Flat Bed Business Class to Europe from 49K Points

Flat Bed Business Class to Europe for 63K Points

Fly Finnair Business Class to Europe from 49K points each way, with an AMEX 30% transfer bonus to British Airways Avios. You can remain in Finland and journey to Lapland to see the Northern Lights (your best chance of seeing them is on clear nights in Autumn, from September-November and early Spring, March until early April) or easily venture elsewhere in Europe (see below some of the cities Finnair flies to nonstop from Helsinki).

How to Book Finnair Business Class

We recommend signing up for a free Finnair account for two reasons: if you select Finland as your location, you can reserve two business class award seats for selected dates (partners only have access to one) and you'll also have access to more calendar dates, since Finnair's award calendar opens 359 days in advance, compared to 331 days in advance for American AAdvantage 330 days in advance for Alaska Mileage Plan. To get Avios into your Finnair account and benefit from the transfer bonus to British Airways, first transfer Membership Rewards points to British Airways with the 30% AMEX transfer bonus, ensuring that your name, address, and email address match exactly. When logged into British Airways Executive Club, select the “Combine my Avios” option and scroll down the page to select Finnair Plus, where you'll be prompted to log in.

Combine British Airways Avios with Finnair Plus

Don't book using British Airways Avios, because taxes are much higher than with Finnair.

Most of the award availability is on Finnair's routes from Chicago ORD, Dallas DFW, and New York JFK, although there are a few dates on Finnair's seasonal route between Seattle SEA and Helsinki:

ORD-HEL: mostly April-May 2026
HEL-ORD: a few August 2025 dates, mostly April-May 2026
DFW-HEL: August-November 2025, March-May 2026
HEL-DFW: August-November 2025, March-May 2026
JFK-HEL: a few April 2026 dates, mostly May 2026
HEL-JFK: September-November 2025, January-May 2026
SEA-HEL: a few May 2026 dates
HEL-SEA: May 2026

Finnair Business Class: Best Seats

If your aircraft is an A330, we recommend trying to secure one of the “throne” window seats that have additional space on each side: 2A, 4A, or 6A. If those aren't available, then we suggest the window seats that are closest to the window: 2L, 4L, or 6L. If it's important to sit together, then we suggest 3A/3C or 5A/5C, since that way one of you will have a window seat.

On Finnair's A350-900, with a 1-2-1 configuration and direct aisle access across all rows, all seats are the same, but we suggest avoiding the first and last rows of the main business class cabin (rows 1 and 8) and also row 9 if your A350 has a second smaller business class cabin, since these are closest to the lavatories and galleys. The A350 Business Class seat doesn't recline, but there is a flat bed created by raising panels that connect the seat to the ottoman.

Finnair Business Class, A350 — Screenshot

Nonstop Flights from Helsinki

Finnair serves many European destinations from Helsinki, including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Geneva, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, Prague, Reykjavik, Riga, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna, Zurich, among others.

Where to Stay

In Helsinki, we recommend Hotel Kamp, which we reserve for clients with Virtuoso benefits. Further afield, we recommend the Grand Hotel Kempinski in Riga, Nimb Hotel in Copenhagen, La Reserve Paris, the Park Hyatt Vienna, among many other European options.

Here's our Nimb Hotel Copenhagen video review: