also curious if we can transfer the avios to BA right away?
Yes also, you can transfer, but from BA website only. (From finnair to BA and opposite)
Yes you can, I did the same 6 months back.
Not instantly, as it takes a few days for the Avios to appear in your Finnair account.
It took me a day during the week and 2 days when I tried it on a Friday night.
Finnair recently devalued thier partner award chart, so the screenshot in this post showing a price of 11,000 points for economy partner award flights is not accurate.