Points Redemption Guide & Review

Sometimes, airlines can offer attractive incentives to earn and accumulate loyalty points. Sometimes, the dark side of the loyalty world is that airlines make it rather challenging to redeem those points. Whether it’s blackout periods or high taxes and fees, the promise of “free flights” sometimes doesn’t materialize in the way many travelers might expect. So, what is the process like with airBaltic?

Points accumulated through “Planies”

In October 2022, airBaltic announced that it would be joining the NFT (non-fungible token) loyalty world by introducing its “Planies” collection. Holders of these digital collectibles would earn 20 airBaltic Club points per day. This would allow travelers to eventually redeem their points for flights, baggage allowances, upgrades, and more. As a resident of Vilnius, Lithuania, and someone more likely to fly with airBaltic, I decided to get a few Planies and collect airBaltic Club points.

A few months have passed, and I’ve collected a few dozen points per day. Having had less than positive experiences with other airlines in redeeming my loyalty points or miles, I was certainly going into this process with a bit of weariness. Would my investment in Planies be worth it? There was only one way to find out.

Points are not spent on flights directly

The first thing I learned was that points are not spent on flights directly. My previous loyalty experiences with programs like British Airways’ Executive Club and Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue had me expecting a portal where I could enter my desired itinerary and see the cost of each flight in terms of points (or “miles”). This was not the case with airBaltic.

airBaltic’s main method of redeeming points for flights comes in the form of “e-vouchers.” The airline separates its destinations into regions. The base region is Region 1. This consists of Riga, Palanga, Tallinn, Vilnius, Tampere, Turku and Helsinki. The further away you are from any of these destinations, the more points you’ll need. Thus, a flight from Riga to London would require an e-voucher for Region 4, although a flight within the Baltics (like Vilnius to Tallinn) is within Region 1. Going with the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, the map below explains it all:

Photo: airBaltic

An economy class e-voucher valid for a flight from one of its bases in Region 1 will cost the following:

• Region 1: 4,500 points
• Region 2: 5,500 points
• Region 3: 7,500 points
• Region 4: 12,000 points
• Region 5: 17,500 points

This is the current standard price for vouchers, but the airline will have sale offers from time to time. For my points redemption, my wife and I wanted to fly from Vilnius, Lithuania, to Tallinn, Estonia. As it’s within Region 1, this would cost 4,500 points per person per one-way flight. I didn’t have enough to cover a full round-trip for both of us, so I covered us for the outbound journey.

Photo: airBaltic

Photo: airBaltic

So again, this is the first quirk I discovered about airBaltic’s loyalty program. Redeeming points is slightly less direct, as a voucher must be purchased. Upon purchase, the voucher is emailed almost instantly and provides a code you can enter during the booking process.

One thing you should know about this process is that SMS confirmation is required as an added security measure. Make sure your phone is nearby!

Photo: airBaltic

Redeeming vouchers wasn’t as smooth as I’d like it to be…

With vouchers and their redemption codes sent to my email address, I was ready for the next step in the process.

Perhaps through years of online shopping, I’ve been conditioned to enter the voucher code at the end of the process after everything has been selected. So, my first attempt had me at the ‘checkout’ page surprised that my codes weren’t working in the “Gift card code” field. As you can see in the screen captures embedded below, the airline explains that discount or prepaid e-voucher codes are entered at the first step of the booking process.

While this is a little bit of a complaint, I have to take ownership of the fact that I failed to read everything carefully! Going back to the beginning, it is indeed evident that there is a small line of text to click on if you have a discount code.

The other issue I encountered was that it doesn’t appear that vouchers can be used together in a single booking. As a result, each code had to be used as its own booking/flight reservation. While not a “dealbreaker” by any means, it certainly complicates the travel reservation process.

Photo: airBaltic

Redeeming vouchers for yourself on a round-trip itinerary will then result in two booking codes. Redeeming vouchers for two travelers on a round-trip flight means four different reservation codes. Regarding my recent trip with my wife, we had three reservations: One for each of us on the flight out and one for both of us on the flight back. This is because the flight back was paid in cash as normal.

Taxes and fees aren’t included

As we’ve come to expect from most airlines and their loyalty programs, a “free” flight is rarely ever a free flight. Taxes and fees are not covered by points. These are costs that can sometimes be more than what is listed as the actual airfare.

In my case, each one-way flight from Vilnius to Tallinn was priced at a little more than €100. Redeeming our Region 1 e-vouchers, I paid €10.58 in taxes plus a €0.41 “ticketing service” fee. Considering what I would have had to pay without the vouchers, things didn’t seem too bad!

At the same time, it’s worth noting that the value of the vouchers will depend on when you’re booking your flights. A last-minute booking would cost as much as €140 each way, while it’s as low as €79 when reserved a few months in advance.

Conclusion: Mostly good

This first attempt at redeeming points was a little rocky, but I ultimately redeemed 9,000 points for €200 worth of flights. This came at a cost of about €22 in taxes and fees.

What hurt just a little bit was what happened just after I booked our flights. I checked the airBaltic Club e-voucher page for sale vouchers. For example, while an e-voucher for a flight from Riga to Vilnius is normally priced at 4,500 points, I can see at the moment that there’s a sale for 2,500 points. The catch is that booking must take place between October 1st, 2023, and November 11th, 2023, for travel between November 1st, 2023, and February 29th, 2024.

At the time of redeeming points with my laptop, I was quite sure that there weren’t any sales for flights between Vilnius and Tallinn. However, a little later, I was looking at the airBaltic Club app on my phone and then noticed that there was actually a sale for vouchers for flights between Vilnius and Tallinn for 2,500 points per one-way flight. Either this sale didn’t display when I was first looking to redeem my points, or I just wasn’t looking carefully enough.

All in all, I’m satisfied with the value of points. Again, you’ll get more value from those points if you’re flying last minute and regular airfares are much higher. Now that I know what to look out for, I’m sure that subsequent points redemptions will be a lot smoother. Hopefully, this guide makes it smoother for you as well!

If you’re an airBaltic Club member, do you have any notable experiences to share? Let us know by leaving a comment!