Finnair Plus - Paid upgrades, Economy to Business

Hi Finnair regulars, sorry if this is a basic question but I'm a BA regular, not AY. Am thinking of booking a return from London to HKG on AY in economy. Probably just the cheapest ticket. Is it ever possible to get upgrades on the long haul sectors at the airport or in the last day or two before travel? If so, what does such an upgrade typically cost and do you get credited the miles and status points for the cabin originally booked or for the upgraded cabin?

Many thanks!

Have never heard of upgrades for cash on AY.

If you are on a flexible ticket you can of course rebook it into another class, but I guess that is not what you are asking. It will surely not be cheaper than to book the class you want from the beginning.

There is an upgrade for miles option that works very well, but only for AY+ members. You cannot use ba miles (sorry avios.... :) for that.

Finnair used to offer these on some outstations...no idea if it was a policy or just up to the local sales office etc. but I remember seeing offers at least at JFK, SIN and BKK for upgrades Y->J...they were in the region of 500-600eur one way...but this was years ago, haven't seen these during the past 6-7 years or so..so this was during the times when they had M11s still in service..

There is an upgrade for miles option that works very well, but only for AY+ members. You cannot use ba miles (sorry avios.... :) for that.

Of course those AY+ points can also be purchased - someone should do the math.

Of course those AY+ points can also be purchased - someone should do the math.
Since when? Never heard of that option, unless you count some theoretical "spend €22 000 at Finnair tax-free and you get the points needed for a r/t upgrade" kind of buying, but that is probably not exactly what the OP is looking for.

Of course those AY+ points can also be purchased - someone should do the math.

Can they? (How, I never knew that, and didn't find it on finnair.fi either?)

Since when? Never heard of that option, unless you count some theoretical "spend €22 000 at Finnair tax-free and you get the points needed for a r/t upgrade" kind of buying, but that is probably not exactly what the OP is looking for.

Posts crossed... Anyway, these days there's quite a few credit cards (and possibly other partner programs?) that can earn AY+ points, I still wonder if it might be possible to purchase points for something like that and transfer them to AY+. Haven't heard of any such option either though.

Sorry my bad - in every other FFP I'm in there's an option to purchase points, usually at ripoff prices, so I just wrote what I did without checking the AY facts.

OT: 30000 Avios for €459.... including 25% ex gratia. Worthwhile? Dunno...

OT: 30000 Avios for €459.... including 25% ex gratia. Worthwhile? Dunno...

And (still OT), for any who are interested, that offer will end on Feb 29

I'm also thinking whether to grab it, but I probably won't. My usual rule of thumb is that I'll be happy to buy almost any amount of miles Avios at 1 cent per mile Avio, and might grudgingly accept a valuation of 2 cents per mile Avio earned as part of some other transaction, but at 2 cents I don't really consider having gained anything (just not made any significant losses either).

The current 1.5 cents per mile Avio is somewhere in between, not a very good deal but not terribly bad either. I'd say if you are short of some redemption you're planning in the short term (or if you just want to boost your account to some healthy balance for any needs that might come up) then it may be worth taking.

Back to the topic, not being able to purchase points is for me one of the biggest shortcomings of the AY+ program, together with the strict 3 year expiration. I would love to keep some points balance on my AY+ account just for the potential upgrade award now and then, but knowing that there's no way to top up the account if I don't manage to collect enough, and whatever I have will just be gone when the time is up - seems a risk I just don't want to take.

I was returning from a holiday in TYO to HEL in August 2011 and had a Y ticket with booking class N. This is not the cheapest, but still allows you only 50% from full Y AY+ points.

Since I needed to go directly to office after arrival and I learned the Y was almost full. I tried first to beg for an upgrade without luck, I decided to check from Narita counter how much it would cost to upgrade to J. The price was EUR 1200 (on top of the €900 I paid for the Y ticket originally), but I decided to pay for it, since it helped me to maintain AY+ Gold status for additional year.

So, atleast N booking class offered possibility to J but with a hefty cost.

