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

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

The price increase appears standard, with £100 added to all of the routes we looked at.

(Does this article sound familiar? It’s because we ran a virtually identical one on 13th February. These rises are on top of those rises.)

Let’s take a look.

British Airways increases Avios taxes and charges

With the help of some historical pricing data we sourced back in February from readers in the forums I’ve managed to put together a more comprehensive picture of what has happening over recent months.

The bad news is that the increased pricing seems to have occurred across BA’s network, and not just on transatlantic flights.

Whilst the February increases could be laid at the door of Heathrow’s increased charges and changes in Air Passenger Duty – and so British Airways was not pocketing the full amount – this is not the case here. It seems that BA has added substantial charges to cover the recent rises in fuel costs, even though around 60% of its fuel bill is hedged.

(I was with Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian yesterday and he told me that he doesn’t hedge fuel costs. Over the cycle, he wins, and his pockets are deep enough to see out the low points. Virgin Atlantic DOES hedge because it doesn’t have enough cash to get through the bad days.

British Airways proves Delta’s point. The airline lost over €1 billion due to fuel hedges over covid. It then decided to reduce the amount of hedging, just in time for kerosene to hit record levels.)

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 business class flights.

IMPORTANT: The prices we quote below are NOT the price you get on the initial booking page of ba.com. These prices are usually always incorrect. We quote the price you see when you click through to the passenger details section, which is the price you actually pay.

Avios taxes and charges increase

Dubai

Dubai has increased by £165 since 2021.

Taxes and fees are now £707, up from £542 for an example we found in 2021.

£100 has been added this week.

Hong Kong

Flights to Hong Kong have increased by a similar amount. Taxes and charges are now £755, an increase of £162 on an example we found from last year.

£100 of this £162 has been added this week.

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 is now £747 return in Club World.

When we looked at this route back in February, it hadn’t changed at all vs 2021.

£100 has been added this week.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles is now at £842 return.

This is £170 more than you would have paid back in 2021.

Maldives

The Maldives has also seen a £100 price increase since last month.

The current Business Class taxes and charges figure is £833, versus £616 in 2021.

New York

We often benchmark our pricing against New York given how hugely influential the route is for British Airways.

As of yesterday, you will pay £842. (Ignore the £990 you see on the initial pricing screen.)

This is up from £675 in mid 2021.

It is worth remembering that we have seen cash fares on TAP Portugal as low as £900 recently, albeit flying via Lisbon or Porto. Other airline schemes may also charge far less. Use Emirates Skywards miles to fly JetBlue to New York and you won’t pay ANY surcharges – just Air Passenger Duty and airport fees.

What about flights starting in Inverness or 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 £675. This is substantially less than the £842 charged if you start your journey in London, although of course you need to factor in the cost of getting to Inverness.

One upside of Inverness and Jersey is that they can be booked with old style 2-4-1 Amex companion vouchers. If you have a ‘new’ 2-4-1 issued since September 2021 on the Premium Plus card, you can use this to start a redemption outside the UK in Dublin, Amsterdam etc.

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:

  • British Airways appears to have added £100 return to Business Class long-haul Avios redemptions overnight
  • This is on top of rises in February, which disproportionately hit flights to the US

Does Nectar make more sense until fuel surcharges drop?

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.

The Nectar maths now begins to look more compelling if you don’t have an American Express 2-4-1 voucher.

New York on a peak date is 120,000 Avios plus £842 of taxes and charges.

Because those 120,000 Avios have an alternative value of £960 at Argos, Sainsburys etc, your flight is actually ‘costing’ you (£960 + £842) £1,802.

You can buy a cash ticket for FAR less than this, probably with a hotel thrown in. British Airways launched a BA Holidays sale yesterday with Club World flights to New York and four nights in a hotel from £1,599 per person. You won’t be struggling for availability either …..

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.

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

Heading to Asia? Once the Qatar Airways / Avios partnership launches, you will be able to fly with Qatar Airways with no surcharges at all, just taxes and airport fees.

