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.

Richard says:

14 Feb14 February 12:36

Presumably this means everyone with a future travel voucher will have to pay additional taxes if they try to rebook same fare in future using the voucher?
- Rob says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 14:32
  
  That was always the case though – if you change an existing Avios 241 (say, move the day back 24 hours), the taxes are recalculated based on that day.
- Marcw says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 16:13
  
  On a side note, the 2-4-1 needs to be paid by someone. Clearly it’s the user. I wonder if in a world without 2-4-1 voucher, surcharges would be that high.
Marcw says:

14 Feb14 February 12:47

As long as people are happy paying these charges, BA will charge them.
As easy and simple as that.
- BuildBackBetter says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 13:09
  
  +1
  Simple demand and supply. Though how long before supply starts to catch up with post-covid demand, we don’t know.
Rma says:

14 Feb14 February 13:16

With people preferring non BA airlines or starting ex EU to avoid the increased charges, does this mean BA staff will benefit as they will have access to more premium seats?
- Willmo says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 17:39
  
  Are taxes definitely lower ex EU? I searched AMS-JFK in club on BA, and the taxes were £550 r/t- still seems very high
memesweeper says:

14 Feb14 February 13:19

The increase is in ‘YQ’, the surcharge. This is levied on redemptions and cash fares. Note, businesses/corporate travel agents with negotiated discounts with BA may have their pre-agreed discounts on the *fare* excluding the YQ and other TFCs. This cash-grab may be about more than just Avios bookings, in fact, Avios devaluation might just be collateral damage as business travel starts to recover and BA seeks to make a profit. Most long-haul premium seats to the USA are being sold to corporates, not individuals for cash or Avios.

As others have stated, outside of corner-cases like one-way and last minute travel, the only long-haul value in Avios is premium cabins, coupled with a companion voucher. This is not an approach that will win BA loyalty long term, and means I’m very unlikely to transfer HSBC or Amex points to Avios.
- Andrew says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 13:36
  
  Good points well made.
- The Savage Squirrel says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 13:46
  
  Indeed, while it sharply increases the chance of those Avios we do have moving outwards to Nectar, as 0.8p of almost-cash looks more and more attractive.
  - memesweeper says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 13:53
    
    IMO BA need to introduce some sort of RFS for long-haul (sensibly priced, not like what we’ve seen to date) to break the link between YQ and the TFCs on redemptions. Make it ex-UK only so as to continue to punish the US Avios holders.
    - AJA says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 15:15
      
      @ memesweeper BA already has RFS for long-haul. It, as you note, may not be sensibly priced. As it happens I received an email just over 2 hours ago from BA telling me I can fly return to the USA for just £100 and 50,000 Avios.
      
      The email goes on to say “This great value reward flight option means you pay a fixed Avios amount plus a low, flat fee to cover taxes, fees and carrier charges starting from £1 return to Europe plus 18,500 Avios and £100 return to the Middle East or the USA and 50,000 Avios.”
      
      What it needs to do is offer long haul RFS in business class.
      - Londonsteve says:
        
        14 Feb14 February 15:27
        
        Is it just me or is the new valuation for one Avios now 0.8 pence even when pricing up flight redemptions? At 1ppm even the RFS rtn to USA for £600 in Economy looks toppy when it’s easy to find a cash fare for £400. Granted, cash fares during busy times can be much dearer, but try finding redemption availability anywhere other than JFK at such a time, other than the day before departure. Realistically therefore, the value is either akin to booking into a low fare bucket fare in advance while there is still availability, or a last minute redemption on which the VFM is amazing, but how many people need to book a flight across the pond with less than 24 hours notice? Those that do would be well advised to always maintain a sufficient Avios balance allowing them to avoid expensive cash fares, even if this involves buying Avios, preferably in the sale.
      - AJA says:
        
        14 Feb14 February 16:34
        
        @Londonsteve I am now using a base value of 0.8p per Avios as that is the value you get converting to Nectar. I am not sure whether long haul redemptions using the 2-4-1 are worth it any longer especially with the YQ charges so high now. I find that the sweet spot for long haul redemptions tends to be upgrading a cash fare from W to J rather than a straight out redemption in J. Not only is it relatively good value you also earn W class TP and Avios in return. Obviously you can’t do that with a 2-4-1.
      - Londonsteve says:
        
        14 Feb14 February 23:52
        
        @AJA I agree this looks like an interesting possibility, particularly as all WT+ fares can be upgraded, as long as there is availability in J. In seems like a good compromise; an affordable ticket with a tad more comfort from straight Economy, combined with the chance of trading up to the next cabin for a modest amount of Avios. Two questions: 1. To what degree do taxes and charges change if you upgrade with Avios – to the extent they have to due to government taxes and airport charges, or does BA apply a hideous punitive charge to grab more revenue? 2. What are the chances generally to find reward availability in J the day before departure on long haul routes?
- LS says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 14:53
  
