British Airways adds £60 – £100+ to the taxes and charges on business class Avios redemptions

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British Airways has introduced further stealth price increases in the cost of Avios redemptions as it raises the ‘taxes and fees’ element on Club World seats.

The price increase is not standard across the board. The biggest jump I have found is £113 return, with other routes ‘only’ seeing an increase of £60.

Let’s take a look.

British Airways increases Avios taxes and charges

On Friday, Michele at Turning Left for Less flagged that the charges had increased by over £100 on transatlantic routes.

I thought it was worth a closer look, and with the help of some historical pricing data from readers in the forums I’ve managed to put together a more comprehensive picture of what is happening. The bad news is that the increased pricing seems to have occurred across BA’s network, and not just on transatlantic flights.

What is not entirely clear is why this has been done.

Heathrow has increased its passenger charges sharply, with Air Passenger Duty also increasing. British Airways is not pocketing the full amount of the increase in taxes and charges. It may be, for those routes where the increase is around £60, that BA is not taking any of the extra money.

This is not the case of transatlantic routes, however, where there is no justification for £100+ increases in taxes and charges.

How have BA Avios redemption prices changed in 2022?

Here are the taxes and fees charged by British Airways for a number of key routes.

In each case I have used pricing data from across 2021 – dates vary depending on what reader data we could source – and compared it to prices that ba.com is charging now for flights in January 2023.

Bangkok

I originally booked a redemption to Bangkok in February 2021 for travel this month and paid £598 in taxes and fees per person.

Checking the BA website again you’d now be charged £657, an increase of £59:

Dubai

Dubai has increased by £63, an increase of 11% year on year. Taxes and fees are now £605, up from £542 for an example we found in 2021.

Hong Kong

Flights to Hong Kong have increased by a similarly modest amount. Taxes and charges are now £653, an increase of £62 or just over 10% year on year.

Hong Kong is an unusual case. Unless you are using a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher, it is cheaper to book two one-way tickets than a return due to the extremely low taxes charged on the return sector.

Johannesburg

Johannesburg pricing is the outlier here, with prices hovering around their 2021 rates. If anything, it has decreased by a couple of pounds, with taxes and fees around £647 in 2021 versus £643 now. We can possibly peg this down to currency movements.

Bizarrely, Cape Town redemptions do appear to be higher. Reader George K booked a redemption to Cape Town with £599 charges in 2021 but the route now prices at £663, a similar increase to both Dubai and Hong Kong.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles is now at £789 return. We don’t have a 2021 number for comparison, but we know that Las Vegas is also now £789 versus £672 last year.

Maldives

The Maldives have also seen a £100+ price increase, with the cash element of a redemption totalling £616 in 2021 versus £728 now. That’s an increase of £112 or 18%.

New York

We often benchmark our pricing against New York given how hugely influential the route is for British Airways. This is another big riser, with an increase of £113, or 15%. Charges were £675 in 2021 but are now £788.

It is worth remembering that we have seen cash fares on TAP Portugal as low as £900 recently, and it is not unusual for BA Holidays to sell Club World flights plus three nights in a decent hotel for as low as £1,299 in a sale.

Rio de Janeiro

Let’s take a look at South American flights, with Rio as an example. If you want to enjoy the samba it looks like you’ll be paying £75 more than you would had you booked your flights in 2021, with taxes and charges now at £648 per person versus £573 in 2021. That’s a 13% increase.

San Francisco

Here’s another North American example. Interestingly, it looks like British Airways now charges a flat rate of £788 for all flights to the United States, regardless of whether they are East or West Coast.

You would have paid £676 in late 2021 (Rob paid £661 in early 2021) so that’s another 16% increase or £112 in total.

Singapore

Similar to Hong Kong, taxes and charges to Singapore have increased by a more moderate 10% or £64 in the past year. You are now charged £671:

What about flights starting outside the UK?

Historically, one of the easiest ways to avoid the sky-high British Airways taxes and charges is to start your journey outside the UK.

This is partly because there is no Air Passenger Duty if you transit through the UK rather than starting your journey here. In addition, Inverness and Jersey – the latter technically not in the UK of course – also price cheaper because no APD is due there.

I did a dummy booking to New York, originating in Inverness and connecting in London, and the taxes and charges came to £621. This is substantially less than the £788 charged if you start your journey in London, although of course you need to factor in the cost of getting to Inverness.

What conclusions can we draw from the data?

Having looked at a range of routes from BA’s long haul network there are some clear patterns emerging:

In all cases except one, British Airways is adding above-inflationary increases.
The biggest change to redemption pricing has happened on flights to the United States, with rates increasing by £100+ to all the cities we checked. You can now expect to pay c.15% more in taxes and charges than you would have done last year.
Asia is less severely impacted, with a change of ‘just’ 10% or so.

Conclusion

Are reward flights still good value? That depends on how you value your Avios. If you earn most of your Avios from business travel then you earn them at no cost to you. Of course, you still have the opportunity to cash out for 0.8p per point via Nectar so you need to be aware of the value you get.

It is different for anyone who earns the bulk of their points from credit card spend, for example. This is because you are effectively ‘buying’ the Avios by choosing to use an Avios-earning credit card rather than a cashback card.