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.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (272)

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

  • Colin MacKinnon says:
    16 Mar16 March 11:19

    Best Avois redemption the other week: £480 cash economy one way ticket, cost £17.50 plus 4750 Avios.

    Almost 10p per avios!

    (Missed my flight from Glasgow to LHR – first flight missed in more than 30 years! – and prices from both were just under £500!
    Suddenly remembered to check last-minute avios availability and then it was the CityLink bus to Edinburgh airport!)

    So while I will churn a BA Amex for the sign-up bonus and get a 241 as an aside, think most future fares will be cash, avios will become Nectar and a few will be kept an last-minute “insurance”.

    • NorthernLass says:
      16 Mar16 March 12:00

      I had similar, needed to book MAN-LHR as I couldn’t get the flight time I needed to appear when booking a BA holiday. Cash price was £414, though admittedly that was CE.

    • Harry T says:
      16 Mar16 March 12:04

      Yes, but it’s not 10p per Avios, as you wouldn’t have paid the cash price, presumably? Or you could have caught the train? Just playing devil’s advocate here as some people on this website (not you, Colin) are fond of extrapolating preposterous pence per Avios values when they know full well they wouldn’t pay the cash prices.

      • Colin MacKinnon says:
        16 Mar16 March 14:12

        Harry T:

        We had paid tickets with Lufthansa from London (returning to Glasgow) departing the next morning.

        But… we also had theatre tickets for that night in London. And a PCR and hotel at Heathow booked.

        So choice was: go home and lose hotel in London, theatre tickets in London and possibly the £900 each Lufthansa tickets. Or pay BA more than £900!

        The train would have got us in to central London too late to go to LHR, do the PCR, got to the hotel, leave luggage and then back into central London for the theatre – and fit in a meal somewhere! So it was BA or bust!

      • Jeff77 says:
        16 Mar16 March 20:00

        I also get the impression that some people choose a destination based on the points per avios they can get. I prefer to go somewhere I want to on a date I want to. Can’t always find availability on these dates though.

    • Lady London says:
      16 Mar16 March 18:06

      Personally I think now would be a truly excellent time for everyone to put all their avios in Nectar.

      As there’s a monthly cap, some have no time to lose

  • JPR says:
    16 Mar16 March 11:19

    I know the answer is on the site somewhere but cannot find it… How can I book a Business class flight on Aer Lingus? avios.com chat person said through them but cannot find one at all and have tried many different months.

    • Rob says:
      16 Mar16 March 11:24

      You can do it on ba.com now. The problem is zero availability on key routes including New York. No issue on obscure US routes. Even Shannon to NYC doesn’t seem to have anything.

  • Dutchy says:
    16 Mar16 March 11:19

    There is a lot going on in the ‘devaluation’ and it’s not as clear cut as the article makes out.

    Firstly surcharges on reward tickets are aligned to revenue tickets, the strategy is almost certainly driven by revenue sales with reward tickets collateral damage. I half expect that the loyalty teams had no input to this decision. The problem is revenue management teams are very transactionally motivate, and the notion of life time value is alien to them and their decision making. This is clearly short sighted, as many readers have continued to collect avios over the pandemic, which has been a crucial cash inflow with the lack of flying. BA have engaged in a social contract (although they have not realised this) with BAEC members, where we have supported them, and now want to see some reward for that loyalty. Revenue management teams have seen an opportunity to increase yields and have forgot about the support that has been given. Over time this strategy is short sighted and members will become more price sensitive which is contrary to the key objective of the BAEC.

    All that being said, I’m not convinced it’s a devaluation, yes the fees have increased, yet so too have revenue tickets. Obviously the value everyone ascribes varies, so to does the view on devaluation. BA are still guaranteeing reward seats, so there will be pockets of value. The question is, if revenue fares decrease, how quickly will fees reduce to ensure the value is maintained. Only at that point would it be a true devaluation.