  I agree with all your points about value. But I transfer *all* my HSBC points to avios. With HSBC’s 25% bonus, this gets me 1p cash per avios via nectar. Far more valuable than tying myself in to a long-haul airline, when competition currently means that it is far cheaper to just pay cash and not bother with airmiles. If this situation changes, I will transfer nectar back, but I don’t see that happening.
  - memesweeper says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 15:03
    
    Fair point on the HSBC 25%, it happens regularly enough.
Alistair says:

14 Feb14 February 13:33

This is definitely a recent change. Last month, we’ve booked MAN to JFK return reward seats in club world for January 2023 and the total was £710 each.
Rob says:

14 Feb14 February 14:58

I was looking at Nashville a couple of weeks ago. Flights to the end of Oct this year for 125,000 Avios and £690 we person in CW. Same search now makes it £788pp. Gah.
Londonsteve says:

14 Feb14 February 15:44

In light of the panoply of redemption options available across One World carriers, nearly all of which are available for departure from the UK, why do people seek to redeem for long haul BA? I appreciate that 2-4-1 vouchers can clearly make it worthwhile to redeem on BA despite the very high taxes and charges, but I and the significant majority of other collectors do not have and will never have access to these vouchers, therefore we are pricing travel options on their own merits. Is it a case of ‘what you know’ and most collectors are not aware that they can redeem on other airlines? Does the BA search engine not show redemption options on other carriers unless you expressly attempt to redeem on a partner airline? I’m curious because BA clearly do good business out of selling people seats with very high cash components when there are better options out there. I was delighted to redeem on IB in J to a zone 6 destination, the total implied price was LESS than BA’s cash component alone, before one even adds the very significant Avios required to fly a similar distance, especially during Peak periods. Suggestions are welcome with regards to where else a collector seeking similar redemption value should look to redeem? Which airline, banding and low tax combinations are there out there that allow one to fly J for not much greater implied cost than a cash ticket in Economy, I’m looking for the sweet spots that make my points and miles go much further than a lukewarm experience in yin-yang CW.
- memesweeper says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 18:37
  
  Transatlantic ex-UK you don’t have much choice, unfortunately. The oneworld carriers are in a cartel, this includes price fixing.
  
  Looking at redemptions like CDG to HND with Japan Airlines and there are still great uses for Avios. Going west from London I can’t see how to avoid them.
Scott says:

14 Feb14 February 16:18

Similar to Londonsteve’s experience above, I recently priced a trip to South America with a 241 voucher, and given the high fees when departing UK I sought to take advantage of the new ex-EU flexibility that a 241 provides.
The cheapest option departed MAD, and offered a decent saving over a UK departure. However, pricing the trip on Iberia I found they charged the same number of Avios for 2 people as BA charged for 1 person + a 241 companion, and their fees were a further £300 cheaper than BA’s ex-EU fees, at just over £400 for a couple. Plus it’s direct flights, so don’t have the hassle of a connection at LHR.
- James says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 21:47
  
  Don’t you still have the hassle of flying to Madrid first to then take this flight?
  - Rob says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 22:33
    
    Is it really hassle? Iberia even runs long haul aircraft on Heathrow to Madrid.
    - Londonsteve says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 23:57
      
      Quite. It’s not a hassle at all, it’s a joy. To many Latin American destinations you would be routed via Madrid in any case. To others, like Miami, Havana or Rio, it adds little extra flying time and the hours between flights can be usefully spent in the lovely Velasquez lounge. Elsewhere the saving can be so significant and the journey so long anyway, there’s little reason not to fly via Madrid for a better product for half the price.
    - VSCXfan says:
      
      15 Feb15 February 12:17
      
      True, but better fly BA LHR-MAD-LHR if connection is tight and you want to avoid transferring from T4 to T4S
      - Londonsteve says:
        
        15 Feb15 February 13:23
        
        Would a LHR flight ever not arrive at T4S since the UK is a non-Schengen destination? I would advise leaving extra time anyway to avail oneself of the Velasquez lounge. Flying on IB’s wide body services will almost certainly arrive at T4S since the next service will certainly be a long haul sector that is outside of Schengen. The combo of wide body J to MAD, Velasquez lounge followed by J again is superb for the overall implied price. I struggle to think of a better all round experience (Qatar in J with access to T4 QR lounge at LHR then again at Hamad during the flight change obviously bests it but not much else). If only the IB cabin crew were more proactive in offering drinks and snacks on board after the main meal service had ended, it would be a 5 star product. As is, the crew with the longest duration employment invariably rostered to work the J cabin like to retreat to the galley for a chinwag and turn off the lights. You need to hunt them down for a glass of water.