A week ago, the Finnair Plus program announced that it would adopt Avios as its rewards currency in 2024. We now have some more details regarding the changes.
Finnair Plus Program will Adopt Avios as a Rewards Currency
As of today, here are some more details of Finnair Plus’ changes:
- Finnair Plus will adopt Avios as its new loyalty currency
- The Finnair Plus program will become spend-based, so you will collect loyalty currency and reach tiers based on how much money you spend on your flight and travel extra purchases with Finnair, this is a huge downgrade from the current distance-based earning
- Finnair will introduce new benefits, including milestones and a new internet package, and simplify the upgrade benefits system
- The number of seats for Classic award flights will also increase
- On short-haul flights, there will be four award seats (two in Business and two in Economy)
- On long-haul flights, there will be eight award seats ( two in Business, two in Premium Economy and four in Economy)
- Current Finnair points will be converted to Aviosin 3:2 ratio, Finnair tier points will also be converted into tier points at a 3:2 ratio
Finnair will be communicating more details to members in the coming months, including the new program launch date.
My Take On Finnair Plus Adopting Avios
We have seen Qatar Airways adopting Avios as its rewards currency last year and now more and more airline seems to adopt Avios as its currency which I find positive in some ways.
Avios is rewards currency currently used by British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways, Aer Lingus and Vueling and it is one of the valuable program currencies to earn and redeem for flights. Finnair adopting Avios will possibly allow a 1:1 transfer between Qatar Airways Privilege Club, British Airways Executive Club program, etc. and this will be a pretty valuable perk.
The only drawback is that, unlike Qatar Airways Privilege Club which uses distance-based Avios earning, Finnair will be using revenue-based Avios earning which means you will earn Avios based on how much you spend on Finnair which is what British Airways and Iberia are doing. This will make you spend more in order to earn more Avios.
Summary
The Finnair Plus program has provided some more details on its changes coming in 2024. The program will adopt Avios as its rewards currency and introduce a revenue-based earning system. Finnair also promised to release more award seats with the new program and benefits.
While there are some positive and negative changes with the new program, I hope there will be more positive changes than disappointments.
Was really hoping this move might bring some interesting new non-Oneworld airline partners to earn & redeem Avios on… there’s only Braathens (Sweden) and Juneyao Air (China).
Hopefully, the further details will offer better earn and redemption partners.