Historically many airlines have a requirement of somewhere around 100,000 miles per year to achieve top tier status. This can vary significantly around the world, though I’d say that’s about average. Nowadays some airlines have introduced status tiers above these traditional top tiers ones.
Some of these status levels are invitation only, like American Concierge Key or United Global Services, where revenue plays a big part in earning the status. Then there are other uber-top tier statuses that have published requirements, though they’re ridiculously high. For example, Lufthansa Miles & More has HON Circle status, which requires 600,000 tier miles every two years.
Finnair Plus has just announced a new elite tier that on paper may just have the highest published requirement ever. Prior to this, Finnair had three elite tiers — Silver, Gold, and Platinum.
Finnair Plus has introduced Platinum Lumo status, which requires 450,000 tier points per year, at least 350,000 of which have to be accrued on Finnair flights. Alternatively you can qualify by taking at least 150 flights, at least 100 of which have to be on Finnair.
This status requires three times the number of tier points that are required for Platinum status (though if you’re qualifying based on segments, it’s only about double the requirement).
“Lumo” is the Finnish word for enchantment, which is where the name comes from. Finnair says that as of now fewer than 100 people are eligible for Platinum Lumo status.
Here are the benefits for Finnair Platinum Lumo status:
As a point of comparison, here are the Finnair Plus elite benefits at other levels:
Incrementally, Platinum Lumo members receive four longhaul upgrades and eight short-haul upgrades per year, and they also allegedly receive a Tumi suitcase as a welcome gift. Other than that the benefits aren’t that significant, when you consider that the requirement is three times as high. However, I imagine the “soft” treatment will be very good, given how few Platinum Lumo members there are. Really elite members within Europe are already treated very well in terms of priority check-in, security, and boarding, as well as lounge access.
450,000 tier points sounds like a lot, though it’s not quite the same as 450,000 miles. First of all, Finnair Plus elite members earn tier points at an increased rate, so a Platinum member earns a 25% bonus on tier points. That doesn’t help those qualifying on segments, which I imagine is a good number of people.
Just to give an example of tier points earning:
- A Platinum member traveling one-way in business class from Helsinki to New York would receive 20,000 tier points
- A Platinum member traveling one-way in the cheapest economy fare from Helsinki to New York would receive 5,000 tier points
- A Platinum member traveling one-way in full fare economy from Helsinki to Stockholm would receive 1,875 tier points
Bottom line
It’s always great to see loyalty programs introduce additional recognition for those who go way above the requirements for their published tier. It sounds like Finnair Plus Platinum Lumo will be a very exclusive club.
(Tip of the hat to LoyaltyLobby)
Straight from Finnairs website
"You have access to the Finnair Lounges and Premium Lounge when travelling on Finnair flights (AY code on the ticket), regardless of travel class. This benefit applies to you and four guests travelling on the same flight. At Helsinki Airport, you are welcome to use our lounges regardless of the operating carrier by showing your Platinum Lumo card and boarding pass. At other airports, the lounge benefit applies only to...
Straight from Finnairs website
"You have access to the Finnair Lounges and Premium Lounge when travelling on Finnair flights (AY code on the ticket), regardless of travel class. This benefit applies to you and four guests travelling on the same flight. At Helsinki Airport, you are welcome to use our lounges regardless of the operating carrier by showing your Platinum Lumo card and boarding pass. At other airports, the lounge benefit applies only to the lounge printed in your boarding pass and only when travelling on Finnair flights. See all lounge services"
Lucky, I'm surprised you left this out. In addition to the upgrades, Lumo also gets to gift AY Gold (OW Sapphire) to TWO different people. Don't know what the T&Cs are around that, but seems like a pretty great benefit. At a minimum, worth the value of 2 admirals club memberships!
Pretty similar to Qantas's frequent flyer program.
KLM have introduced the Platinum Ultimate recently, 360.000 level miles in 2 years.
@Wayne Kao if you're talking about Finnair, Gold is NOT OW Emerald, it's OW Sapphire.
Weird that the comparison charts shows that only Platinum gets oneworld first class lounges considering Gold is also Emerald.
AY+ is KM based so 450 000 points are "just" about 280 000 miles
The key is not the amount of miles but number of flights.
A lot of people quality for Finnair status with number of flights. People shuttle to Stockholm on a weekly basis, or need to attend meetings somewhere in Europe frequently, or simply live outside of Helsinki and suddenly you've got a domestic sector as well. With four flights per trip, Platinum is relatively easy to get with just 19 trips.
Key goal for Finnair...
The key is not the amount of miles but number of flights.
A lot of people quality for Finnair status with number of flights. People shuttle to Stockholm on a weekly basis, or need to attend meetings somewhere in Europe frequently, or simply live outside of Helsinki and suddenly you've got a domestic sector as well. With four flights per trip, Platinum is relatively easy to get with just 19 trips.
Key goal for Finnair here is loyalty. Right now one people may prefer Finnair but they don't mind flying other airlines. This is targeted to people who fly a lot -- so that they'd fly mostly with Finnair for some special treatment.
There's also the historical element. A lot of Finns switched to e.g. BA and AA FF programs for easier status. Finnair was stingy and people are just slowly returning.
That's great news for the ... er ... 93 people that is is good for.
A touch easier to achieve than BA GGL, though the requirement to earn so many tier points on FinnAir is more challenging than BA.
Lucky, throw some love at Marco Polo Club Diamond Plus. As G mentions above Diamond is already pretty hard, one of if not hardest in OW. But Diamond Plus is capped at 1pct of Diamond members, and is determined on cash spend on CX / KA metal only. Depending on the year spending requirements are generally between $125-250k USD/ year (on CX / KA only, other OW doesn't count). Read through the CX FT forum for some details.
It's 2500 points in cheapest economy, A, W and G booking classes.
Qantas have Platinum One tier as well, that requires 3,600 status credits (3x as much as Platinum requires to requalify) including 2,700 flown on QF coded flights.
I've been a Platinum one from 2015-2017, then I decided to downgrade to Platinum (still oneworld Emerald)
The hardest base tier oneworld Emerald to achieve is, still: Marco Polo Club Diamond (which I also have), they're asking for 1,200 club points (HKG-JFK in paid F one-way...
Qantas have Platinum One tier as well, that requires 3,600 status credits (3x as much as Platinum requires to requalify) including 2,700 flown on QF coded flights.
I've been a Platinum one from 2015-2017, then I decided to downgrade to Platinum (still oneworld Emerald)
The hardest base tier oneworld Emerald to achieve is, still: Marco Polo Club Diamond (which I also have), they're asking for 1,200 club points (HKG-JFK in paid F one-way earns you 240 status credits in QF, but earn only 170 club points on CX's own program!?)
Doesn’t seem so hard to get... once a month to NY in C and you’re done. Maybe just shows how generous earning currently is on Finnair? Easier than quite a few top tier currently. I’m just surprised so few qualify...