Easy to Earn & Great Deals: Why You Should Care About Finnair Avios

The mileage program of a small Finnish airline just became indispensable for travelers with their eyes set on Finland and Scandinavia … or the rest of Europe … or even Japan and Southeast Asia.
After Finnair joined the family of airlines using Avios earlier this year, the adoption is now complete: You can now easily transfer Avios between Finnair and British Airways. That opens an avenue to transfer points from cards like the *chase sapphire preferred* or the *amex gold* to book flights. And there are some serious advantages to booking award tickets through Finnair. 
The airline recently updated its award chart – the cheat sheet for how many miles you need to fly from point A to point B. And it was actually a good thing: You can now book business class flights from the U.S. to Helsinki (HEL) or connect onward in Europe for as low as just 62,500 Avios each way – down from the previous 95,000-mile rate.
You can even book flights to Asia on partner carriers like Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific for fewer miles than other airlines charge. To top it all off, Finnair's site is much easier to use to book these award tickets than other Avios airlines like British Airways or Iberia. 
That's why Finnair Avios should be on the radar of anyone with credit card points – whether you've got Capital One Venture miles you can transfer straight to Finnair or points with Amex , Chase , Citi , Bilt Rewards , and even Wells Fargo , which you can easily turn into Finnair Avios by sending them first to British Airways. 
Here's how to do it – and why you should care. 
 

 
How to Transfer Avios Between Finnair & British Airways 
First things first: You need to get some Finnair Avios. That part's easy.
As of publication, you can only transfer Avios to Finnair from British Airways – not directly from other Avios-using airlines like Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Qatar Airways. So if you haven't already, you'll first need to sign up for accounts with each loyalty program – Finnair Plus and British Airways Executive Club . 
When creating accounts,  make sure your name and address match exactly to avoid any issues when transferring Avios between the pair of airlines. This includes middle names or middle initials and email addresses. Keep the login information for each frequent flyer account handy as you'll need it for the next step. 
Next, you'll need to link your accounts to transfer Avios between the two programs. It's easiest to do this through the British Airways site . Select “Convert Avios” and navigate to “Finnair Plus.”
 

 
If your accounts are not already linked, you should see an option on the next page to link them. Plug in your Finnair plus account information and set up two-factor authentication, which is required to link accounts and share Avios between the carriers.
 

 
From there, you'll be able to move Avios between accounts. Simply type in how many Avios you want to transfer and hit “convert.” There's no minimum number of Avios you need to move – nor is there a maximum.
 

 
The site is a bit finicky, though. It took several tries before I successfully moved Avios from my British Airways account to my Finnair account, and vice versa. Once I was given a blank screen, and another time it prompted me to re-login before the request went through.
When it finally worked, however, the transfer was nearly instantaneous. 
 

 
If you have Avios with other airlines like Iberia or Qatar Airways, it's a two-step process: You'll need to send them to British Airways, then kick them from BA over to Finnair. 
Read more: How to Combine Avios Between British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, Qatar & Now, Finnair  
But you don't even have to worry about any of this if you have Capital One Venture miles from a card like the *venture x* . Finnair is a Capital One transfer partner , so you can turn those miles into Finnair Avios on a 1:1 basis and skip these workarounds. 
 
The Best Ways to Use Finnair Avios 
Along with its adoption of Avios, Finnair Plus implemented a new award chart with cheaper rates – not only for its own flights, but also to book those of its Oneworld alliance partners.
That's why the ability to share Avios between British Airways and Finnair is so important. Not only does it open an avenue to move more credit card points to Finnair, but it means you can book many flights for fewer miles than other airline programs would charge you – whether you want to fly Finnair business class to Helsinki (HEL), other destinations throughout Europe, and several other valuable ways to redeem them.
This is not an exhaustive list, but these are a few of the best ways to use Finnair Avios right now. 
 
Finnair Biz Class to Europe for 63K Miles One-Way
Looking to book one of these plush new Finnair business class seats? It just got easier – and cheaper. 
 
Photo courtesy of Finnair
 
Under the new award chart , Finnair now charges just 62,500 Avios each way to fly lie-flat between the U.S. and Helsinki (HEL). Although you'll be hit a decent chunk of taxes – the same as you'd pay when booking with miles from other airlines like British Airways – this is still one of the best ways to book these seats, period. 
 

