Finnair has confirmed it will adopt the Avios loyalty currency for its Finnair Plus frequent flyer programme from March next year.

The carrier announced plans to adopt the Avios currency this summer, and has now revealed in social media posts that the switch date will be on 9 March, 2024.

The change will also see Finnair adopt a spend-based model for the earning of Avios, similar to that already in place for the Iberia Plus and British Airways Executive Club programmes.

This page on finnair.com states:

“[The] Finnair Plus programme will enter a new era on 9 March 2024. The programme will become spend-based, which means you will collect loyalty currency and reach tiers based on the money spent – your flight and travel extra purchases – with Finnair. We will also bring new options for collecting and using loyalty currency – and new, additional benefits.

“At the same time, many of the familiar benefits, rewards and opportunities to collect and use loyalty currency will remain unchanged.

“We will implement these changes into our systems over four days between 8 and 11 March, 2024, and they do not require any action from you. However, some of our services will be unavailable on those days. We will share more details about the service break in February.”

As previously reported Finnair Plus award points will be converted to Avios with a 3:2 ratio, and the airline says that “the purchasing power of the current points remains unchanged”.

One benefit of joining the Avios ecosystem is that members will see the availability of award seats increase.

There will be a guaranteed four economy seats and two business class seats (where available) on flights within Europe, and a minimum of four economy, two premium economy (where available) and two business class seats on flights between Europe and Asia, North America and Dubai.

And new milestone benefits are also being introduced, to reward members “within tiers”. For example Finnair Plus Silver members will receive two lounges passes when they earn 20,000 tier points.

finnair.com