This morning I received the following SMS from Finnair Plus:
Usually this is a sign of the upcoming flight's economy class being full and Finnair would like to move some people to business class.
One could think this is a nice gesture from Finnair, at least I did the first time I received the SMS. I thought it was flattering to receive a personal message from Finnair, proposing an upgrade, but somehow I could smell a rat here. Is this really a "Win-Win" situation for both carrier and the frequent flyer?
Let's examine the proposal a little closer. For a flight time of 50 minutes and 398 km I would be charged 7000 points. First of all 7000 points means a discount of 500 points as the normal upgrade charge is 7500 points. But is the offer still worth it? Let us put it into a bigger context and do some benchmarking.
As you can see, the upgrade charge per km is approx 3 times higher than an upgrade charge to New York. In comparison with Lisbon the upgrade charge per km is 6 times higher! Why would I accept a deal like this? It's definitely not a "win-win" proposal. The big winner in this case is Finnair, because if someone accepts this deal Finnair gets to deduct some points from a frequent flyer instead of upgrading someone for no charge at all.
Dear Finnair Plus, when proposing deals like this in the future, make them a win-win proposal. Now I just feel insulted!
