Oneworld’s Finnair is currently offering some very competitive Business Class airfares from Australia to Europe, with flights from $5,248 return.
By booking during the current Qantas double status credits offer, you can even earn up to 1,120 Qantas status credits for a round-trip Business class booking from Australia to Europe – and at a cost of less than $6,000!
As Finnair does not fly to Australia, these fares allow you to travel with a Oneworld partner airline – Qantas, Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlines – between Australia and Asia. You’ll then connect onwards to Europe with Finnair, flying via Helsinki.
A range of European destinations are on sale, including London, Berlin, Stockholm, Tallinn, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Manchester. Sale fares are also available in Economy class. A full list of destinations currently on sale is available on the Finnair website.
As an example, you can fly with Qantas & Finnair from Melbourne to Stockholm for $5,273 return. This booking would normally earn 520 Qantas status credits, but with Double Status Credits on Qantas-operated flights, this increases to 760 status credits.
With this fare, up to 2 free stopovers are permitted in both directions. You can travel any time before 1 June 2020, or after 19 October 2020. You must take the first flight on the itinerary by 30 November 2020, and this sale ends on 6 March 2020.
When flying with Qantas between Australia and Singapore on an Airbus A330, Boeing 787 or a refurbished Qantas A380, you’ll fly in the Qantas Business Suites…
…and from Singapore to Helsinki, you’ll fly in Finnair’s modern A350 Business class, featuring lie-flat beds and direct aisle access for every passenger.
On your connecting flight between Helsinki and your final destination in Europe, you’ll most likely be flying in Finnair’s intra-Europe Business class product.
You can take advantage of the Finnair Business Class sale by booking on the Finnair website or with a travel agent.
How to maximise the Qantas double status credits offer
If you’ve registered for the current Qantas double status credits offer, and book & travel during the eligible promotional period, you can earn double status credits for any Qantas flights taken! However, only flights that are operated and marketed by Qantas will earn double status credits. This means you’ll need to book the “QF” flight number for any flights operated by Qantas, and not an “AY” codeshare. The Finnair-operated flights will earn status credits at the normal rate.
If you want to really maximise your status credits, you can even include domestic Qantas flight connections within Australia as part of the ticket. For example, you could fly from Brisbane to Reykjavik, Iceland – via Melbourne, Singapore and Helsinki – for $5,980 return in Business class:
The above itinerary would earn a whopping 1,120 Qantas status credits with double status credits. That’s almost enough to reach Qantas Frequent Flyer Platinum status with a single trip to Europe!
Here’s a breakdown of the one-way status credit earn for this itinerary:
- Brisbane-Melbourne in Qantas Business class earns 60 status credits (120 status credits with Double Status Credits)
- Melbourne-Singapore in Qantas Business class earns 120 status credits (240 status credits with Double Status Credits)
- Singapore-Helsinki in Finnair Business class earns 120 status credits
- Helsinki-Reykjavik in Finnair Business class earns 80 status credits
In total, this means you’d earn 560 status credits in each direction by booking with double Qantas status credits. Note that the Qantas double status credits promotion ends on 25 February 2020.
If i booked the flights on FIN airlines welbsite, the flights with QF will be shown FY flight numbers automaticlly. How to book with QF # flights? please advice, thank you.
It is possible to book the QF flight number on the Finnair website. If a QF code is available, it should be shown automatically.
Could you please advice how to book AKL-VIE (8May), BUD-HKG (20 May)with QF and AY numbers to max. this double status benifit? thank you so much for your time.
All I ever get is an AY codeshare number – which travel agent do you recommend I use then
If you’re having trouble booking on the Finnair website, you could get in touch with Alan from Netwave Travel, who joined me on Saturday’s episode of the AFF podcast. His contact details are in the episode notes for the podcast – https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/air030/ – or you can start a conversation with “madrooster” on The Australian Frequent Flyer forum.
I used [email protected]. Very efficiently booked. (PER-MEL-SIN-HEL-LHR-HEL-SIN-PER-MEL). PER-MEL-SIN and SIN-PER-MEL booked on QF flight numbers
This is fake. It HAS to be QF metal. I’ve clarified it with Qantas twice now.
This is not fake. As it says in the article, indeed you only earn Double Status Credits for the flights operated by Qantas. You can use Qantas on the sectors between Australia and Asia, and Finnair (which earns status credits at the normal rate) between Asia and Europe.
How about starting from Europe and flying return to Melbourne
Are double credits available?
Is there a time restriction on these flights?
This particular offer is only available from Australia, but there are regularly other deals that are available starting in Europe. The fare rules and Double Status Credits are both mentioned within the article.
Thank you!
Last year they brought out the sale to include december departures, I think the sale was in march/april, do you think they will bring that sale out again?
Your guess is as good as mine, but I would say there is a good chance of more sale fares being released later in the year given the current situation.
If you want to travel to Europe in December, keep in mind that only the first flight needs to be taken by 30 November 2020. You are allowed free stopovers. So, for example, you could fly Melbourne-Sydney in November, stopover in Sydney for several weeks, then fly from Sydney to Europe in December.