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Qatar aircraft resume from Sweden and Denmark
I know that a number of TLFL readers were disappointed when they had booked to fly from Helsinki, Copenhagen and Stockholm with Qatar Airways only to find out they were being operated by Finnair. This happened a few years ago due to the shortage of aircraft in part caused by the A350 paint issues. I reported on this during my interview Qatar’s COO last year at Farnborough Air show. These airports, along with Oslo, can often provide a great value way to fly Qatar even when factoring the positioning flights’ costs. Although many readers may be less worried about flying oneworld airlines, in my opinion, Qatar Airways still has one of the best business class products (unless you get the awful old 2-2-2 seats). I recently had lobster twice in one day with Qatar on my business class flights.
The good news is that Qatar have been true to their word and will now resume operating their own flights from both Copenhagen and Stockholm. Finnair’s last operating day from Copenhagen and Stockholm was 14 January and 15 January from Doha.
Finnair will keep its presence on those routes by code-sharing on all of Qatar Airways flights, and Qatar Airways will be operating a total of 18 weekly rotations between Doha, Copenhagen, and Stockholm with Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
This now only leaves the Helsinki-Doha flights operated by Finnair which their COO indicated would be likely to continue for a while.
BA leases propeller aircraft to operate the Gatwick-Glasgow route
If you were considering booking a flight to Glasgow from Gatwick this summer, you may want to think again. British Airways is still suffering from aircraft shortages and has leased an ATR-72 to operate the service. The aircraft is from Emerald Airlines, which currently operates some of Aer Lingus’ regional routes. The aircraft swap happens from Sunday 30 March until Saturday 25 October 2025.
The aircraft has seats in a 2-2 configuration. The main downside is the fact that it is noisy, and the flight also takes substantially longer than a jet aircraft. Currently, the timetable is showing the flight taking over two hours versus the 90 minutes it would take on a jet aircraft. There is also no Club Europe service on these flights. I’m guessing because the galley is not capable of handling the food. Finally, the overhead bins on these smaller aircraft have much less room, so you may find your carry-on won’t fit, and it may have to go in the hold. I would expect a lot more policing of luggage sizes on these flights.
On the plus side, if you are worried about the planet, they are very efficient aircraft compared to a jet, emitting up to 40% less CO2! You also get all the same perks as flying BA, although it remains to be seen if they do anything about the hand luggage allowances for this aircraft type.
Easyjet is available as an alternative with a jet aircraft on the same route.
Flying Blue bonus and other ways to “buy” miles
If you were tempted by the recent Flying Blue status match, you may want to buy a few miles to start yourself off. Flying Blue has a decent promotion with up to 80% extra miles between 17 February and 9 March 2025. The promotion is targeted, and I only received an offer for a 70% bonus by email. If you log into your Flying Blue account, you will see what your offer is.
If you have no status in the Flying Blue program, you are limited to purchasing a maximum of 100,000 Flying Blue miles per calendar year before any bonuses. If you have status, you can purchase an unlimited number of miles, though they may set limits on how many bonus miles can be earned during promotions. For example, it shows me a maximum purchase of 300,000 miles on the current promotion.
Air France uses dynamic pricing but does have saver awards, which make some redemptions good value. As an example, you could fly from Europe to the US East Coast for 120,000 miles return.
The bonus is stepped as follows:
- Buy 4000+ miles get a 60% bonus
- Buy 12,000+ miles get a 70% bonus
For example, if you were to buy 118,000 miles (almost enough for a transatlantic flight), it would cost you £1,471. This is not particularly good value for some East Coast destinations, as you can get flights in business class for not much more.
You can also boost your miles by up to six times. You can only boost Miles earned during the previous calendar month. On the Flying Blue website, you can select a multiplication factor (e.g., 2, 4, or 6) and multiply your previously earned Miles.
All the Miles earned through the following transactions are eligible:
Co-branded credit card expenses and bonuses
Retail & lifestyle earns – merchant partners
Shop for Miles
Flights
Converted Miles
Other travel activities: hotel stays, car rentals, etc.
There is also a brand new subscription service that allows you to buy up to 204,000 miles per year. The full details are yet to be released.
Find the page to buy your Flying Blue miles here.
8 comments
I have always enjoyed flying Finnair and like their unique Nordic style, and realise their Doha services were just a stopgap while Qatar sorted out their fleet issues. However, will this move return Finnair to a vulnerable position with too many aircraft and crew while there are still Russian airspace issues?
I agree, not sure why readers would be disappointed with flying Finnair instead of Qatar, and only for the first leg I believe. I mean if it were BA then I’d agree haha!
Finnair also have enough problems with cancelling flights and ongoing pilot disputes to affect their position with the closed Russian airspace.
I think because Qatar has a number of unique features such as the QSuite and the mezze etc that people look forward to. Absolutely nothing wrong with Finnair, I’m a big fan of them myself but it is a bit like booking Spain and then being told you are going to Portugal. Both great places but not the same!
It’s a good question but Finnair has proved its resilence in the past. Hopefully it sounds like the conflict in Ukraine may be getting closer to peace, so hopefully that will allow them to expand more into Asia again.
Hi Michelle
I have commented before about the pathetic connections between Gatwick and the main regional airports since Covid – I believe that this Glasgow route is the only one remaining. The new timetable is clearly worse as the longer flight time makes it even less useful in terms of the services with which it will connect on the outward journey. It’s clearly been designed for only for a small section of the market – mainly overnight flights from the Caribbean – because the return flight leaves at 11:10. And it’s priced for this as LGW/GLA sectors cost over £300 (economy only), but add only £70 each way as connecting flights.
A sad end to the jet services inherited from BUA/BCal (which I’m old enough to have used regularly when the alternative was a BEA Vanguard!) But another nail in the BA coffin for me. I’ve taken the status match from Flying Blue and expect to do much of my connection via AMS and CDG from now on.
The news about BA using Aer Lingus ATR on the Glasgow route was reported by other travel/points blogs at least 5 days ago.
And sometimes other travel blogs write about things many days after us. Some people only read one website so we try to cover everything of interest eventually. What is your point?
I flew Finnair on my return trip from Australia on the Doha – Stockholm leg and loved it. I preferred it to the Qatar A380 I’d just been on between Perth and Doha – which felt so open and non private. Plus two awful passengers drinking heavily and really drunk in the lounge, making a lot of noise so no-one could sleep. Interesting info for you: I have done comparisons on Finnair site and Qatar site for flights to Australia again this year, departing from Helsinki. Exactly the same flights, same plane, same route. Cost for 2 business class passengers was over £1000 less expensive on the Finnair website that Qatar’s website in the sale. I am looking to book the Finnair flight as I enjoyed it so much last year. I just wish there was a Q suite going to Perth instead of the A380.
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