FFlash

Looking into Hel-Syd/Mel trip and I see fares in business below 4000€ which I consider decent.

Now, if and only if, the HKG-Syd part of itinerary is AY coded despite flown by CX or QA, do I get 200% ay_points on that leg, and moreover the 25% tier bonus as well?
Thanks for confirming this, this is unusual res for me and I don't want to assume anything I am unclear with, as it is quite a cost anyways

(The vital part of this itin plan is the tier points to keep status)

Courmisch

If a flight is purchased with a Finnair marketing code:
- If the fare basis is a Finnair ticket type, the earning ratio follows the Finnair ticket type rules.
- If the fare basis is something else, the earning ratio follows the Finnair booking class rules.
Either way, the mileage will be based on distance.

In case of business class, the distinction is irrelevant anyway, as all ratii are 200%. The Finnair plus tier bonus applies. (I have never flown business code shares though.)

To the topic at end, I recall CX business fares to .au closer to 3000€ than 4000€. But I somewhat doubt you can get Finnair codes, even if they exist for the pacific flights (and the intra-European ones too, by the way).

reflektia

AY codes are easy to get for entire journey, even from finnair site. For some reason it is not now cooperating with HEL-SYD but eg. ARN-SYD works quite well.

Courmisch

If you book the direct AY flights HEL to HKG or SIN, yeah. But if you use CX from Europe to HK (much cheaper), doubt good luck with getting AY codes further.

intuition

I can confirm AY marketed flights does indeed earn 250%. Before QR entered the market I flew AY marketed flights exactly like you intend to do.

WilcoRoger

Yes, according to the rules and also fm personal experience

Lappe

And you can shave off over 1k euros from the ticket price by starting at a European location... Unless spending an additional half-day in an Finnair aircraft becomes unfeasible. Or a daytrip. Weekender?

WilcoRoger

You're exagarating a bit (sub-4k less over-1k = well sub-3k), but correct, that SYD for 3k-ish € is very doable in C with AY ex-EU (ARN, OSL, WAW, PRG, BUD and possibly others work as well) You can throw in as long a "stopover" in HEL as you want, too, for the same price (you can have your EU weekend in Feb, go to SYD in May and have another EU week(end) in July - just as I did it) Even open jaws may work (e.g two different EU cities) well and also different connecting cities in Asia (NRT, HKG, SIN, BKK)

wkndtraveler

How can I know what's the booking class if I book via OTA?
One OTA, Supersaver, said I had to pay 25,80 € extra that they can add my frequent flyer number to the booking. Really?
What's reliable or unreliable OTA? So far, I only have booked directly on Finnair.com.

FFlash

This is what I ma planning to do. I realize this takes a lot of Time to search multicity options 😓😁

Tanks For confirming the earnings thing 😎

intuition

The eternal question!

Supersaver is (has become) a really annoying site, with multiple pop-up ads and scare tacticts to extract more revenue. Not to mention mail spamming. I only used them once recently but I did manage to get them to add my FF# without extra pay. Can't remember how. I won't use them ever again however.

Expedia have worked well for me, they allow multiple ff# to be stored in the profile, so one can just add the right one at booking. For Finnair fares, they sometimes can access availability that finnair won't sell you. They also use decent exchange rates before charging you in local currency (if you want this or not is another question, depends on what your usual departure is and what exchange rate your CC company uses)

In the past, I have used only finnair.com for all my bookings but lately (new rev management) they have decided to sometimes offer lowest fares elsewhere than on finnair.com (extracting more money from gullible customers who won't shop around). I still use finnair.com for most tickets, but do lookout for
a) high CC fees in ceratin markets
b) not all fare classes available sometimes

Lappe

Me?
ISA2CZ2 fare seems to price at €2,614.48 on a random query result PRG-HEL-SIN-SYD-BKK-HEL-PRG. Around the same seems to be widely available on other routings as well.
Open jaws, double open jaws, circle trips Ok. 150 € + fare difference for changes before departure.


I look at ITA Matrix roundtrip search, advanced routing codes "ay+" and building details as I see what I like. Then book that on finnair.com multicity.

Courmisch

Finnair.com cannot book itineraries with more than three separate journeys. eBookers sometimes works.

Lappe

I get four - in this particular context these could be: PRG-HEL, HEL-SYD, SYD-HEL, HEL-PRG. More creative options work also as do feeding through Google Flights etc.

jp_fin

It is possible to add afterwards in Finnair MMB, access with PNR or ticket number.