intuition

Thanks, all! OK, it seems clear it is a "up to 50€" cost for cancellation.


My itinerary document says
"Change of dates free of charge.
Outbound can be change before trip has commenced.
Once the trip has commenced, change of route is no longer possible
Inbound can be changed no later than 1 day before scheduled departure"

So it is clear that it can be changed to another route (basically a new award redemption). There is no mention of a fee or the absence of a fee for route change, though.

In my case changing the award to a new route is probably not what I want to do anyway. I am travelling on a new route, but: The old route is a medium haul trip with market price 1500€ and the new route is a 1h flight where I can endure in Y. So save €22 but use 60k points for a 1h narrowbody J is poor value.

on22cz

As a Lumo, I've been kindly invited to pay 50€ for being moved onto an earlier AY flight (same taxes of course) on the same route. Confirmed by supervisor and other department checks. Good to know it's worth becoming a Plat!

cistavoda

Ridiculous! I've added stopovers and changed dates multiple times. Never had to pay a penny (even as Lumo).

KurdtC

Just booked award HEL-JFK-HEL to end of June for me and wifey. I burned 4x SH upgrade vouchers to get tickets with 90000 (+1000) points.
For return they had only one seat left for award, and now we are waitlisted for JFK-HEL segment. I tried to ask from customer service what are the odds return to be cleared, but naturally she couldn’t give me an answer.
My status is AY Gold, so no Plat/Lumo leverage to push CS to make magic happen
CS also checked availability for few days before/after booked return but no availability.
Any thoughts/feedback?

KurdtC

And return was cleared yesterday evening. Perfect timing, because this is a xmas present. Thank you AY.

terbangalways

I've googled but can't find much info for my orphaned 35K miles. New to AY program.
Any sweetspots for 35k? Primarily based in CDG and SIN.

Trav1970

30k will get you an European return ticket in Y. How about a skiing trip to KTT?

Or 50k will get you a long haul upgrade (subject to availability). You could buy the missing 15k.

intuition

"orphaned miles" indicates OP is not flying AY much so I wouldn't advice buying miles and enter the upgrade lottery. Might end up with 50k miles orphaned...
SH redemption is better, especially since fuel surcharge is removed nowadays

Superrman

r/t CDG-HEL-Domestic Finnish flight?

terbangalways

Thank you all!
Does AY passed on YQ on its own metal?

ffay005

No YQ on AY intra-Eur awards.

terbangalways

https://www.finnair.com/sg/gb/finnai.../award-flights
Can i do XXX-HEL-DXB and return to XXX for 30k?
Basically tagging another city XXX and use HEL as transit point. Noted no stopover on short haul.
Also what is the max stay period in DXB or TLV (which falls as EU per AY)?

intuition

Yes, you can book a intra-europe award via HEL.No experience with DXB, but in genereal this is working fine.

Sometimes this is the only option to fly AY on some routes - some destinations are not sold as revenue but are sold as award. e.g. CPH-HEL-WAW is not sold as revenue ticket, but you can book it as an award.

mhle

In general, when originating from Central Europe, only destinations in the Nordic and Baltic countries and Russia are sold (in addition to the long hauls). Finnair should understand that for a flyertalker it is only natural to buy a ticket e.g. from Zürich to Paris via Helsinki. Of course, it is possible to buy the Zürich to Paris connection via Helsinki and Los Angeles, which is even more flyertalk friedly, so maybe they have a point. But regardless of this, I do appreciate Lufthansa which sells the route from Stockholm to Helsinki via Frankfurt often with a decent price (have done that a couple of times).

intuition

While I don't own an airline, it seems very odd for a hub-and-spoke airline to not offer tickets on some combinations of spokes. I thought the business model was constructed in a way where you want as many passenger as possible to go to your hub from where you can offer all connections.

While the example CPH-WAW may not be the most obvious one, no other hub-and-spoke airlines feel the need to block the route. SK and LOT has of course direct flights (as each city is their hub respectively) but that does not mean others stop competing. Via MUC, VIE, RIX and even IEV are options for the flyer. Yes, the longer connections are not likely to attract a lot of flyers, but if you are a loyal LH, OS or BT customer, you probably appreciate your airline at least offers you the option.

And by the way, the blocks are very selective. WAW-CPH is fine, just not the other way around. And while I personally probably wouldn't use AY for CPH to north continental Eurpoe, I would appreciate if more routes were available for purchase. They most aren't and one can only surmise that AY is happy operating as a point-to-point airline when it comes to the shorthaul traffic and do not need more customers.