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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.

Avios taxes and charges increase

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:

Avios redemption bangkok

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.

Avios pricing dubai

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.

Avios pricing hong kong

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.

Avios pricing johannesburg

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.

Avios pricing los angeles

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%.

Avios pricing maldives

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.

Avios pricing new york

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.

Avios pricing rio de janeiro

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.

Avios pricing san francisco

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:

Avios pricing singapore

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.

Inverness Airport

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

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.

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.

Comments (246)

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

  • James says:

    Anybody else just get an email from BA advertising economy seats to US for 50,000 avios + £100 taxes/fees? Is this new – I don’t recall taxes/fees being this low before. Are they offsetting lower taxes/fees in economy by increasing business?

    • Rhys says:

      Return?

    • Mouse says:

      Yes, me too. Made me wonder related to today’s story whether they might be extending RFS to long-haul business class, but apparently not.

    • Steve in Croydon says:

      I received the 50,000 +£100 email also. Just checked returns to NYC and BOS – all off-peak and with RFS showing. Both come up at 55,000 +£100 – so where’s the 50,000 route?
      LAX is 65,000 +£150. Denver however has the RFS symbol against the flights, but come up as 32,500 +£397 with full taxes, APD and BA thieving supplement. Another excellent BA marketing plan and IT systems.
      Also when it offers the RFS price, it’s the only option offered. No option to pay the lower normal Avios amount and the higher charges/taxes.
      Anyway it’s only L-H economy, I’m 6’5″ and wouldn’t be seen dead in a BA L-H economy cabin, even if I was 5’6″ !! I’m not sure I will even be seen in a BA premium cabin. I’ve just got a Nectar card and switched to an Amex MR account instead of a BA. 3-4 years worth of free shopping at Sainsbury’s methinks!!!

    • Erico1875 says:

      Cant get this with a 2 4 1 voucher though.
      pricing for 2 without a voucher, 110K Avios +£200 so silly me thought it would be 55K Avios +£200 with a 2 4 1 voucher.
      Nope.
      Only option with a 2 4 1 is 33K Avios + £478

  • John Munn says:

    I better get going with booking the flights I was looking at before any prices increase ex DUBLIN. We had looked at BHD > LHR > JFK return in October using an Amex 241: 100,000 Avios and £1619 in total now. Going down the road to Dublin comes in at 117,000 Avios and £571 in total. That £1048 difference makes the 17,000 Avios the best value Avios ever, surely. 6.16p per Avios! Must get it booked ASAP

  • Lady London says:

    So BA has again snuck in unnaounced increase in charges across the Atlantic. In comparison to cash fares in the market – especially Star Alliance and Skyteam airlines – I didn’t think there was any more room for increases in BA’s stealth taxes.

    I sincerely hope such a review will be taken into account by regulators when the Cartel, sorry the Transatlantic Joint Venture to give it its current name, comes up for regulatory approval around 2024. And I hope approval for it to continue is refused.

  • dougzz99 says:

    Moan all you want, they’ll still be uses for Avios. Suggesting Singapore and Qatar do X or Y is irrelevant to anyone flying west. As for price comparisons you need to compare what cash fares will be now, not what they’d cost previously. If this is essentially a YQ increase combined with increased airport charges then cash tickets will also increase in price.
    BA will be seeing huge rises in their costs, on the back of the last couple of years, I don’t see anything getting cheaper.

  • Tim says:

    For LAX comparison a 241 booked in 06/2021 was £666 in TFCs.

  • Paul says:

    What a joke. Very poor value now.

  • Darren says:

    Another BA “screw the customer tactic”. This on top of the Voucher scam whereby Customers who HAD to cancel thanks to Covid get vouchers for monetary value – but with price rises those vouchers have 50% of the buying power they had pre Covid.

  • Neil says:

    Getting a bit pricey for me. Used to be £500 or so for a NYC Club World redemption (my most common redemption).

    At the new pricing, economy on a cash ticket for about £350 is looking a lot more enticing. The flight isn’t that long.

    • lumma says:

      Exactly, as long as I get an aisle seat, I’ve got no issue with going in BA economy to the East Coast of USA and keeping the 100,000 avios and £300.

      Even West Coast I’d probably look at breaking the journey up into two segments (or going via Madrid)

    • CarpalTravel says:

      And that for me is a key point. There is a tipping point to which the luxury and comfort isn’t all “that” important…

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

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