Finnair announced the date when they will go spend based.

Finnair will go live with spend based Finnair Plus on March 9th

Finnair announced earlier in the autumn that it would change its frequent flyer program to be spend based. I wrote about it here. However, earlier it they said that they would go live at the end of January 2024. Now it is postponed until March 9th.

As Finnair had earlier said that also new tier levels would take place at the end of January 2024, so for those who have their tier level period ending at the January 31th or February 29th, Finnair has good news! Finnair decided that these new tier levels will be applied for those Finnair Plus customers as well. Below is what Finnair wrote about this:

"Our aim was to implement the changes to the Finnair Plus program in late January 2024, including the revised tier point limits. We understand that some of our members have planned their tier progress according to the new tier limits and we have decided that revised tier limits will be applied to members whose tracking period ends at the end of January or February. ​

In practice, if your tracking period ends at the end of January or February 2024, you will maintain your current tier or move up to a higher tier with the following tier limits: Finnair Plus Silver 22,500 tier points, Finnair Plus Gold 67,500 tier points, Finnair Plus Platinum 120,000 tier points. For the Finnair Plus Lumo tier, we apply the current limit of 450,000 tier points, of which 350,000 tier points must be collected from Finnair flights. ​

Maintaining your current tier:​

If your tracking period ends on 31 January 2024 and you have reached the tier point limit required to maintain your tier (Finnair Plus Silver 22,500 tier points, Finnair Plus Gold 67,500 tier points, Finnair Plus Platinum 120,000 tier points) by 31 January 2024, you will automatically maintain your current tier. Similarly, if your tracking period ends on 29 February 2024 and you have reached the tier point limit required to maintain your tier (Finnair Plus Silver 22,500 tier points, Finnair Plus Gold 67,500 tier points, Finnair Plus Platinum 120,000 tier points) by 29 February 2024, you will maintain your current tier. Your tier will renew automatically and does not require any action from you.​

Moving up to a higher tier: ​

If your tracking period ends on 31 January 2024 and you have reached the tier point limit to qualify for the tier (Finnair Plus Silver 22,500 tier points, Finnair Plus Gold 67,500 tier points, Finnair Plus Platinum 120,000 tier points) by 24 January 2024, you will move up to the tier. In practice, we will add extra tier points to your account so that your tier point balance matches the current tier point limits at the end of the month (Finnair Plus Silver 30,000 tier points, Finnair Plus Gold 80,000 tier points, Finnair Plus Platinum 150,000 tier points). This does not require any action from you.​

Similarly, if your tracking period ends on 29 February 2024 and you have reached the tier point limit to qualify for the tier by 22 February 2024, you will move up to the tier. We will add extra tier points to your account so that your tier point balance matches the current tier point limits at the end of the month. This does not require any action from you." (www.finnair.com)

Travel class upgrades & Award flights

Biggest change when it comes to upgrades and awards flights is that Finnair has added more zones. Now Finnair will have 7 different zones. Below you can see all the zones and needed points for upgrade.

Zone 1: Bodø, Copenhagen, Gdansk, Gothenburg, Oslo, Riga, Stockholm, Tallinn, Trondheim, Vilnius, Visby, Warsaw and all flights within Finland

• Upgrade - Economy to Business - 6500 Avios

• Award flight - Economy - 6500 Avios

• Award flight - Business - 10 000 Avios

Zone 2: Amsterdam, Bergen, Berlin, Billund, Brussels, Budapest, Düsseldorf, Edinburg, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Innsbruck, Krakow, Ljubljana, London, Manchester, Munich, Prague, Salzburg, Tromsø, Wroclaw, Zagreb, Zurich, Vienna

• Upgrade - Economy to Business - 9000 Avios

• Award flight - Economy - 12 000 Avios

• Award flight - Business - 18 000 Avios

Zone 3: Alanya, Alicante, Antalya, Barcelona, Bologna, Chania, Dublin, Dubrovnik, Faro, Geneva, Heraklion, Larnaca, Lisbon, Madrid, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Milan, Naples, Nice, Paris, Reykjavik, Rhodes, Rome, Santorini, Split, Venice, Verona

• Upgrade - Economy to Business - 10 000 Avios

• Award flight - Economy - 13 000 Avios

• Award flight - Business - 20 000 Avios

Zone 4: Gran Canaria, Eilat, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Madeira, Tel Aviv, Tenerife

• Upgrade - Economy to Business - 11 000 Avios

• Award flight - Economy - 15 000 Avios

• Award flight - Business - 25 000 Avios

Zone 5: Delhi, Doha, Dubai, Mumbai

• Upgrade - Economy to Premium Economy - 15 000 Avios

• Upgrade - Premium Economy to Business - 20 000 Avios

• Upgrade - Economy to Business - 35 000 Avios

• Award flight - Economy - 28 000 Avios

• Award flight - Premium Economy - 42 000 Avios

• Award flight - Business - 55 000 Avios

Zone 6: Bangkok, Chicago, Dallas, Guangzhou, Hongkong, Phuket, Miami, New York, Seattle, Seoul, Shanghai

• Upgrade - Economy to Premium Economy - 17 000 Avios

• Upgrade - Premium Economy to Business - 23 000 Avios

• Upgrade - Economy to Business - 40 000 Avios

• Award flight - Economy - 30 000 Avios

• Award flight - Premium Economy - 43 500 Avios

• Award flight - Business - 62 500 Avios

Zone 7: Los Angeles, Nagoya, Osaka, Singapore, Tokyo

• Upgrade - Economy to Premium Economy - 17 000 Avios

• Upgrade - Premium Economy to Business - 23 000 Avios

• Upgrade - Economy to Business - 40 000 Avios

• Award flight - Economy - 30 000 Avios

• Award flight - Premium Economy - 43 500 Avios

• Award flight - Business - 62 500 Avios

Feeder flights

Earlier if you book award ticket from London to Singapore via Helsinki - needed points was same as you would have booked only Helsinki - Singapore.

In the new system if you book award ticket from London to Singapore via Helsinki you will pay separate points for each flight. Meaning that if you fly in economy class you pay 12 000 Avios for London to Helsinki and 30 000 Avios for Helsinki to Singapore, in total 42 000 Avios.

Only zone 1 is excluded from this change.

Summary

When Finnair announced that they do changes to their program, they indicated that there wouldn't be any major changes to needed points for award tickets and upgrades.

If we look upgrades we can see that more zones will negatively affect to flights to zone 4. Earlier these flights needed 15 000 points for upgrade in the new system it will be 11 000 Avios, which would be 16 500points in the old system. Positive affect this will have to zone 2, in the system it is 9000 Avios needed for upgrade, which would 13 500points in the old system.

When we look at long-haul flights we can say that Zone 6 and 7 have only minor changes for economy to premium economy and premium economy to business when it comes to upgrades. Economy to Business class upgrade will cost same about of points as before. However, for zone 5, upgrades will be cheaper than before.

If we look at long-haul flights award tickets for zone 5 then we can see that award tickets will be cheaper than before. For zone 6 and 7, economy award tickets will cost same as before, premium economy will have slight increase and business class will have slight decrease on needed points.

Most negative thing will be separate needed award points for feeder flights if first flight will be any other than zone 1. That will have a major affect for those who are based example in London.

Otherwise there wasn't any major changes as Finnair had promised. And also delay of implementation of spend based won't really affect to anyone as Finnair decided that those who have their period ending by January or February will enjoy new tier limits as well.