Efficient ways to earn Platinum
Feb 13, 2019, 2:24 pm
#16
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: HEL
Programs: AY Platinum, TK Elite, BT VIP, AA, BA, SK, DL, NT, WB + hotels
Posts: 8,749
Value is, as the name implies, good value! Full points for only about €20 more per segment.
AY has entered into a legal cartel agreement (they call it joint venture) with other airlines for Japan, the US, Canada and Mexico. Thus, the AY ticket type concept does not apply if you fly from Europe* to these markets. However, the AY ticket types apply if you fly to these markets from outside Europe. That's why you can buy a Value ticket from India to the US, for example.
* Europe in this context excludes Russia, Belarus and probably the Ukraine, too.
AY has entered into a legal cartel agreement (they call it joint venture) with other airlines for Japan, the US, Canada and Mexico. Thus, the AY ticket type concept does not apply if you fly from Europe* to these markets. However, the AY ticket types apply if you fly to these markets from outside Europe. That's why you can buy a Value ticket from India to the US, for example.
* Europe in this context excludes Russia, Belarus and probably the Ukraine, too.
Feb 13, 2019, 3:55 pm
#18
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: BGO (Temporarily HEL)
Programs: AY+ Gold, SK EBG
Posts: 400
LHR-HKG (and vice versa) with CX Core (booking class V) translates to 9606 AY+ points. CDG 9604, BRU 9368, AMS 9274. More points than AY Value tix for anyone without Plat earning bonus (8000 Basic, 8800 Silver, 9200 Gold), assuming fares are comparably priced, positioning etc.
Feb 13, 2019, 7:08 pm
#19
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: HEL
Programs: BA Gold, OZ Diamond, LH Silver
Posts: 553
Now that Finnair has started codesharing on AA flights to Hawaii there are some interesting point accrual possibilities on AY coded business class flights to USA as well. For example this kind of trip would generate 62168 points as a Basic and 77720 points as a Plat. That should be more than 30 points per € with a price of ~2000€. I think one can even get a few more points by flying with a routing of ARN-HEL-LHR-LAX-HNL and back for the same price.
Feb 14, 2019, 12:22 am
#20
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Helsinki
Programs: AY Platinum
Posts: 303
I checked the points earning question with the Finnair Holidays customer service last year. According to them the points accrual will be based on the fare class letter (which also will be visible at some point when making a booking) and not on the Basic/Value etc. scale. Of course there's still the possibility that the agent was wrong but he definitely seemed to understand my question and sounded like he knew what he was talking about and not guessing.
Feb 14, 2019, 1:54 am
#24
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Helsinki
Programs: AY+ Plat basic
Posts: 430
This is a question that I've been thinking quite a lot as well. Here's my plan but first one comment:
Buying LH value tickets is definitely a good value that surprised me when I found it. However sometimes you can find a price in semiobscure OTA that is a lot cheaper than from AY page. There you can't buy value. We are going to PVR (Puerto Vallarta) and the tickets were 550€ for a short period of time. Same time AY price 750€.
So doing HEL-OUL-HEL was not an option for me since I can't justify such waste of time. I'm Also doing a delhi MR doesn't sound very tempting, cos I still don't like flying in Y very much. Also I consider India a shithole country that I try to avoid in every possible way. So the destination would need to be interesting, and the expenses relatively moderate. One has to consider the price of hotels in Hawaii for example.
So I'm gonna do ARN-HEL-MIA-HEL-ARN in J. That ticket was 1180€. A separate ticket HEL-ARN-HEL was 68€. We're gonna stay overnight in an airport hotel, 48€, since I didn't have balls to book same plane return, and it's nice to enjoy the breakfast in ARN lounge too. This will give around 40k in silver right?
2nd flight is gonna be TAL-HEL-BKK-HKG-HEL-TAL in J. 1580€. Would have been 100€ cheaper without that HKG leg, but it's nice to try CX A350. TAL is easy and cheap to reach by ferry (surprisingly expensive by flying btw!). Around 40k points (as gold) as well.
Adding to that HEL-PVR-HEL 8800 points and some irregular shorthauls will get me to 100k. The changing 150k award points (of which 100k I get from these same flights) for the rest 50k will do it. 50k award points is relatively easy to do with credit card payments.
I like this plan, because the destinations are actually something where I want to go. I dislike the fact that those flights are anyway quite a lot more than flying in Y like a norman human being.
Buying LH value tickets is definitely a good value that surprised me when I found it. However sometimes you can find a price in semiobscure OTA that is a lot cheaper than from AY page. There you can't buy value. We are going to PVR (Puerto Vallarta) and the tickets were 550€ for a short period of time. Same time AY price 750€.
So doing HEL-OUL-HEL was not an option for me since I can't justify such waste of time. I'm Also doing a delhi MR doesn't sound very tempting, cos I still don't like flying in Y very much. Also I consider India a shithole country that I try to avoid in every possible way. So the destination would need to be interesting, and the expenses relatively moderate. One has to consider the price of hotels in Hawaii for example.
So I'm gonna do ARN-HEL-MIA-HEL-ARN in J. That ticket was 1180€. A separate ticket HEL-ARN-HEL was 68€. We're gonna stay overnight in an airport hotel, 48€, since I didn't have balls to book same plane return, and it's nice to enjoy the breakfast in ARN lounge too. This will give around 40k in silver right?
2nd flight is gonna be TAL-HEL-BKK-HKG-HEL-TAL in J. 1580€. Would have been 100€ cheaper without that HKG leg, but it's nice to try CX A350. TAL is easy and cheap to reach by ferry (surprisingly expensive by flying btw!). Around 40k points (as gold) as well.
Adding to that HEL-PVR-HEL 8800 points and some irregular shorthauls will get me to 100k. The changing 150k award points (of which 100k I get from these same flights) for the rest 50k will do it. 50k award points is relatively easy to do with credit card payments.
I like this plan, because the destinations are actually something where I want to go. I dislike the fact that those flights are anyway quite a lot more than flying in Y like a norman human being.
Feb 14, 2019, 2:16 am
#25
Join Date: Jun 2015
Programs: AY+, SK EB
Posts: 2,959
Feb 14, 2019, 2:18 am
#26
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Helsinki
Programs: AY+ Plat basic
Posts: 430
Feb 14, 2019, 2:29 am
#27
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Seat 1L these days :)
Programs: AF Platinum/AY LUMO/SK EBG/baEC S/HYATT Globalist/MR LTP/A3 *G/HH Dia/IHG plat
Posts: 7,957
Feb 14, 2019, 2:40 am
#28
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Switzerland
Programs: AY+ Platinum, SK Gold, BAEC Silver, airbaltic VIP, Radisson VIP
Posts: 6,530
Feb 14, 2019, 3:24 am
#29
Join Date: Feb 2019
Programs: AY+
Posts: 44
AY has entered into a legal cartel agreement (they call it joint venture) with other airlines for Japan, the US, Canada and Mexico. Thus, the AY ticket type concept does not apply if you fly from Europe* to these markets. However, the AY ticket types apply if you fly to these markets from outside Europe. That's why you can buy a Value ticket from India to the US, for example.
Feb 14, 2019, 3:35 am
#30
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Helsinki-Vantaa APT, Finland
Programs: AY LUMO
Posts: 6,056
How You get 8800 points HEL-PVR-HEL ?