Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

British Airways announced a new route to Inverness yesterday.  From 3rd May, BA will operate one flight a day from Heathrow to Inverness.

It will depart Heathrow at 9.55am, arriving at 11.30.  The return will depart at 12.10, arriving at Heathrow at 13.40.

You may not be interested in this.  You may be interested in the fact that this offers a clever way of avoiding Air Passenger Duty.

Inverness Airport

Air Passenger Duty is not levied on flights from Inverness or any airport further north.  Up until now, it was difficult to take advantage of this.  You would have needed to book a Flybe redemption from Inverness to an airport in the south and then (on the same ticket) book a long-haul flight from Heathrow or Gatwick.  This was messy.

You now have an interesting dilemma.  What would you do for £118?

£142 is now the maximum level of Air Passenger Duty in Club World or First.  If you fly from Heathrow, long haul, you will pay this.

If you start your journey in Inverness, you won’t.  You will, however, pay £24 in other charges so the saving is £118.

Domestic connections remain free on Avios redemptions.

Let’s imagine that you want to fly to New York return in World Traveller Plus.  The taxes and charges from Inverness are £273.  The taxes and charges if you start in Heathrow are £391.

A one-way ticket to Inverness is 4,000 or 4,500 Avios plus £17.50.

If you New York flight was, say, 6pm, you now have a choice.  You can redeem from London, pay £391 of taxes, and turn up at Heathrow in time for the 6pm departure.

Alternatively, you could arrive at Heathrow for 9.55am, fly to Inverness on an Avios redemption, fly back on the same plane to London and then fly on to New York at 6pm.  You will pay £273 of taxes (plus 4,000 Avios and £17.50 for the Inverness flight).

Is this worth it?  Well, it depends on the value of your time of course.  For novelty value, if I had nothing better to do that day, I may consider it.

If you live in Scotland, of course, this is an excellent result which suddenly makes your Avios redemptions far cheaper.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

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.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

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

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (78)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Liz says:
    5 Nov5 November 09:25

    We normally fly on the 7.05 am flight from Edinburgh to catch our connecting long haul flights to the USA – usually lunch time flights. As the Inverness flight down is 12.10, could you fly down and stay overnight in London and go the next day and still get that as an APD free flight and also a free connecting redemption flight? How will it work? We are in Dundee so normally have an hours drive to Edinburgh so maybe we could try Inverness which is a 3 hr drive! It’s a long slow road though – aren’t there plans to upgrade the A9 over the next 10 years?

    • Polly says:
      5 Nov5 November 10:02

      Yes Liz, you could def start in INV and connect next day, but your US departing flight would need to commence within 24 hours of your arrival time in LHR . So you might need to depart maybe one flight earlier.

      • oyster says:
        5 Nov5 November 10:08

        Yes, if the INV-LHR is scheduled to arrive at say 13:30 then you could get any connecting flight out of LON up to 13:29 the next day and avoid APD.

        On the return I think the rule is only 6hrs instead of 24, and only same day. So if you are scheduled to arrive back into LON at say 7am, then you pay no APD on your connecting flight if it is before 1pm.

        And this referes to scheduled arrival and departure times and not actual ones.

    • James67 says:
      5 Nov5 November 10:04

      Yes, so long as your connecting flight departs less than 24h after your INV flight arrives. We do this frequently on paid flights to/from EDI so we can visit friends, go to show or whatever. Remember though that if you book a redemption from INV and take advantage of a so in LHR that rxceeds 24h then you will need to pay APD.

  • Kinkell says:
    5 Nov5 November 09:34

    This is great news for us. We usually travel to ABZ or a EDI to connect, but need to make sure there are a couple of later flights available in case of delays, or stay o/n and continue next day.. Timings are not great, but it’s a start. When we had a link a number of years ago, you could get to london, do a days work and fly home at the end of the day. Let’s hope it’s here to stay.

  • Dom says:
    5 Nov5 November 09:37

    Whats so special about Inverness that they pay no APD?

    • Mark says:
      5 Nov5 November 09:47

      One of the many bribes given to Scotland to stay in the UK

      • James67 says:
        5 Nov5 November 09:55

        There are also airports in England that do not attract APD.

        • Rob says:
          5 Nov5 November 09:56

          Not sure there are airports, just routes, eg Newquay to Gatwick?

          • Alan says:
            5 Nov5 November 10:06

            The Flybe page seems to imply there are airports (as listed in my other comment below) and two routes:
            – London Stansted – Dundee
            – London Gatwick – Newquay

            The sooner they just scrap the whole stupid tax the better!

          • James67 says:
            5 Nov5 November 10:26

            Doubt they will ever scrap it unless the antiScots hysteria they stirred up in order to win the election in May bites back if APD is abolished in Scotland.

          • Callum says:
            5 Nov5 November 16:40

            What is it about politics that makes normally intelligent people spout utter nonsense? While I don’t doubt there were stray comments, no rational person could ever describe it as “anti Scots hysteria”…

            But no, I can’t see them ever scrapping it either. It is after all an environmental tax and has nothing whatsoever to do with how much someone may perceive the government to like certain regions!

      • mark2 says:
        5 Nov5 November 10:16

        surely APD only applies in UK so not Jersey/Guernsey

        • Alan says:
          5 Nov5 November 13:00

          Agreed but that was just how FlyBe phrased it and I couldn’t find many other good pages with information on this!

  • Al says:
    5 Nov5 November 10:04

    It seems to be coming out at 60,000 avios in WTP, whereas GLA/EDI are just 52,000. Is this a glitch, or are they charging more? JER is also a good starting point to avoid APD though seems to work out slightly more expensive than INV (assuming the avios are the same).

    • Deenesh says:
      5 Nov5 November 21:42

      Also wondered this when I was playing about with dates this morning.

  • Elena-MuslimTravelGirl says:
    5 Nov5 November 10:39

    Always wanted to visit Inverness, So this gives me a an even better excuse. 🙂 Plus from my local airport you can find some good flights under £30

    • James67 says:
      5 Nov5 November 12:10

      Welcom. Spring after clocks change or autumn before they go back are arguably the best times. Daylight hours are quite long and in spring trees are not yet in full bloom so don’t block views from roadside, while in autumn scenery is stunning in the changing colours.

  • nick says:
    5 Nov5 November 11:10

    I’ve got a lot of respect for anybody who goes to this trouble just to avoid some APD.

    • James67 says:
      5 Nov5 November 12:03

      Not so much worth it for solo traveller, debatable even for a couple but if getting to Inverness is not too challenging then definitely worth it for a family if money is bit tight.

  • Gabbai says:
    5 Nov5 November 12:30

    The greatest saving is in Club World or First. I image most people who have that much money or all those points value their time somewhat. The beauty of this is for taking a day or two in Inverness and the surrounding area which is very beautiful country. However the same can be said about Jersey where this “trick” has been available for some time.

  • Atif says:
    5 Nov5 November 12:37

    Am only 30 miles away from Inverness

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!