Is BA changing Reward Flight Saver? Might be, might not be ….
Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission. See here for all partner links.
A reader dropped me a line last night regarding Reward Flight Saver. Her question was:
“Has the text describing RFS on ba.com changed?”
It currently says this on the booking page (click to expand):
and, if you click through for more details:
Now, this could just be ambigious wording, especially with the first image. Nowhere does it says “one way redemptions are no longer valid for Reward Flight Saver”. This does appear to be the implication of the text in the second image, however.
Don’t bother looking in the British Airways Executive Club terms and conditions because they are unchanged since January.
At present, RFS flights are still pricing up as they always did – ie £17.50 one way in Euro Traveller and £25 one way in Club Europe.
Regular HfP readers will know that, ever since BA dropped fuel surcharges on short haul flights, many European RFS redemptions are cheaper booked as 2 x one-way flights rather than a return. This is because a one-way from a European airport which doesn’t charge a departure tax will only have nominal fees, usually less than £17.50 and certainly less than £25.
A one-way from Luxembourg to Heathrow, for example, only has £3 of charges. In this scenario a Reward Flight Saver ticket defaults to the cheapest option so you only pay £3.
British Airways may have decided that it has had enough of people paying £20.50 instead of £35 for return flights to Luxembourg by booking it as 2 x one-ways.
There is another possible explanation.
One quirk of Reward Flight Saver is that you only pay the reduced taxes figure when you choose British Airways for all legs.
If you mix BA with another airline on the same ticket, you pay full taxes on the BA flight.
At present, this is only really a problem via ba.com on one route – London to Madrid. Booking BA one way and Iberia the other way triggers full taxes on the BA flight.
However, if we assume that Aer Lingus availability will soon be bookable online, as well as the fact that Royal Air Maroc is about to become an Avios partner, it will be cropping up as an issue more often.
The ba.com wording may just be an attempt to clarify the fact that you need to book both the outbound and return on British Airways, and not mix in Iberia, Aer Lingus or Royal Air Maroc, to get the discount on the BA flight.
For clarity, as I mentioned above, ba.com still shows the standard pricing for RFS tickets and nothing has changed.
How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (March 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 Mastercard
Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review
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 £12,000 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.
Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa
Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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.
SPECIAL OFFER: You receive a huge 120,000 Membership Rewards points if you apply for American Express Business Platinum by 9th April 2024. You receive 80,000 points for spending £12,000 within 90 days and a further 40,000 points if you retain the card for 14 months. Click here to apply.
SPECIAL OFFER: You receive 60,000 Membership Rewards points if you apply for American Express Business Gold by 9th April 2024. Remember that the card is FREE for the first year. You receive 40,000 points for spending £6,000 within 90 days and a further 20,000 points if you retain the card for 14 months. Click here to apply.
American Express Business Platinum
Crazy 120,000 points bonus (to 9th April) and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review
American Express Business Gold
Huge 60,000 points sign-up bonus (until 9th April) 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.
Comments (36)