Finnair upgrade single sector with Avios

[Dave]

I’m looking at flying Edinburgh to Chiang Mai (via Bangkok) with Finnair in economy. There are rewards seats in business class available Helsinki to Bangkok. Can you upgrade just one part of the booking to business with Finnair, can this be done online? Thanks

[Travel Strong]

Not a direct answer but:
Have you looked at splitting the booking?

I might be wrong here (only did this myself last week for the first time) but booking the HEL-BKK seperately reduced my taxes+fees to £61.

I then booked my UK to HEL flight seperately (also on avios) and scheduled it in to HEL the night before the BKK flight to make sure I’d have minimal connection/baggage transfer risks with having two different bookings.

[Colin MacKinnon]

If all on one ticket, pretty sure you’ll be charged UK APD at the business rate, even though the departing UK leg is in economy.

We have booked Finnair business HEL-TYO for May next year. EDI-HEL is a separate booking – the afternoon flight had a very short (50 min IIRC) connection, the c8am EDI-HEL meant a long wait in Helsinki, but maybe not enough time to go into town and see the sights.

So we booked economy EDI-HEL on the c08:00 flight and are going to stay overnight before the TYO flght at c18:00. The saving in UK APD will pay for the hotel. And we are quite happy to go without a lounge at 06:30!

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Colin MacKinnon wrote:

If all on one ticket, pretty sure you’ll be charged UK APD at the business rate, even though the departing UK leg is in economy.

That’s absolutely correct Colin.

Unless the HEL-BKK leg is more than 24 hours after the economy leg then then the standard (the higher £££) rate will apply to the entire journey.

[Jon]

Not sure about upgrading with Avios, but Finnair used to be (and hopefully still are) excellent at allowing you to upgrade individual sectors for cash. I did it a few years ago (online) and if memory serves, I paid around £450 to upgrade HEL-BKK and £200 for BKK-HEL. If I remember correctly the option became available almost immediately after booking in my case, but I think it’s usually one of those things you have to check for periodically – not guaranteed to be available. But I imagine if you’re seeing reward seats available, then cash (and maybe Avios) upgrades might well be possible. Do let us know how it goes – useful to know!

[Dave]

Thanks all.

Will look into separate flight to Helsinki the day before and book avios from there. Be nice to have a day in Helsinki too as never been. Cash upgrade looks interesting too so will have a think about that.

[Dave]

In the end booked Edinburgh to Helsinki, Helsinki to Bangkok separately. Overnight in Helsinki. Not been to Helsinki before so will be nice to spend the day there. Will probably book the Hilton at the airport.

Back Phuket to Edinburgh on one booking but an overnight stopover in Helsinki.

[Dave]

All avios flights

[Aston100]

Supposedly Finnair check your luggage all the way through, even if your UK to Finland flight is on a separate ticket to your longhaul out of Helsinki.