Booking a BUD-HEL Finnair flight using Avios

Question

I have some frequent-flyer points (Avios) in my Iberia.com account, but I am having difficult time spending them. I want to fly a nonstop return flight Budapest-Helsinki AY1252 with return AY1255 flight, both Finnair which is a oneworld member, so should be able to spend my Avios on it.

The calculator at https://www.britishairways.com/travel/avios-calculator/public/en_gb shows I should be able to book this flight with Airline Partners: Avios + Money: 7500 Avios + €63.99 (one-way).

But if I search BUD-HEL either on https://www.britishairways.com/ or https://www.iberia.com/ only flights with a connection via London appear; the direct BUD-HEL flights with Finnair don't appear. That's both if I search for flights to be paid with cash, and award flights for Avios.

On Finnair.com I can't pay for the flight with Avios.

Any way I can spend Avios on this flight, and if not, why not?

Answer 1

The British Airways site is not always good at showing award availability for OneWorld partners (non-BA flights). You should use another site (I like the American Airlines website, and other people have had success with Aeroplan as well) to search for award availability. If it shows on the partner website, then call British Airways and book the award flight over the phone.