How BA’s new Inverness route can save you £118 APD per long-haul redemption

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• Joe says:

  5 Nov5 November 14:34

  Often book redemptions starting on CDG or AMS. Worth the extra avios imo to save some taxes. Inverness is another good option.

• Kipto says:

  5 Nov5 November 14:35

  Jersey only connects to Gatwick though. It would take longer to get from Gatwick to Heathrow than Inverness to Heathrow.

  • Rob says:

    5 Nov5 November 14:58

    Exactly.

    It has been available via Flybe from Inverness for a while as well, but also hugely impractical for a same day connection.

• Michael says:

  5 Nov5 November 17:12

  Looks like BA hasn’t realised INV is part of the UK and is charging an extra 4000 avios for off-peak long haul economy redemptions to INV

• Dom says:

  5 Nov5 November 19:40

  Sorry for the rant, but APD has to be one of the most damaging taxes ever to be in place in the UK.
  1. A pwc report (albeit before changes) claimed that it harmed the UK economy by up to 0.5% of GDP and 60k jobs due to its burden on international business travel and working families.
  2. When a significant number of flyers look to add up to two legs on to their journey to places like inverness in order to save money, it has completely the opposite effect of what it was intended to do, cut emissions.

  It’s about time the Chancellor grew some balls and scrapped this bad tax forever.

  • harry says:

    5 Nov5 November 21:15

    No it’s not. It’s an easy way to raise taxes from people who can afford to pay. Same as fuel duty. Impossible to avoid paying it (unless you go via Inverness lol).

    Goose, feathers, pluck etc – remember?

    We are still in the austerity times when we need to pay down Labour debt.

  • Callum says:

    5 Nov5 November 22:35

    1. It can “claim” anything it wants. Have you actually read it? While I’m just a layman, I can’t say I find their model particularly convincing. Their main claim is cheaper airfares would mean businesses can send their staff abroad more often and therefore expand. As anyone who follows airfares knows, they fluctuate by significantly more than the cost of APD so I don’t buy that argument at all. The entire report is full of “we think it might do….” or “xxxxx might happen”. Obviously it’s not just pulled out of thin air, but when their predicted gains are so marginal I hardly think it’s significant. (They think the country will be better off by £0.25bn a year (you’re ignoring the lost revenue from scrapping the tax) – pocket change in the grand scheme of things)

    2. A significant number of flyers don’t do that. Not that I think it’s strictly to cut emissions as such (it’s nowhere near high enough to do that) – more to compensate the country for the damage caused by the emissions, which is significant and isn’t cheap to repair (hence the reluctance by the government in recent months to fund these projects).

    Why exactly does the Chancellor need to “grow some balls” to cut this tax? If anything it’s the exact opposite – people would like him more if he scrapped it. so it requires more nerve to keep it.

    • Erico1875 says:

      7 Nov7 November 03:15

      Environment saving is all pretty much a waste of time now 🙁
      Only EU take it seriously USA/China never did anyway..
      Now India is investing heavily in coal fired power stations to meet their energy needs.
      TheirEnergy Minister was on TV the other night basically sticking 2 fingers up to any hope of saving the planet,.

• Deenesh says:

  5 Nov5 November 21:41

  Am I missing something here? Home airport is KOI so INV is a great starting point for long haul redemptions. Having a play about with dates to JFK. 3/5/16 to 10/5/16. INV/LHR/JFK return in WTP is 60,000 + £273. EDI/LHR/JFK return in WTP is 52,000 + £367. Am I missing something really obvious here? Why are the Avios required higher from INV? Is this a glitch as the flight from INV is new? All flights are BA flight numbers and BA metal.

  • Rob says:

    5 Nov5 November 22:24

    Looks like a glitch.

• Sam wardill says:

  5 Nov5 November 22:45

  Business Traveller totally missed this angle when they reported the same story.

• Mark says:

  7 Nov7 November 06:12

  Scottish residents aged over 60 get free bus travel anywhere in Scotland. Seat reservations (guaranteeing a specific service are available at minimal cost).

  The intercity busses are now full of old people going on trips!

  • Kinkell says:

    7 Nov7 November 18:44

    Yeah! and I’m one if them! But I’m NOT old!

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