ffay005

€1000 is definitely worth it if you use LH upgrades. We've got a similar thread here somewhere.

r2d2

The previous thread was about the value of the giveaway Gold card.

Anyhow, the value of Plat (and other tiers) depends heavily on both your travel patterns and how much you value the benefits. Many of the benefits are nice, but I wouldn't pay a dime for them. Then again one of my friends likes to have Plat mainly because of the DYKWIA factor (when they announce a special welcome for tier members he says "Thank you" etc).

Here's a list of some of the Plat benefits (over Gold) that each of us can value by ourselves:

• two long-haul upgrades. Upgrading by paying would usually cost around 500 euros, how much would you be willing to pay? And would you be flying long-haul on AY at all, if you wouldn't have the vouchers that need to be used?
• the giveaway Gold card, which was already discussed in a separate thread. Maybe the most tanglible benefit of all, because it can be sold (just don't let AY know about it). The market value is somewhere between 400 and 500 euros
• getting more points on AY flights. Depends on how much you fly AY and how would you use the points
• access to first class lounges. Are you using airports with them and do they have offerings that you value (as opposed to the business class lounges)?
• free Economy Comfort seats on long-haul flights. I wouldn't give any value for them because exit row seats are even better
• free WiFi on long-haul flights (as opposed to 1 hour). Nice on day flights, almost useless on night flights. When flying for business the company would anyhow pay for the WiFi if needed
• free drink in economy class. Nice, but would you pay for one if it wasn't for free?
• free newspaper in economy class. Lets see if they ditch newspapers also on short-haul flights after getting WiFi on the short-haul Airbuses
• getting asked first for your meal preference in business class
• priority handling in case of irrops?
• higher probability of op-ups?

HJP

Post Scriptum

How about the carry-on, has the platinum rimowa been cut or has it been moved to Lumo/renewing platinum?

WilcoRoger

It's been gone for a very long time Now it's a Tumi for Lumo only.

To @Ed Size - Plat is good step up from Gold, but is it really worth 1000€? How far along you're with progressing towards Plat? Remember, you can always exchange award points towards TPs at a 3:1 rate, up until half of the level's requirements - ie you can make Plat even with 75k TP collected and exchanging 225k award points towards 75k more TP. If you're further ahead, obviously this amount is smaller. Compare the missing amount to the 1k€. At the end of the day, only you can decide.

(How're the *A flights otherwise compared to OW - schedule, hard/soft product, etc?)

intuition

@Ed_Size I believe you are mostly in revenue J and as such, the platinum card might not be worth much extra cash.
Are there any specific goodies at your usual destinations? (It is BKK IIRC, and I know very little about it). For me, the F lounges at HKG is worth something extra, just like the propensity for said lounge to grant me extra guests "just as a personal one-time favour" is.

IIRC, you are also travelling with companion, and the family-upgrade is a good perk of platinum. This has the potential downside of not clearing, leaving one of you in the undesired cabin, so you need to add risk/reward thinking to this perk.

If you are only travelling with 1 companion, and this companion rarely travels alone, the gold give-away has little practical value (other than bragging rights). if youngsters come along, then a gold card can be great. It is nowadays allowed to be gifted to juniors. But again, if they are already in J, practical value is 0.

These are the things that could make it worth it to you. You need to weigh the disadvantages of a plat card though, like feeling locked in. If you are cutting back on flights, perhaps best option is to always book J and book the best flight (money, quality, flighttime,...) each time without any loyalty.

Ed Size

Thanks for your thoughts, I will go for the Platinum, it´s for the two of us - so the upgrade vouchers are a good value - and it will bring also 50.000 points to each of us. But whom I ll give the give away gold cards?

jimaras08

Family, Friends, here, oder im VFT ? ...

ffay005

Your parents, a sibling, a good friend, anyone who flies at least a few times a year and appreciates the perks, such as priority lanes, lounge access or the occasional upgrade.

aapee

Only for Finns, but for me the free Platinum Diners Club card is of very good value. Fly pretty often on BT and norwegian,and occationally some other airlines - the card gives me free access to the lounges at most airports I fly from.

r2d2

The annual fee for non-plats is 50 e and Golds get the same lounge access with DC as Plats. Add another 50 e if you have the Finnair Plus MasterCard as well. With both of them you get more points for purchases as Plat, so that increases the value of Plat.

reflektia

Vouchers are worth around 2x400e for me, that is something that I might be willing to pay for it.
First class lounge access is really nice, but TBH I would not be willing to pay anything meaningful for it.
Priority handling during irrops is very nice, but it is hard to quantify it. And usually available options are not splendid anyways.
Priority check-in (over OWS) is sometimes very nice, but OWS check-in priority is good enough so same as lounge access
Seat guarantee is very nice, and it sometimes really saves the day. Of course not my money, but it saves company over 5ke per year.
Diners/MC cards save me over 500e per year with lounge access and extra point earning. And of course extra free credit card.
Free wifi saves also lot of money, probably 100e my own money and ~400e company money.
Free drink/newspaper, priority food order are all "nice to have" but very rarely would I pay anything.
Free economy comfort seats are very nice perk, probably close to 1ke annually. I would mostly not pay for it I guess, at least not with my own money.
Opups are really nice, but it's game of luck so very hard to quantify. And if you want it, better use money/points.
Give away gold is very nice gift for someone, of course selling it would be even better

EuroFlash

juhanh

Yes! I missed that the first time I qualified for Plat and let one gift go to waste.

Clydez

maybe slightly off topic, but dont know where to put this.

I requalified plat again end of July, my tracking period is till end of Nov. However on the app and website, it clearly shows im requalified, now has the lumo meter showing progress. But yet to see the vouchers and gold give away. I recall past years, those came pretty fast, but this time is taking weeks? is it normal?