Finnair Avios is the latest addition to the Avios currency, but is there anything unique to consider with this award program?

Updated December 30, 2025. Finnair quietly added in a new possible award for busincess award flights on American at a great value.

For this post, I’m not going to get into the details of the elite status aspect of the program and instead focus on the redemption side of the program.

One bank directly transfers to Finnair Avios

If you’re looking around for major bank programs to transfer points directly into Finnair Avios, you’ll only find Capital One (1:1). Perhaps it’s surprising that this is one of the rarer Avios programs, but when you consider it’s relatively new to the Avios world, it’s a bit more understandable.

However, don’t let this discourage you from acquiring plenty of Finnair Avios because it’s fairly straightforward to get more via some simple alchemy.

Easily move Avios between sister programs

British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Qatar Airways, and Finnair all use Avios as their rewards currency. Rather than each program accessing the same bank of points, you need to transfer your points from one program to the other. While it’s a little annoying to have to go through this step, thankfully it is fairly straightforward to do it. And you will want to do it because each program might offer different points prices and award availability to its own members.

You’ll want to make sure that the name matches between your accounts and as much other details as possible. If not, there’s a chance the transfer will fail. But once you’re set up, you should be good to go. Just find the “Combine Avios” section of your account after logging in.

Thus, you can easily accrue Finnair Avios by pumping up your British Airways or Qatar Airways accounts first.

Award flights booked with Finnair Avios can be booked 360 days in advance

As a planner, I love being able to book awards well far in advance. I feel like I can lock down my preferred dates of travel before the majority of other award seekers. And so the earlier the schedule is released, the better it is.

But perhaps what matters more is being able to book awards before those with a large balance of miles with U.S. programs are able to book. Those programs generally open schedules and award bookings 11 months in advance. So if you can find a program that allows awards weeks before the comparable U.S. airline (here, American or Alaska), you can generally book what you want.

Award flights booked with Finnair Avios are allowed as far out as 360 days–nearly a full year. That’s awesome if you can take advantage of it.

Cheap award cancel fees

Need to change or cancel an award flight? Change fees are thankfully quite reasonable with this program, but cancel fees potentially could be more painful.

• Changing your flight costs €50 per passenger. You can make changes on a roundtrip itinerary after the outbound flight but it must be at least 24 hours before the return flight.
• Canceling a flight will return your Avios to your account at the same €50 per passenger. However, their terms are a bit contradictory after that point.
  • Their conditions for booking state that any taxes or fees paid on the original ticket will not be refunded.
  • But the Finnair Plus rules state “the residual part, i.e., taxes and passenger fees, is returned”.

Please let me know in the comments what your experience has been with canceling flights with Finnair Avios.

Guaranteed award seats on many flights

One of the nicest features of award programs is a promise of award seats. That gives extra incentive to book your trip as far out as possible. With Finnair, not every flight has guaranteed award space. So which ones offer a guarantee?

• Flights within Europe (with few exceptions)
  • Economy = at least 4 seats
  • Business = at least 2 seats
• Flights between Europe and Asia / North America / Dubai
  • Economy = at least 4 seats
  • Premium = at least 2 seats
  • Business = at least 2 seats

What exceptions exist for flights within Europe? The reasons Finnair gives includes:

• Flights where a tour company purchased the majority of seats,
• Flights to and from Doha, and
• Any flight that does not touch Helsinki (HEL) Airport.

Award booked with Finnair Avios are zone-based

Awards on Finnair

While many Avios-family programs are based primarily on distance, Finnair instead charges award rates based on zones. So what do they charge? Nothing more than 62,500 miles for a one-way nonstop flight.

In case you need it, here is the definition of each region.

One nice thing that Finnair does is clearly identify the fees up front. As you’d expect, long-haul business class runs a higher price, but it’s pretty reasonable for an Avios program. As disheartened as you might be from how terrible the fees are with British Airways, this is a breath of fresh air.

However, one disclaimer is that almost every connection will add to the price of your journey. Looking to fly Chicago to Dubai on Finnair? The price you’ll pay is equal to Chicago-Helsinki plus Helsinki-Dubai. The only time it’s not additive is if your journey includes a short flight between the Finland and Northern Europe zone. In this case, there’s no additional Avios charge.

oneworld and partner awards

Want to book a flight on one of Finnair’s partners? While it’s great that almost all partners have an award chart, it can get overwhelming with each having its own chart. The only exception is British Airways, which has award rates that exactly mirror what British Airways charges.

American Airlines

As of late 2025, awards on American now price out at 27,000 for business. Think of this as paying 27,000 Avios for lie-flat business class on premium transcon routes.

