Finnair Plus
 

Hello Experts,

I am choosing around frequent flyer programmes within OneWorld and came across Finnair Plus. However, after some investigation I noticed it requires 4 Finnair-operated flights per year to be qualified for tier. Does that mean it does not include AY codeshared flights?

(emphasis mine)

Yes, it means operated as opposed to marketed. I do realize that most (alll?) Oneworld carriers have a 4 flights minimum requirement, the exact rule may vary.

Not that the distinction matters much in your case: You can probably not buy the AY code shares to/from Australia unless connecting to/from HEL. A single round trip between Australia and Europe (beyond HEL) from Finnair would make you qualify, on the condition that you avoid AB (TXL) and BA (LHR) feeders.

Where did You find that?

Terms & conditions section 2.9 does indeed say "at least 4 flights must be Finnair operated".

I don't know if this is enforced.
When it comes to qualifying flights (as in qualifying for a tier by flight segments) all oneworld flights counts. There is a counter in the account for these qualifying flights, but there is no separate counter to show number of Finnair operated flights. But I can only speculate if that means they are not enforcing the rule - I guess only if someone on FT can report getting kicked out of their tier for not doing 4 AY operated flight we would know for certain.

You probably can. SYD-HKG-BKK comes to mind; both segments codeshares.

I try to understand your suggested routing as follows:

1. MEL-SIN AYxxxx (QF metal)
2. SIN-HEL AYxxx (AY metal)
3. HEL-LHR AYxxx (AY metal)
4. LHR-HEL AYxxx (AY metal)
5. HEL-HKG AYxxx (AY metal)
6. HKG-MEL AYxxxx (CX metal)

So I have fulfilled the 4 AY flights per year by flights 2-5?

So do you mean even my routing is not connecting to/from HEL I can still buy AY codeshare flights on SYD-HKG-BKK to earn tier points (with bonus from tier status)?

Yes. Any Australia-Asia-HEL-Europe route would qualify you for the year, provided that HEL-Europe is on AY metal. There are a few European destinations for which Finnair could sell non-qualifying codeshares (BA@LHR, AB@TXL and SU@SVO), or to which Finnair does not actually fly at all (FI@KEF, TP@LIS).

You will get the Finnair tier bonus on Australia-Asia AY-marketed flights, however note that Finnair is very skimpy with their tier bonuses. Intuition believes you can easily buy those flights without connection to Europe, but I doubt it.

According to the rules, that flights would however not qualify. Whether the rules are enforced is not entirely clear.

Which AY tier requires 4 AY flights during the tracking period/year?

Silver 40 000 points or 24 scheduled flights*
Gold 90 000 points or 54 scheduled flights*
Platinum 150 000 points or 92 scheduled flights*

*Finnair and other oneworld flights.

http://www.finnair.com/fi/gb/finnair...s-finnair-plus

Thanks Courmisch.

One more question on buying award points and exchanging award points for tier points. I just want to confirm if I can do the following:

Let's say
1. End of membership year: 70000 tier points and 10000 reward points
2. Buy 50000 award points so the total is 60000 reward points.
3. Exchange 60000 reward points to 20000 tier points
4. End of membership year in total 90000 tier points. Renewed as Gold Tier.

Am I correct here? I read the Finnair website that the maximum points that you can buy or receive in calendar year is 50000 points. So does that mean others cannot transfer miles or gift miles to you in that calendar year?

As with every member of oneWorld, marketing airline counts. It means all AY marketed flights earns according to AY table on AY+ program regardless of who is operating them (except when operator is not member or affiliate of OW). So yes, all AY flights operated by any oneWorld airline earns according to AY table and all AY tier bonuses apply.




As for the odd codeshare routes (like HKG-BKK, KUL-BKK, domestic JL flights and so on) they are difficult to buy without a HEL-connection. So I do not think they are easily available but I can imagine routes where you could get them without going via HEL. Not that you'd want that. I'm just saying.

Yes.


The limit is supposed to include gifted points too, this I have no personal experience with though.

From an outsider perspective I would expect 4 AY flights apply to EACH tracking period. Of course other experts may confirm.

Reading the terms & conditions, it seems all tiers requires 4 AY operated flights. It might be they do not mean that or they do not enforce it, but I find the english version of the text pretty clear.

Judging by dera's post here I'm guessing they are not enforcing it.

Well, they are most probably not enforcing the rule when soft landing (which is unofficial in itself). But we don't really know if they enforce it when reaching or renewing a tier.

Indeed.
And we haven't even heard about softlanding for a while, might not work anymore.