    As to whether this is fair, I’m sure people would be more concerned about at 20k avios increase (conservative assuming a 1p valuation against the fee increases) as 20k points of far harder in the sort term to accumulate vs paying an additional £200

    • YFP says:
      16 Mar16 March 11:26

      I feel the exact same way Dutchy, if there’s going to be an increase, rather in the cash element than avios. I personally think the best value with avios is on RFS when cash fares are a bit crazy, basically works as subsidising cash fares.

    • memesweeper says:
      16 Mar16 March 13:58

      “I half expect that the loyalty teams had no input to this decision”

      I’m certain they didn’t.

  • Lee says:
    16 Mar16 March 11:22

    I think it’s time to ditch whole award thing now as this is trend for almost all airlines. I was planning to book Emirates back to UK for New Year. There is 18% increase in miles required plus 250% increase in surcharge within last 2 months

  • marcw says:
    16 Mar16 March 11:32

    As long as users keep paying these redemption fees, BA will charge them – and increase them over time!

    I’ve always wondered if BA would have such hefty redemption fees without 241 vouchers.

  • Louie says:
    16 Mar16 March 11:58

    Cancelled my BAPP today, having explained this was the last straw. Been meaning to do this for a while.

    Was offered 5k Avios by the online chat team for spending £1k in next 3 months. Not tempted.

    • Jonathan says:
      16 Mar16 March 12:22

      I cancelled over the phone with Brighton and was offered a downgrade to the free card and nothing else. Told them to poke it.

    • Andrew J says:
      16 Mar16 March 12:39

      The days of chasing the 2for1 voucher are over and Amex will need to respond to this as their BAPP membership will be in the single digits soon.

      • Rob says:
        16 Mar16 March 12:55

        There are 1m people with BA Amex cards, apparently. I think they will survive.

        • Thywillbedone says:
          16 Mar16 March 14:16

          They will survive of course. But these 1m people signed up for to play the loyalty game to some extent (which was a no-brainer for the last couple of decades). Now? Not so much. May take time but it will dawn on the average collector that they need to play a different game.

        • Amy C says:
          17 Mar17 March 03:15

          I’m astonished. That seems implausibly high.

          • Rob says:
            17 Mar17 March 07:40

            I think that includes supplementaries. A few years ago an Avios CEO quoted 500,000 to me which I think was accounts.

  • RTS says:
    16 Mar16 March 12:06

    writing was on the wall as soon as the nectar tie up happened.

    will probably end up moving CC spend to a hotel credit card or virgin CC. MR will probably end up going to a hotel loyalty scheme or to an airline scheme other than avios.

  • Simon says:
    16 Mar16 March 12:07

    Spent years following this website and saving up a few hundred thousand Avios for a family holiday to USA travelling in business class. Now I’m convinced I should just endure a bit of discomfort in cattle class, console myself that the experience would probably have been overrated, and spend the points on groceries.

    • Peter K says:
      16 Mar16 March 13:12

      Why is it either/or?

      Why not move the Avios to Nectar, and then move the cash equivalent (either in one go or over time) into a ‘flights fund’. Combine this money from the saving on shopping with the fees you would have felt reasonable for a reward flight and you’ll likely have most, if not all, of what you need for business seats or at least premium economy.

    • NorthernLass says:
      16 Mar16 March 13:39

      If you’re travelling in school holidays you’re probably still going to get very good value from your avios!

      • Aston100 says:
        16 Mar16 March 14:49

        This.
        School holidays are a factor that often gets overlooked.

        • MattB says:
          16 Mar16 March 16:56

          +1 try getting a direct biz seat to west coast USA for under £4k this summer, I’ve been checking for friends and prices aren’t moving.

          Most families just don’t want to give up an extra day of their leave either side plus take an extra 4 flights for an ex-EU

    • memesweeper says:
      16 Mar16 March 15:05

      If you want to use the points for something leisure/aspirational, not just shopping, then there’s always Nectar hotels.

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

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