Buying Avios in Summer 2026: Why Finnair Is Your Only Logical Option

Summer 2026 is seeing intense competition for premium cabin availability. British Airways and Aer Lingus are aggressively rolling out “Avios-only” flights, which guarantee reward seats but demand massive, immediate points balances. If you are sitting on a depleted account right now, you probably need a top-up.

Most people instinctively head straight to the British Airways Executive Club portal to buy their points. That is a mistake. Finnair’s full integration into the Avios ecosystem is now mature, and they are actively undercutting BA’s own portal with discount-led promotions. If you need Avios right now, the Finnair Plus portal is the only place you should be spending your money. Let me walk you through exactly why.

The math behind the Finnair 40 percent discount

Finnair Plus is currently offering up to a 40% discount on Avios purchases when you buy 100,000 points or more. This completely changes the equation for speculative buying.

Buying 100,000 Avios at standard Finnair pricing costs €2,100. With the 40% discount applied, that price drops to €1,260. Converted at current June 2026 exchange rates of roughly €1 to £0.85, you are paying exactly £1,071.

Divide that out, and you are acquiring Avios at 1.07p each. I generally advise against buying points unless you have a specific redemption in mind, simply because airline devaluations can wipe out your value overnight. But when the acquisition cost drops near that 1p threshold, the math flips heavily in your favour. At 1.07p, you are buying points below the baseline value you can easily extract from them on long-haul premium redemptions.

You can purchase up to 200,000 Avios per calendar year through the Finnair portal. Just keep in mind that the highest 40% discount tier requires a minimum purchase of 100,000 Avios. Smaller purchases trigger smaller discounts.

Why a discount beats a British Airways bonus

A 50% bonus sounds mathematically superior to a 40% discount. It is not. Airlines rely on the psychological appeal of the word “bonus” to make you feel like you are getting free points, but a discount actually leaves more cash in your bank account.

Let us look at the historical benchmark for British Airways: a 50% bonus. If you buy 100,000 Avios via BA, you pay £1,755 and receive 150,000 Avios. That works out to 1.17p per Avios.

Finnair’s current discount is mathematically superior by exactly 0.10p per Avios. A bonus increases the denominator (the points you get), while a discount reduces the numerator (the cash you pay). Paying €1,260 for 100,000 Avios is objectively cheaper than paying £1,755 for 150,000 Avios. By using Finnair, you are saving £100 for every 100,000 Avios you buy compared to the standard BA promotion.

How to avoid the hidden foreign exchange fee

This is where I see readers trip up constantly. Finnair processes its Avios purchases in Euros. If you blindly use your everyday points-earning credit card, you will likely wipe out a significant chunk of the arbitrage you just gained.

If you use your British Airways American Express Premium Plus card to buy these points, Amex will hit you with a 2.99% non-sterling transaction fee. On a €1,260 purchase, that adds roughly £32 in hidden fees. While you will earn Avios on the purchase, the fee heavily outweighs the value of those earned points.

You must use a credit card with zero foreign exchange fees for this transaction. Cards like the Barclaycard Rewards Visa or a specialist travel debit card are the right tools here. Buy the points in Euros, let your zero-FX card handle the conversion at the Mastercard or Visa interbank rate, and keep your cost strictly at 1.07p per point.

Where to spend your newly purchased Avios

Having a cheap balance is useless if you cannot deploy it effectively. Fortunately, Summer 2026 has opened up two highly specific avenues where a cheap Avios top-up pays immediate dividends.

The new Aer Lingus Avios-only flights

Aer Lingus has just launched a dedicated Avios-only flight to New York. Unlike standard flights where you have to hunt for the elusive two business class seats released at midnight, every seat on these specific flights is available for points.

A business class return on this route requires roughly 160,000 Avios plus £280 in taxes and fees. If you were to buy all 160,000 Avios via the Finnair promotion at 1.07p, the points would cost you £1,712. Add the £280 in taxes, and you are flying flat-bed to New York for under £2,000 total. Compare that to the cash price of a transatlantic business class ticket this summer, which easily clears £3,500.

Stacking with the June Iberia sale

Iberia is currently running a 30% off reward flights promotion until 15 June 2026. This creates a rare opportunity to stack a cheap acquisition with a discounted redemption.

You can buy your Avios via Finnair at 1.07p, transfer them instantly to British Airways, and then move them over to Iberia Plus. Booking Madrid to South America or the US East Coast during a 30% off sale using points you bought at a 40% discount is the exact kind of outsized value we look for at Points Uncovered.

The Qatar Airways family booking problem

You might be wondering why I am not suggesting you move these cheap Avios to Qatar Airways Privilege Club to book Qsuites. As of this month, that strategy is temporarily broken.

Qatar Airways has quietly locked most users out of booking Avios flights for friends and family directly through their Privilege Club portal. If you move your points to Qatar intending to book a family holiday, you will likely hit a wall at the checkout screen. The safest holding pen for your Avios right now is British Airways Executive Club. Buy them on Finnair, move them to BA, and leave them there until you are ready to book.

Saving your Amex points for Accor

American Express Membership Rewards recently shook up their UK transfer partners. They dropped Etihad and added Accor. This fundamentally changes the math on whether you should transfer your Amex points to BA.

Accor points have a fixed revenue-based value when redeemed for hotel stays. Because Accor is now actively competing for your Membership Rewards balance, blindly sweeping your Amex points to British Airways carries a much higher opportunity cost. Buying Avios outright via Finnair for 1.07p allows you to preserve your Amex MR balance for high-value hotel redemptions where you cannot simply buy points cheaply.

My honest verdict on buying Avios right now

Honestly, I am not convinced the math works for most people who just want to hoard points. If you do not have a specific trip in mind, tying up over £1,000 in a depreciating digital currency is a poor financial decision, even at 1.07p.

However, if you are actively trying to secure seats on the new Aer Lingus Avios-only flights, or you want to exploit the Iberia 30% off sale before June 15, this is a no-brainer. You will not find a cheaper way to acquire Avios in bulk right now. The 0.10p difference between Finnair’s discount and BA’s historical bonus is real money, and bypassing the BA portal is the smartest move you can make this summer.

Quick reference: How to execute the Finnair strategy

• Log into your Finnair Plus account and navigate to the “Buy Avios” page.
• Select a minimum of 100,000 Avios to trigger the full 40% discount.
• Pay in Euros using a credit or debit card with zero foreign transaction fees.
• Log into your British Airways Executive Club account.
• Use the “Combine my Avios” tool to pull your new balance instantly from Finnair to BA at a 1:1 ratio.

If you want to dive deeper into maximizing your premium cabin redemptions this year, explore more guides on Points Uncovered.