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How to save £50 tax on Avios flights to Cape Town

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There is a little-known arbitrage you can use to save £50 of tax when booking British Airways Avios redemption flights to Cape Town.

Whilst Cape Town does have a direct BA service, it is often tricky to find Avios reward seats.  Most people end up travelling via Johannesburg and changing to a Comair connection.

Comair is a BA franchise and its planes have the usual British Airways livery.

This is how it works:

If you book London to Cape Town via a connection in Jo’burg, the cost (economy return) is 45,500 Avios off-peak plus £433 tax

However ….

If you book London to Jo’burg on one ticket and Jo’burg to Cape Town on a separate ticket, the individual costs are 32,500 plus £328 for the long-haul, off-peak, and 13,000 Avios plus £56 for the connection. 

That is a saving of £49.

There is a small trade off, of course.  As you will be on separate tickets, Comair and BA are not technically liable to look after you if you miss one flight because the other is delayed. 

In reality, I would not be at all worried about this as Comair and BA effectively operate as one airline and will ensure you are OK.  It is also likely that you would get your baggage checked through at Heathrow and at Cape Town.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2025)

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

Get 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 Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express Credit Card

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 Credit Card

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

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 on the FREE standard card and 1 Avios per £1 on the Pro card. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

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.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

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 (17)

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

  • Gilly says:
    19 Feb19 February 04:33

    Don’t forget – you have to claim your bag at JNB even if it’s tagged through to CPT and clear customs at JNB.

    • Aeronaut says:
      19 Feb19 February 05:53

      You might have to claim your bag at JNB but best not to assume you’ll also claim all the items that were hitherto therein…

  • Linda says:
    19 Feb19 February 05:31

    Currently in South Africa using a 241 and Avios for LBA/LHR/JNB then a paid Comair flight to Cape Town.
    Just to clarify you have to collect checked bags on arrival at JNB then recheck them for the domestic flight.
    Having spent some time in Camps Bay and the Winelands we set off on the Garden Route today flying back PLZ/JNB/LHR/LBA.
    A word of advice for anyone collecting a car from Avis on Strand Street in Cape Town – allocate one and a half hours.
    Cheers from sunny Stellenbosch.

    • Kinkell says:
      19 Feb19 February 10:35

      You must have been unlucky! We were a lot quicker than that. I love SA, and been twice courtesy of Amex 241. Gofor a wine tour……but I’m sure you’ll have that ticked off!

  • Hayley says:
    19 Feb19 February 06:09

    You definitely have to reclaim bags at JNB. They appear to be getting the ‘light fingers’ problem under control at that airport but there are now ridiculous regulations in place regarding the weight (circa 7kg) of hand luggage on domestic flights, which have been intiroduced by the SA authorities. You are only likely to be asked about the weight of your hand luggage at check-in if it looks overly large but they can ask you to remove items because the airline could be fined. They never query the weight at the Comair gate however so perhaps a little stealth is called for. Also the SLOW lounge in the domestic terminal at JNB has an impressive food spread and is worth a visit before your flight.

  • C Y S Yuen says:
    19 Feb19 February 07:28

    This money saving techinque applies to HKG-LHR-DOMESTIC as well. Of booked together you pay £70 and 19500 Avios off peak but if booked seperately it will cost 19500+4000 Avios and £10.60 + £17.50 Tax.

    To interline baggage just tell the agent the onward flight number.

    • Genghis says:
      19 Feb19 February 07:52

      Good call. Using avios at 1.17ppa is decent value

      • Colin MacKinnon says:
        19 Feb19 February 08:52

        Yeah. That’s why I hate the “free domestic connection with Avios on longhaul” stuff.

        It’s not!

      • C Y S Yuen says:
        19 Feb19 February 18:21

        As my flight was last minute ajd one way only it costs around £750 for HKG-LHR and around £120 LHR-EDI so if you do the maths it was of extremely good value.

    • John says:
      19 Feb19 February 09:15

      If you book early enough it may be cheaper to just pay for the domestic.

  • BrianDT says:
    19 Feb19 February 07:54

    So annoying that Cape Town has always been an expensive run, and as for getting redemptions. ……..

  • Pol says:
    19 Feb19 February 08:24

    If only I could find 2 reward seats to jo’burg to do this.

    • Rob says:
      19 Feb19 February 08:36

      Remember Iberia is launching Jo’burg soon

      • Pol says:
        19 Feb19 February 09:00

        Want to use a 2-4-1 though. To make it even tougher I work as a TA in a primary school so will forever be confined to school holidays, even though my kids are now 23 and 18.

      • barry cutters says:
        19 Feb19 February 12:03

        Economy on that route is cheap if buying a cash ticket. I paid £350 for November and will get £100 worth of avios back.

        Good times also as the midnight departure means you can catch a flight after work on a Friday . (make sure to go Iberia/Ba incase delays on connecting flight)

        • James says:
          20 Feb20 February 12:50

          Having a tough time getting a 2017 flight back from JNB booked with Iberia Plus.

          First there was an issue where flights from JNB weren’t bookable due to a technical problem for a few weeks. Now they seem to have fixed that but they haven’t got the 2017 peak calendar put on yet so all pricing as peak.

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

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