Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Good tax savings on long-haul Avios 241 redemptions if you start in Dublin

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As we covered recently, the taxes and charges added to many premium cabin Avios redemptions have shot up in recent weeks. Given that BA is still running a sub-standard service in Club World due to lack of crew (meals are still served in one go on one tray with small portions, for example) it’s not ideal.

Interestingly, the new higher taxes and charges (eg £842 return to New York in Club World) do not seem to apply if you start your trip in Dublin.

If you fancy a trip to Ireland on the way, there are good savings to be made. Remember that new-style British Airways American Express Premium Plus vouchers can start outside the UK, so Dublin to London to New York is acceptable.

Here are a couple of examples WITHOUT using a 241 voucher. This is London to New York on a peak date:

You pay 120,000 Avios and £842 of taxes. In reality the taxes number moves by a couple of pounds when you continue to payment, but its a nominal difference.

Let’s look at the same flight but with connections to / from Dublin:

There are two options here of interest:

  • For those who are Avios rich and cash poor, you are offered the chance to use 152,500 Avios and pay £288 of taxes and charges. This is attractive – you are saving £554 but spending an extra 32,500 Avios. Of course, you need to get to Dublin to start your trip which won’t be free.
  • The directly comparable option is 139,000 Avios plus £576. I say ‘directly comparable’ because this is what you would expect to pay, eg 120,000 Avios for the long-haul flight and 19,000 Avios for the connection. Here, you are saving £266 by using an extra 19,000 Avios – but you also need to get to Dublin.

What happens if you add a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher?

Let’s look at what happens when you use a new-style 2-4-1 companion voucher. The answer is – ‘something weird’.

For two people, you are offered the following pricing with no alternatives:

versus

Something is wrong here – but it’s wrong in your favour.

The first screenshot makes sense. You are paying 120,000 Avios for two people (due to the 2-4-1 voucher) with double the usual level of taxes, so £1,684 for two.

However, the second screenshot makes no sense. You are paying 139,500 Avios for two people (due to the 2-4-1 voucher) but just £576 of taxes, ie 2 x £288. However, if you look at the screenshot above from Dublin, £288 is the level of taxes when you use 152,500 Avios.

How and why it prices like this doesn’t really matter though.

What DOES matter is that you can save £1,108 on this trip in return for spending an extra 19,000 Avios and flying to Dublin to start.

Can you avoid starting in Dublin?

No. Your entire ticket will be cancelled if you fail to show up in Dublin for the first leg.

However, if you are travelling with just hand baggage, you could hop out in London on the way back and miss your final flight.

The impact on other routes isn’t always as large as this especially if you are not flying to North America, but it is definitely worth pricing up your options out of Dublin – and indeed other starting points such as Amsterdam to see what is available.

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.

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

Comments (75)

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

  • Duncan Riddell says:
    9 May9 May 12:04

    Some information please on the 241 redemptions mentioned from Dublin?
    Using Reward Finder etc you can only put in one sector ie LHR – BKK so how do you source the 241 from DUB – LHR – to anywhere!

    I wish to use new style 241 AMEX redemption from probably AMS as can get KLM locater flight from ABZ (Aberdeen) to AMS so as to avoid some taxes but have been unable to source both sectors at once!

    At present when using old 241 from ABZ I just find LHR – SIN for example and always know there will be seats from ABZ but the taxes etc are becoming excessive with BA although managed a 1st Class ABZ – LHR – DXB return for peanuts and 50% off Avios last year but don’t expect to see anymore of those around!

    • Rob says:
      9 May9 May 14:13

      You should just assume that the Dublin to London flights will be available on the day you want – focus on getting the long haul dates.

      • Kevin D says:
        9 May9 May 20:03

        Yep. DUB-LHR is like a shuttle service. Plenty of flights with plenty of room every day. BHD is similar too as it happens.

  • MilesOnPoint says:
    9 May9 May 12:20

    Would there be anything stopping you booking open jaw:

    DUB-LHR-JFK out, and JFL-LHR return?

    (And still benefiting from the same savings?)
    This would mean only one positioning flight to Dublin

    • MilesOnPoint says:
      9 May9 May 12:20

      *JFK-LHR on the return, bloomin’ auto correct

      • Rob M says:
        9 May9 May 13:15

        Correct – it is only where you start which affects APD. I believe you’d need to phone to do this. You could also do something like DUB-LHR-JFK JFK-LHR-NCL if you lived in the regions

    • John says:
      9 May9 May 13:43

      You can’t do it online but yes you can and may even be slightly cheaper than having the LHR-DUB

      • NorthernLass says:
        9 May9 May 13:57

        You can do it online – see my post from earlier!

    • ChrisC says:
      9 May9 May 14:00

      Nothing stopping you doing this.

      When I do ex EU cash bookings I cost them ending in London as well as going back to the start point and decide what to do depending on the overall savings.

      Sometimes ending in London bumps up the cost sometimes not.

  • Dominic Barrington says:
    9 May9 May 13:04

    This weekend, I flew to Chicago going out of Amsterdam. I picked Amsterdam because it was a remarkably generous saving on a business close fare – well over $2000. Much more generous in Dublin or Paris, to my surprise.

    I was dreading using Schiphol because of all the bad press recently, but I was through the airport system in a matter of minutes, and spent rather a long time in the Aspire lounge, which was surprisingly good, I thought.

    • Rob says:
      9 May9 May 13:49

      Yes, it’s good. I’m planning to review it again when I’m over there.

    • ChrisC says:
      9 May9 May 14:05

      I’m doing that in a few weeks. Flying to AMS the night before and starting the ORD trip the next day.

      From reading the KLM board on flyer talk its calmed down a lot and they appear to be better organised after the initial chaos.

      But there were two separate issues – the KLM baggage handlers strike then the airport being slammed by Dutch holiday passengers when they still had staffing difficulties with security and other staff.

  • Bimbo says:
    9 May9 May 13:36

    This is just a standard ex-EU practice, if Dublin doesn’t work out, check out other departure points outside the UK. You will very likely achieve similar results. Also, when booking well in advance, there’s a good chance there will be a schedule change which will enable you to fly direct instead of hopping back to/via London.

  • Dawn says:
    9 May9 May 14:18

    I apologise for not being too bright with these things. If it has to be BA metal that we fly on, does it mean the plane from Dublin or Amsterdam to USA is a BA plane?

  • Safety Card says:
    9 May9 May 14:34

    Book the return as multi city, so as an example it’s. DUB LHR JFK LHR LGW TO DUB. It shouldn’t change the price but your bags will be collected at LHR thus meaning you can miss the Dublin leg and still have your luggage.

  • Ls says:
    9 May9 May 18:39

    I’ve just used my avios for a return J ticket on QR from Southern Africa to Europe. 160k and £155 rtn in business. Cash cost $6k (although I wouldn’t have paid this).

    • Kevin D says:
      9 May9 May 20:05

      Wow. Excellent redemption. I’ll be looking at QR redemptions soon myself.

  • Charles Martell says:
    9 May9 May 19:08

    Brain fart: could you use this method to lock in Avios availability on the off chance oil prices fall and redemption fees from LHR/LGW come back down?

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

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