Finnair Award Seat Guarantee: The Trick To Finding Availability

Thanks Ben, definitely looking forward to flying with them soon.

Thanks Ben, had the same issue and a stack of Avios at Finnair.

Although I will say JFK availability seems to be a lot better than other US airports. The West Coast in particular is slim pickings right now: you can barely find one business class seat from SEA or LAX and certainly not two together.

Lol Ben, you ousted my trick. Used this earlier this year to book my tickets.

Virgin -- every seat -- dynamic pricing.

Finnair just devalued some of their short haul awards. Flights within North America (continental USA and Canada), North America–the Caribbean and Mexico, and Flights within South America. Pretty criminal to no-notice devalue right after the transfer bonuses.

You and other bloggers are doing a disservice with the continual “transfer Avios among programs”. It’s a bunch of BS and the ability to transfer is an advertised ability but fails for most every time.

Finnair keeping rewards Finnish... If only I had known previously...

*twitch eyes*

Perkele...!

I might be willing to sit in premium economy from US East Coast to Helsinki. I'm not surprised, though, that those West Coast destinations exhaust their allotment of business awards quickly. LAX-HEL is 10+ hours flight time and then you add on the inevitable 45 minutes "sit in your seat while everyone else boards and the plane waits to taxi."

The issue with Seattle is that Finnair runs such a short Summer schedule up there: May-August. Plus for the past three years they've announced longer seasons and then cancelled months' worth of flights (same with Chicago, which saw its end date shift from October to August). When they cancel weeks and weeks of flights the remaining ones get booked pretty quickly.

Too bad, because that SEA-HEL flight is nice and barely 8 hours' time in the air. I was lucky to fit my vacation into their schedule this past Summer... but not everyone can accommodate the airlines' whims.

Headsup (as alluded to in another comment of mine) that destinations like ORD and SEA Finnair are seasonal only and the definition of "season" shifts _after_ they announce the schedule. Chicago, for example, had its season reduced by two months, from October to August, _after_ they had sold tickets.

Getting your award ticket changed when Finnair cancels flights is possible, of course, but let's just say that Finnair's customer service via chat and phone is not the most, umm, responsive. Of course if you have status with them, you can WhatsApp them or get a special phone number.

But for normal folks, you're sitting waiting 30-45 minutes for anyone to pick up on chat and _several_ times the chat does not even let you wait. It literally says, "[T]he queue is so long that we cannot estimate how long a wait you have." And then it literally kicks you out and ends the chat session.

The whole point here is to say that if you're going to use this wonderful availability to book award flights at end of calendar (i.e. 355 days out), pick a location that will _not_ be likely to be cancelled or reduced: LAX, DFW, and JFK. It is less likely that Finnair would reduce schedules and cancel flights to these locations and, thus, less likely you'll need to try and get someone to change your award flight after you've booked it.

I suppose MIA would be okay too but for most folks I imagine flying to Miami to fly to northern Europe is severely out of the way.

Thanks Chris, that was a helpful reply! Yeah, the time difference between SEA vs LAX is definitely noticeable on transatlantic flights and I do have a slight preference for SEA for that reason. But… like you say, that window of opportunity for flights is pretty limited.

Thanks for this post. Just locked in two seats from JFK-HEL for next summer. Not many seats in the schedule with good departure dates, but this worked out perfectly for once.

Well, this article was great for those who have Avios. For us AA miles hoarders it is sad, because now there will be even less AY award seat availability for us.

Isn't this discrimination a form of racism?

Critical Race Theory?

I would imagine that, unless one flies to/from Scandinavia frequently, Avios on Finnair aren't the easiest Avios to earn. Can you transfer BA Avios to Finnair, as you can with Iberia and Qatar?

Yes, it is possible to move points between Finnair and BA, in either direction. The exchange rate is 1:1