Strategically buying points for premium travel can be a great value. Finnair Plus has just launched its newest promotion on purchased Avios, offering a 30-40% discount. This is the second such offer we’ve seen from the program since Finnair Plus adopted Avios as its rewards currency.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased Finnair Plus Avios
Through Sunday, June 16, 2024, Finnair Plus is offering a discount on purchased Avios. The discount you receive depends on the status you have in the Finnair Plus program.
Non-elite members can receive a 30% discount, Finnair Plus Silver members can receive a 35% discount, and Finnair Plus Gold members and above can receive a 40% bonus. In each case, you can receive that discount as long as you purchase at least 5,000 Avios in one transaction.
Ordinarily Finnair charges 2.1 cents (in EUR) per purchased Avios. If you don’t have Finnair Plus elite status purchased 200,000 Avios through this promotion, you’d pay a total of €2,940 (~$3,158), which is a rate of 1.58 cents (in USD) per Avios.
Obviously if you were eligible for a 40% discount, you’d be looking at a much better deal, as you’d pay only 1.35 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) (Rates & Fees) or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review) (Rates & Fees), 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. There are different redemption rates on each partner. For example, below is the Finnair Plus one-way redemption chart on Alaska Airlines.
Below is the one-way Finnair Plus redemption chart on American Airlines.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that it’s now 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, which is the second offer we’ve seen from the program since it adopted Avios as its rewards currency. With this offer, you can buy Avios with up to a 30% discount if you don’t have elite status, or up to a 40% discount if you do have elite status.
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 cannot imagine there's many people outside Finland who have any status with them. If you are going to encourage Avios purchase the deal needs to be better than this.