 
You can even add a connection to another destination in northern Europe like anywhere else in Finland, Stockholm (ARN), Oslo (OSL), or Copenhagen (CPH) for the same rate. Same goes for many cities in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and even Poland. 
 

 
Connecting onward to other destinations throughout the continent, though, will cost you an additional 18,000 to 20,000 miles. 
 

 
Flying solo, it's a cinch to find the award availability to book these seats – especially booking 10-plus months in advance. But if you're traveling with a companion, you might need to use a trick to find award availability for two.
International airlines have been throttling business class award space for U.S.-based travelers lately, and Finnair might be one of the worst offenders. You can only book one seat in Finnair business class from the States…
 

 
…unless you set your location to “Finland” or another European country on Finnair's website.
 

 
This loophole is the only way to book for two passengers on the same flight using Avios. Use it while you can!
 
Cathay Pacific Biz Class for 75K Miles
Don't sleep on using Avios to book flights on any of Finnair's airline partners , especially if you're looking to fly business class across the Pacific.
Finnair has a separate award chart for each of its partners, which it also reshuffled in its move to Avios. And that includes one of the  top airlines in the world : Cathay Pacific.
Cathay flies some excellent business class seats nonstop to Hong Kong (HKG) from several cities in the U.S. and Canada. Booking through Finnair, you can book one of these Cathay Pacific business class seats from anywhere in North America for just 75,000 Avios each way , including all the way from New York (JFK)! 
 

 
Booking this same flight through British Airways' website would cost a whopping 108,250 British Airways Avios. That's a  savings of over 33,000 points just by transferring your Avios from British Airways over to Finnair instead!
 

 
While you might find better rates and lower fees booking these flights through Alaska Airlines  or even American , those miles are much harder to earn than Finnair Avios. You can only transfer Bilt points to both carriers – and soon, American Airlines will lose that option.
Lately, you'll need to be extremely lucky to find any availability to book Cathay Pacific business class with AA or Alaska miles – it's been pretty much non-existent for over a year. While still rare, Cathay Pacific tends to release more business class availability to partner airlines that use Avios (like Finnair) than it does to U.S. airlines like Alaska and American. 
 
Japan Airlines Biz Class For 95K Miles
What gives Finnair Plus an edge over other Avios programs like British Airways Executive Club is that it prices its award flights based on region to region – not based on the actual distance of the flight. That can lead to better award rates using Finnair Avios to book ultra-long-haul flights on partner airlines, like those between the U.S. and Asia. 
Finnair charges 94,250 Avios each way to book Japan Airlines business class nonstop to Tokyo from all across North America – even from East Coast cities like New York City (JFK) and Boston (BOS).
 

 
You'll save 14,000 miles by booking this long-haul flight with Finnair Avios over BA Avios, while paying the same in taxes and fees. 
 

 
Book Flights to Hawaii for 13.5K!
For years, British Airways has been among the best ways to book flights to Hawaii using points . What could beat booking a flight from the West Coast to paradise for 16,000 Avios each way?
Finnair can.
Using Finnair Avios, you can book flights to the Hawaiian islands operated by Alaska Airlines for just 13,500 miles each way … and not just for those shorter nonstops. Even one- and two-stop itineraries from the Midwest and East Coast still clock in at just 13,500 Avios each way!
It's a major advantage to booking through Finnair instead of British Airways, which charges per segment. That means those same connecting flights could easily cost twice as many Avios. 
 

 
But you'll have to work for these savings. Unlike booking Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, or Finnair itself, you can't book Alaska Airlines flights online through Finnair.com – not yet, at least. That means you'll need to pin down award availability using another site like AA.com , then call up Finnair at one of its U.S. customer service centers to book.
In theory, Finnair should also be able to book American Airlines flights to and from Hawaii for 15,000 Avios each way. But as of publication, it seems like Finnair is unable to book any American Airlines-operated flight, period. 
 
Bottom Line
Finnair made some big changes to its frequent flying program this year, adopting Avios as the points and miles currency travelers can use to book flights while making those seats cheaper to book.
With the ability to transfer Avios between Finnair and British Airways officially live, there are new, great options for using credit card points to book flights to Europe and all over the world.