It is, with a bit of ingenuity, still possible to find good Avios redemptions. By starting in a neighbouring country, for example, you can combine a long-haul trip with a visit to Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam or another city.

And, of course, you can still use your Avios for low-tax redemptions from Spain with Iberia.

Avios flights are flexible, of course. This has been less important during covid due to BA’s ‘Book With Confidence’ guarantee but I wouldn’t be surprised to see that pulled soon. Don’t underestimate the value of flexibility.

By increasing the taxes and charges on redemption flights BA makes redeeming your Avios on partner airlines more attractive, which tend to charge less. You can now book Avios redemptions on 25 global airlines including Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Japan Airlines, Qatar Airways and more. You can find out more about redeeming on partner airlines and the Avios partner reward chart here.

If you have any other good examples of price rises, please let us know in the comments.

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 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 £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

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

gordon says:

14 Feb14 February 06:09

Sean Doyle forgot to mention this stealth tax in his love letter. He would have known about this in advance too. 🙄
- Dr Dr says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 07:07
  
  Of course he would…. just like every other low ranking ceo since Lord (Colin) Marshall who was the last person imho to have any realisation of quality within the company. Since 2005 BA has slid downhill faster than a luge in the Winter olympics with neither staff nor “execs” knowing the difference between a bottle of champagne or a can of tizer…
- CarpalTravel says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 08:29
  
  Particularly ironic, given today’s date.
Voltron says:

14 Feb14 February 06:11

Seems like every year avios keep on getting devalued and I wonder why I still bother collecting avios. Since having a kid, I have focused more on accumulating AMER MR points, as 2 for 1 voucher wasnt useful anymore. Not quite sure what I’m going to spend the AMER MR points on, as still haven’t travelled on a airplane since COVID started.

Tempted to just convert all of my remaining avios to nectar and just hope hilton / marriott don’t devalue too much in the next year or 2.
- meta says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 06:41
  
  Marriott is devaluing 1 March and even more so next year as they move to dynamic pricing which can be hit and miss.
- Charles Martel says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 07:59
  
  Avios are still fairly good value if you can put up with the availability, the peak/off-peak pricing, stealth devaluation/unpredictability of fees, etc To take the NYC in Club “benchmark” 22/04 to 25/04 (off-peak):
  
  100,000 Avios (50,000 x 2) + £788 = £1,588 (Avios value 0.8p/Nectar)
  
  Momondo showing direct Lufthansa flights for £3004, or Finnair codeshare for £3491. Avios would still save you at least £1416.
  - Freddy says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 09:03
    
    That’s before you take into account the £250 pa card fee. Takes the £1416 down to £1166 in exchange for 100k points. That’s assuming you accrued those points in one year.
    
    Hardly ground breaking saving compared to nectar or just using a CB card
  - Londonsteve says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 13:51
    
    The other elephant in the room is how many of us would dig deep and spend £1,588 in cash to fly Club to and from New York? It’s frequently a 6 hour flight eastbound, barely enough time to eat and watch a film, after which the lie flat bed is used for what, 3 hours tops before the cabin is woken up for breakfast? One of the beauties with older Avios pricing was that it was not only much better value than cash fares, the implied margin over an Economy cash fare was such that people felt it was ‘worth it’ to enjoy a treat. On LHR-JFK I would suggest any price under £1000 return through a combination of cash and points is in the region where most people would go for it when presented with the option. I’m not spending nearly £1600 to fly to New York when I need to cough up £800 in cold hard cash and burn points equivalent to the remainder when spent on virtually anything at Sainsbury’s/Argos/ebay. £400 in Economy will do me fine, especially with status.
    - Track says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 20:29
      
      Well put. I remember when bmi and United came to LHR/UK market with sub $400 fares in economy to LA, but BA positioned itself more premium than United for customers to pay £1000 return.
      - Londonsteve says:
        
        14 Feb14 February 23:11
        
        Thank you. BA WAS a premium airline not so very long ago. The “World’s favourite airline,” let’s not forget. Although that latter aspect was a corollary of its size and relative lack of competition on many routes, holding onto that title was always going to be hopeless faces with the rise of the ME3 and low cost carriers closer to home. Still, the inventor of the lie-flat bed in Business was a cut above, with clean and spacious aircraft and a service with a cut glass accent. It wasn’t razzle dazzle, bread and circuses or trying too hard, it was just a really good, reliable product that served as a flying embassy for the UK as it was then. To suggest that BA is in any way premium to its competitors these days is, sadly, as erroneous as to suggest that the UK is in any a cut above a general gaggle of developed nations that do nothing out of the ordinary. We got the airline we deserve.
riku says:

14 Feb14 February 06:12

>>This is partly because Air Passenger Duty is much cheaper if you only transit through the UK<<
There is NO air passenger duty for transit passengers. The sentence suggests there is duty but the cost is lower. It does not apply to transit passengers at all.
- Rob says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 06:32
  
  Correct. I will tidy that up.
  - riku says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 08:24
    
    >>This is partly because there is no Air Passenger Duty is much cheaper if you transit through the UK rather than starting your journey here<<
    You're getting there. A few more taps of the delete key needed.
    - Rob says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 09:34
      
      Tricky on a mobile!
Andrew J says:

14 Feb14 February 06:15

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – now we have the nectar spend option, in most cases it’s better value to buy cash tickets, with no chasing Avios seat availability. The New York example above shows this – at the £8/1000 nectar rate it’s £800+£788 which is £1588. Buying a cash ticket of course also earns you back a load more Avios and tier points.
- meta says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 06:47
  
  That is only if you substantially shop in Sainsburys/Argos/ebay. My use of Nectar is limited as I don’t like Sainsburys and shop on ebay maybe once a year if that and find Argos overpriced most of the time.
  