A bit off topic, I fly normally 40-60 flights on AY annually for business in Europe. Since my company has, with good reasons, decided to deny J class business travelling within EU, I am an Y guy. It just makes me utterly upset every time AY publishes the updated list of the points you get with different booking classes. In 2009 there was 7 booking classes allowing 100% Y AY+ points and 11 classes allowing 50% of Y AY+ points.

Today, AY+ offers only 3 class in Y you get 100% of Y points, 10 classes you get 50% of Y points and 5 class you are rewarded with generous 25% of Y points. Ridiculous.

An example: I have a booking HEL - MAN - HEL in March in Y with booking class T. The return ticket cost EUR 574 and booking class rewards me with 50% of Y points. So, I am getting some 1800 AY+ points with nearly 600 EUR.
So the ratio is 3 AY+ with 1 EUR. If I'd fly to Peking in J, the standard return ticket would cost EUR 3000 and would reward you with 25232 AY+ points, so 8,4 points/EUR.
Conclusion, AY+ program doesn't give you anything, if you don't do longhaul in J. Reaching the PLAT threshold is reachable with 6 HEL-PEK (cost of PLAT=18000 EUR) J return flights, but it would require me 46 return flights between HEL - MAN (cost of PLAT=26404 EUR).

I do realize and 100% accept that the longer you fly, more points/miles you should get, but the current rules offering crappy 50% and 25% from AY+ points in Y with most booking classes is a ripoff. 12 years in the program with every year minimum 40 flights (597 in total) on AY and I am barely making gold every second year. Yes, I know, I should seek for more intercontinental work :D

but the current rules offering crappy 50% and 25% from AY+ points in Y with most booking classes is a ripoff. 12 years in the program with every year minimum 40 flights (597 in total) on AY and I am barely making gold every second year. Yes, I know, I should seek for more intercontinental work :D

I jumped ship this year to BA EC - way easier to achieve status. Only thing that you need to fly 4 flights on BA metal if for Emerald/Sapphire

I was returning from a holiday in TYO to HEL in August 2011 and had a Y ticket with booking class N. This is not the cheapest, but still allows you only 50% from full Y AY+ points.

Since I needed to go directly to office after arrival and I learned the Y was almost full. I tried first to beg for an upgrade without luck, I decided to check from Narita counter how much it would cost to upgrade to J. The price was EUR 1200 (on top of the €900 I paid for the Y ticket originally), but I decided to pay for it, since it helped me to maintain AY+ Gold status for additional year.

So, atleast N booking class offered possibility to J but with a hefty cost.


I don't think that a "paid upgrade" as meant by the OP. What you paid was the fare differential between your original booking class and the cheapest available business class fare.

Lots of airlines (well... BA comes to mind) sell upgrades for a fraction of the fare differential if their premium cabins are undersold. One reason for doing so is not to have to do op-ups, another to raise flight yield (in adding revenue to fixed costs). This usually happens at the check-in phase when staff have knowledge of the cabin load and can set a target of sold upgrades.

Lots of airlines (well... BA comes to mind) sell upgrades for a fraction of the fare differential if their premium cabins are undersold.


Interesting point, do you know other airlines then BA and TG doing so?

Interesting point, do you know other airlines then BA and TG doing so?

Americans at least... SK used to do it at outstations, but my experience is limited to >5 years ago.

Americans at least... SK used to do it at outstations, but my experience is limited to >5 years ago.

Yes, SK did it a long time ago (I was offered a PVG-CPH upgrade for 2000RMB in 2004) , but I think they have gone with the 'optiontown' concept now instead.

Interesting point, do you know other airlines then BA and TG doing so?

NZ (and others) have a system where pax can enter a auction for paid / confirmed upgrades a few days ahead of takeoff.

Finnair seems to be quite able to fill the C cabin without paid upgrades.
The system of confirmed upgrades for points/vouchers (and family upgrades for plats) surely are contributing to this. So lets not hope for a dilution of that!

I don't now but could one thing be that some airlines try to very, very cheap with their catering (and AY must be one of these for sure!!) and they order the bare minimum that they can "survive" with and if they did last minute paid airport upgrades the J catering couldn't cope with it..?

With op-ups it's of course easier as they do not need to serve J food if they run out...but if pax pay hard cash it's different.

Just speculating but something must affecting why so many airlines have stopped offering these..