Alaska Airlines

Cathay Pacific

Fiji Airways

Iberia

JAL

LATAM

Malaysia Airlines

Oman Air

Qantas

Qatar Airways

Royal Air Maroc

Royal Jordanian

SriLankan Airlines

What are the sweet spots?

Finnair long-haul business class

Arguably the single best use of your Finnair Avios is on their long-haul flights. Options like Helsinki to Los Angeles, Singapore, or Tokyo for just 62,500 Avios and a reasonable €120 in fees is excellent. On top of that, with two guaranteed award seats on every flight, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to experience it. If you pay attention to nothing else in the program, this is the thing to note.

Flights within Northern Europe

I’m hesitant to call it a stellar deal given how short-distance flights are costly but trains typically are cheap in Europe, but flying within Northern Europe on Finnair is still priced well. Spending either 6,500 Avios in economy or 10,000 Avios in business isn’t a bad decision. But you’d do well to first check if the itinerary you want is more efficient via train.

Flying Alaska Airlines within the Continental US and Canada in economy

It can be a headache to sort through each partner’s award chart, but one to consider is economy flights on Alaska. Usually Alaska charges more to its own members to fly with them than what Finnair charges for the same route. At only 11,000 Avios, it’s cheaper than comparable flights on American Airlines.

Flying American Airlines to Hawaii

One interesting nuance to the Finnair award chart for American Airlines is that it’s actually cheaper to fly AA to Hawaii (15,000 Avios) than between New York and Dallas (16,500 Avios). But not everything needs to make sense. Since prices are based off zones, the longer flight you find, the better a deal it generally will be.

Premium transcontinental business class on American Airlines

Sure, if you’re lucky, you can find lie-flat AA business class for as cheap as 25,000 AA miles. But you might find pricing to be much higher. If these awards are open for partner redemptions, paying only 27,000 Avios with the Finnair program is just as good. Perhaps even better if you pair this with a transfer bonus!

This redemption will also give you lounge access, so there are certainly worse things you can do with your Avios.

Cathay Pacific business class between Europe and Asia

While the route to North America has seen some adjustment, the price between Europe and Asia on Cathay’s business class is good. You’ll only need to pay 72,500 Avios for the pleasure of business class. Given all the transfer bonuses that banks have on the Avios currency, you might even find it quite affordable. Assuming you’re lucky to find the award space, of course, but there is somewhat less competition on these routes than to North America.

Book difficult Japan Airlines (JAL) flights

The same logic applies here as it does with booking JAL flights with Air France miles.

Where this especially comes into play is if you really want to fly Japan Airlines. Finnair allows you to be able to book awards 360 days in advance. Meanwhile, American Airlines can book 331 days out. Would you want to book with Finnair? Well, if you wanted a high-demand route and absolutely wanted to book it before most other programs, you can do it with Finnair. And you’ll likely find it at a cheaper price than what British Airways charges since it’s zone-based.

No, this isn’t going to be the cheapest rate available (hello, American), but you’ll reliably find award space. Plus it’s certainly helpful to be able to transfer in points from most bank programs to top your account off.

Now, if you’re willing to gamble, what you can do is book your awards first with Finnair. Then, at some later date (say, 200-300 days out), cancel your Finnair award. The JAL award space might become bookable for partner awards once again. If it is bookable, scoop it up with your AA miles at a much more reasonable price (60,000 AA miles).

Just note that there is a non-zero risk that the award flights don’t reappear (in fact, the last time I canceled awards on JAL in 2023, they didn’t come back). But it could be worth the gamble.

How to best search for availability?

If you can get the website to function properly, searching for Finnair flights isn’t all that complicated on the Finnair website. There is a small calendar that pops up when you select your routing and preferred date to immediately show options. Once in, you’ll easily see how many seats are available on your selected date. If the goal is to fly Finnair, I find this is ultimately the most reliable method.

Unfortunately, the free point.me award tool won’t help you since the Finnair program isn’t available on it. However, if you’re looking for oneworld partner award space, I’d recommend using any third-party tool you prefer.

Please note that you’re not able to book partner flights directly on the Finnair website. Sadly, you’ll need to call to make these bookings.

Do Finnair Avios expire?

Yes, the Avios expire after 18 months. Thankfully, it’s quite simple keeping them active with any activity (using or earning). The one thing to know, however, is that simply moving them from one Avios program to another isn’t enough to reset the expiration date. Still, what I prefer to do is keep all my Avios in one program (British Airways) until I’m ready to use them. That way I only have one program that needs activity rather than spending effort keeping all programs active.

Suggested reading:

• Destinations we’ve visited
• How to Travel with Kids
• How to Book Award Travel Like a Pro