Price increase for British Airways Reward Flight Saver flights

I am a big fan of Reward Flight Saver flights.  These allow you to redeem Avios points for BA or Iberia flights within Europe for a modest level of taxes and charges instead of the £100+ charged on a revenue ticket.

The following announcement has appeared on avios.com:

Reward Flight Saver gives you a great deal on British Airways and Iberia flights to Europe and further. It’s a fee you pay and we cover all your taxes, fees and surcharges.

If you book before 8 October 2012, the fee is £27 in Economy Class and £34 in Business Class. After this date, our prices are rising by a small amount to £30 in Economy and £40 in Business.

This increase reflects rises in air passenger duty (APD) – the government’s flight tax – and rises in fuel prices. We’ve kept the increase as small as possible, so we can continue to offer you big savings on flights to Zones 1-3. On average, £30 Reward Flight Saver will save you more money than before.

This is obviously not great news. The statement that this “will save you more money than before” is also spurious, since it assumes that BA will raise flight prices by the same as the increase in APD. In reality, the short haul market is so competitive that I doubt they can do this.

A £3 or £6 rise is clearly not the end of the world, but it is disappointing nonetheless.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.