Premium travel points can be a great value. The Finnair Plus program just launched a new promotion. The cost per mile is still very attractive despite the fact that it is not as lucrative as the promotion we saw at the end of 2021.
Finnair Plus is offering up to a 30% discount and up to a 30% bonus on purchased points. The promotion is tiered.
Finnair charges as little as 1.28 cents per point. If you purchased 200,000 points through this promotion, you will receive a total of 260,000 points, which is a rate of 0.73 cents per point. It is the lowest cost at which any airline program sells points, and it is a spectacularly low cost at which to acquire points.
Finnair Plus points purchases are not counted as airfare purchases for credit card spending. I recommend using a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spending if you're trying to reach minimum spending.
The Capital One Venture X rewards credit card has no foreign transaction fees and offers 2x miles. The Chase Freedom unlimited is a good option for maximizing everyday spending, but the cards have foreign transaction fees, so it wouldn't be a good option.
The Capital One Venture X has a 3.4% return on spending. If you want to do the math differently, that lowers the real cost per point from 0.73 cents to 0.7 cents.
The acquisition cost is 0.73 cents per point. Finnair Plus is more of a niche program, but there are plenty of situations where you can get value.
Finnair Plus points can be used to upgrade from economy to business class, which is a good use of points. Depending on how far you're flying, the cost of upgrades can range from 7,500 points to 50,000 points.
If you have a paid economy ticket on Finnair, buying points in order to upgrade could be an exceptional value.
The Finnair Plus program has good award pricing, with no fuel surcharges, if you want to redeem for an award ticket on Finnair. A one-way flight will cost 80,000 points.
It's like paying $585 for a one-way business class ticket, which is awesome, at an acquisition cost of 0.73 cents per point. The catch is that Finnair isn't very generous when it comes to award availability, so you want to make sure you know what you're getting before you make a purchase.
It's not going to be a great value to redeem for partner airline flights on other oneworld airlines. Finnair has different award charts for different partners.
Here is the one-way award chart for travel on American Airlines.
The one-way award chart for travel on Cathay Pacific is here.
There is not much to get excited about here for partner award redemptions. It's not a great deal to have 180,000 points for a US to Asia one-way first class award on Cathay Pacific.
You would be better off buying miles through Alaska Mileage Plan or American AAdvantage at a discount. At the rate at which Finnair Plus is selling points, it is hard to go wrong.
Finnair Plus has a promotion that could potentially be a good deal. The program is giving away up to a 30% discount and up to a 30% bonus on purchased points, which is an opportunity to acquire points for just 0.73 cents each. The one-way awards cost 80,000 points, so it's a good deal.
This is a great offer, but it's not as good as the offers we saw at the end of 2020 and 2021, where you could earn elite status with Finnair. It's anyone's guess if we see a promotion like that again later this year.
Is anyone going to take advantage of the promo on Finnair Plus points?