  However, there is a new value in 241 vouchers as you can start outside UK and once Asia opens up these are going to be great redemptions. I have also used my Avios on partner airlines who only charge APD and real taxes from London. JAL for example. If you’re not using 241 and travelling peak period, it makes no difference to BA.
  - Andrew J says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 07:08
    
    Agree on the partner flights with low charges being a good option – I used Avios last year to fly Miami to JFK on AA in first class (and was actually seated in long-haul first class as it was a 4 class 777) for 16,500 and £4 – which was excellent value.
  - Thywillbedone says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 07:43
    
    Agree with most of this. While there is new value in 241 vouchers I am having a harder than ever time finding redemption opportunities …obviously there is pent up demand and cancelled flights being rebooked to 2022 which is making things difficult especially for those with kids in school. Have now resorted to looking at one-way partner redemptions inbound which means I can’t use the companion voucher obviously. Increasingly I am on the hunt for decent cash fares too. With the ludicrous taxes and fees on many redemption options, I am looking at ditching the BAPP card for first time in a decade…
  - Jeff77 says:
    
    15 Feb15 February 03:43
    
    “ That is only if you substantially shop in Sainsburys/Argos/ebay. My use of Nectar is limited as I don’t like Sainsburys and shop on ebay maybe once a year if that and find Argos overpriced most of the time.”
    
    As Rob helpfully pointed out last week, you can buy gift cards for almost all shops on eBay.
    
    Had no idea until he pointed this out. Going to buy a load of them using nectar points.
James says:

14 Feb14 February 06:15

Virgin Atlantic have also increased the cost of redemption – New York upper class circa £750 + 115000 virgin miles
- James says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 07:26
  
  No they haven’t. Off peak it’s 85,000 miles plus £642 taxes looking today.
- Gary says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 07:28
  
  Interesting. Booked on 25 Jan to fly summer LHR JFK which costed 115000 miles + £686, but cash element is £786. So VS increase was in the last 3 weeks
  - Gary says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 07:30
    
    *now
- Guernsey Globetrotter says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 11:06
  
  I booked LHR-SFO in UC with Virgin last month for £687pp. It’s now showing as £787pp so exactly £100 increase with VS…
  - Guernsey Globetrotter says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 11:07
    
    * I should have said this is for travel this coming November
  - OP says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 11:52
    
    Have they heard some customer feedback that surcharges should be aligned to the plane type you’re traveling on?
C says:

14 Feb14 February 06:24

£687.73 for LAX booked in September 2021
Travel Strong says:

14 Feb14 February 06:25

Anyone have experience on changing a 241 booking to a solo booking?

I have a 241 booked for April that I probably need to change to just 1 person. Is it likely to be possible to do this without cancelling and rebooking / without incurring the higher fee?
- Rob says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 06:30
  
  Yes, call centre can do this.
CarpalTravel says:

14 Feb14 February 06:30

I am booking 2x redemption on Wednesday to JFK, been waiting since November to be able to do it. Brilliant. 🙄

I’m with Andrew J on this one, I think this has just killed this game for me.
- CarpalTravel says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 06:38
  
  Just thinking about this, the fact that BOTH Virgin and BA have done this at the exact same time seems very price fixing-esque? Or am I just been a bit of a drama queen?
  - Polly says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 06:45
    
    Timing very obvious
  - memesweeper says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 07:04
    
    Virgin simply shadow BA’s pricing in my experience. No cartel required!
    - CarpalTravel says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 07:09
      
      Very true, but even by their standards, that’s a very quick response / air miles devaluation.
      
      When I cancel my fee paying Amex cards later this week I shall enjoy laying the blame solely at BA’s door. I’m sure they won’t give 2 stuffs, but it’ll make me feel better.
  - Rob says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 07:42
    
    It’s only price fixing if they agree in advance.
    
    Otherwise it can make good sense to follow competitors price rises.
    - CarpalTravel says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 08:31
      
      Oh I do know the distinction, just musing really. It’s not like Virgin are known for their fast paced, dynamic business.
    - Train Traveller says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 08:33
      
      Rob: There is something called tacit collusion out there as well which can also cause one a degree of grief with the Competition Authorities, ie. no actual agreement needed in advance….
      - Lady London says:
        
        14 Feb14 February 11:59
        
        Yup. Typical oligopolistic signalling behavjour. Like with petrol stations, they take turns to be the first one on the next negative change and all the others follow.