Include Europe on your Asia trip, or Asia on your Europe trip, and pay less than you ever thought possible.
Whether you’re an American AAdvantage elite looking to score a ton of cheap status credit, an opportunist looking for a better fare, or an adventurous type who sees a city like Helsinki and thinks it’d be interesting to visit (or anywhere else in the area), then we’ve got something that might turn your world on its head.
Literally.
A to B? It’s All How You Look at It.
When you picture our planet in your mind’s eye, usually it’s with the north pole at the top and south pole at the bottom, right? Well, it’s strange that we think of the earth in this way, because we don’t think of a basketball as having an up or down. It’s just round.
And I think this mind’s-eye view of the world makes us a little blind to actual distances.
For example, we think of Europe as being “to the right” of the U.S., and Asia “to the left.” But that’s not exactly right. Asia is more “over the top,” i.e., it’s not as far as we think.
So let’s turn the world around and view it from above the north pole, like this.
Suddenly it looks like another planet. But enough upside down geography — let’s talk about great flight opportunities to Asia.
Asia via Europe?! It’s All How You Look at It.
Fares to Asia right now are all over the place and they can be especially expensive in Business Class. They mostly range between $6,000 to $8,000+ if you fly nonstop or in a westerly direction.
But here’s the thing.
On your return, if you add a stop in Europe (in this case Helsinki, which is perhaps the last place on earth you’d think to connect to Asia), you can save up to 50% on your fare, and you’ll get a stop in Europe for free.
A crazy long way? Actually, it’s not as far as you might think. Let’s look at that map again, this time with the applicable cities added. You’re not flying one way or the other, you’re creating a top-of-the-world triangle.
Of course, it’s still farther than flying from Los Angeles to Hong Kong direct, but the price offsets a lot of that pain, and you’re flying in Business Class comfort. Oh, AND AAdvantage elites are going to reap the miles like it’s nobody’s business.
Let’s check out the numbers for a moment.
- The Los Angeles-Helsinki-Hong Kong-Helsinki-Los Angeles fare is $3,106 on Finnair.
The next best Los Angeles-Hong Kong fare is $5,884 on Cathay.
The chart below shows return flights on Finnair from Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York to Helsinki, as well as the prices when you add an Asian “stopover.” In most cases, you save money to add on the Asian city.
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Stopover Direction Matters
The New York-Helsinki-Hong Kong-Helsinki-New York fare is $3,106. That’s including the stopover in Helsinki on the return. If you stopover in Helsinki on the outbound, the fare jumps to $4,361. The chart below shows prices for outbound stopovers to and from various cities.
The deal is still good, but not quite as good as stopping over on inbound flights.
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What a Difference a Day Makes
The pre-baked trip links take you to an itinerary. As with any airline, fares tend to go up and go down. If you don’t see a great price try different dates. Los Angeles-Helsinki-Osaka-Helsinki-Los Angeles Returning on July 20 is $3,197, returning on July 22 and the price jumps to $4,397.
Helsinki Elevator Pitch
Finland’s capital city sits on the nation’s southern coast right on the Gulf of Finland. It’s where Scandinavian urban cool meets fresh air and gorgeous waterside living.
Water makes Helsinki, whether you’re taking a shoreside bike ride to visit Sibelius Monument, Finlandia Hall, Market Square, and Sky Wheel, or taking a tourist spin out on a ferry. You can explore beautiful nearby islands such as Lonna and Vallisaari, or the Suomenlinna maritime fortress, a UNESCO World Heritage Site built on eight islands.
There’s plenty to taste in Helsinki’s thriving street food scene, or if you’re feeling like something more refined, there are six Michelin-starred restaurants like Olo, Grön, Demo, and Ora.
If you need a mid-afternoon pick-me-up, there are great cafes (as you’d expect from the world’s biggest coffee drinkers).
Helsinki offers wonderful cultural opportunities at HAM, the Helsinki Art Museum, and the Design Museum. These are a great way to understand the country that prides itself on contemporary design.
During your Helsinki stopover, don’t miss the Rock Church – Temppeliaukio Church – quarried out of natural bedrock.
You can also explore beyond Helsinki. Beautiful St. Petersburg is just an hour’s flight away (4.5 hours by train), and Stockholm is about an hour and 20 minutes. Both cities are easily reachable by ferry as well.
An Elite Mile Bonanza
One of the benefits of this strategy for elites is that you earn a lot of miles for a relatively cheap price. On the Los Angeles – Helsinki – Hong Kong – Helsinki – Los Angeles trip mentioned above, the miles earned are easily valued at $523 with the American Airlines mileage program, bringing the trip down to $2,583. Here’s some quick math: earned miles on Finnair are 125% for an AA mileage member, so the math is 20,920 flight miles — which become 26,160, thanks to the 125% — at 2 cents per mile that equals $523. If you are not elite and want to earn Finnair miles it is 20,920.
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