So I'm free travelling to Europe a it coming up and going Finnair.
I'm a velocity member but I'm already platinum until April 2021 so I'm not worried about maintaining status.
I had a response for a status challenge on QF but started looking into finnair plus. From my math I should be able to get to gold or close to from the first trip. I have a general disdain for QFF
But should I suck it up and go with QFF, even though I've read mixed reports on how they treat OW flights in their program?
The issue with Finnair is even if they respond to the status challenge and you get gold then there is the issue of the 4 Finnair qualifying flights per year. Possible if you go to Europe once a year via Helsinki. Also depending on the agreement the earn rate on QF domestic may not be great but if you generally fly VA not an issue
The qualifying flight point is a good one. I assume from your question / post that your aim is to achieve one word status. You don't say what your usual flying pattern is (domestic v International), clearly if Helsinki is a regular destination for you then that's no issue. If not then you may find it difficult (or expensive) to easily requalify due to the limited number of routes. If you do a fair amount of flying to Europe from Australia then I would suggest looking closely at Qatar, fairly easy to gain (and retain) status and a superb route network. There are rumours that they may leave OW and if they do that maybe less than ideal for Australian based flyers, given they would be unlikely to maintain any reciprocal relationships with Qantas due to the Qantas / Emirates tie in, but if you're a Virgin flyer then that's possibly not a concern for you.
The QFF route would probably make re-qualifying easier due to the ability to take flights domestically in need and you still have excellent long haul options on OW from Australia (Qatar and Cathay)
As someone who uses a Qantas/Finnair combo business ticket to Europe, usually twice a year, I did look at the Finnair program, but remained with QF.
From what I could work out from their published tier earning tables, it takes about the same amount of flying to achieve gold in either program. On a normal trip I earn 600 QF tier points on a single trip (BRISBANE-HELSINKI-somewhere in Europe, all in Business, usually a somewhat discounted ticket). 600 is enough to maintain gold (although 700 needed to first time attain gold). So one Euro flight and one shorter flight will get you gold easily.
The reason I stayed with QF is that my Oz credit cards drive points into the Qantas account, plus with any credit card activity, the points don't age. Plus the travel insurance. If you had the Finnair program, I'm not sure how you would benefit from credit card points in any practical way.
Qantas and Finnair seem to integrate very well, I can see, access and manage all my Finnair (AY) flights in the QF account, and the AY points have always appeared promptly. So far it has worked well...fingers crossed!
I took Finnair recently and was less than impressed especially with the online booking experience and customer service response. For some reason I did not get FF points or status credits for the HEL LHR sector in business class. Despite being a Q platinum Finnair had zero interest in resolving. As far as the in-flight experience goes the food is average, the entertainment selection poor (dont expect any cutting edge Scandinavian TV series or movies) and the wine awful! Qantas or CX far superior across the board.
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QF or Finnair Plus
Uqsthom6
Uqsthom6
Member since 15 Mar 2017
Total posts 21
So I'm free travelling to Europe a it coming up and going Finnair.
I'm a velocity member but I'm already platinum until April 2021 so I'm not worried about maintaining status.
I had a response for a status challenge on QF but started looking into finnair plus. From my math I should be able to get to gold or close to from the first trip. I have a general disdain for QFF
But should I suck it up and go with QFF, even though I've read mixed reports on how they treat OW flights in their program?
patrickk
patrickk
Qantas
Member since 19 Apr 2012
Total posts 737
The issue with Finnair is even if they respond to the status challenge and you get gold then there is the issue of the 4 Finnair qualifying flights per year. Possible if you go to Europe once a year via Helsinki. Also depending on the agreement the earn rate on QF domestic may not be great but if you generally fly VA not an issue
Ourmanin
Ourmanin
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
Member since 08 Jun 2018
Total posts 144
The qualifying flight point is a good one. I assume from your question / post that your aim is to achieve one word status. You don't say what your usual flying pattern is (domestic v International), clearly if Helsinki is a regular destination for you then that's no issue. If not then you may find it difficult (or expensive) to easily requalify due to the limited number of routes. If you do a fair amount of flying to Europe from Australia then I would suggest looking closely at Qatar, fairly easy to gain (and retain) status and a superb route network. There are rumours that they may leave OW and if they do that maybe less than ideal for Australian based flyers, given they would be unlikely to maintain any reciprocal relationships with Qantas due to the Qantas / Emirates tie in, but if you're a Virgin flyer then that's possibly not a concern for you.
The QFF route would probably make re-qualifying easier due to the ability to take flights domestically in need and you still have excellent long haul options on OW from Australia (Qatar and Cathay)
RR
RR
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 17 Aug 2012
Total posts 45
xtfer
xtfer
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
Member since 14 Mar 2017
Total posts 159
I'd go with Qantas (and am doing the same route in two weeks). There's simply no advantage to choosing Finnair in this situation.
P
P
Member since 17 Jan 2018
Total posts 20
I took Finnair recently and was less than impressed especially with the online booking experience and customer service response. For some reason I did not get FF points or status credits for the HEL LHR sector in business class. Despite being a Q platinum Finnair had zero interest in resolving. As far as the in-flight experience goes the food is average, the entertainment selection poor (dont expect any cutting edge Scandinavian TV series or movies) and the wine awful! Qantas or CX far superior across the board.