BOOK NOW: Wide open Avios seats to The Maldives, Las Vegas, Vancouver, Buenos Aires

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

• Lev441 says:

  24 Aug24 August 11:53

  How crazy are the taxes/surcharges these days?

  • babyg says:

    24 Aug24 August 12:02

    wow that didnt take long for the first comment on taxes/surcharges.. if people keep paying them (which clearly they do) the fees will stay that way….

  • Hbommie says:

    24 Aug24 August 12:17

    While I tend to agree they were £500 in 2012 which I equated to an economy seat price back then.
    Can you get to the Maldives for £900? Probably.

    • The Original Nick says:

      24 Aug24 August 12:49

      Just under £900 in taxes in Business + 125000 Avios.

      • Rob says:

        24 Aug24 August 12:59

        £550 out of Dublin. Book LCY-DUB as the last leg and you’ll get your bags back at Heathrow and can go home.

        • Mo says:

          24 Aug24 August 17:25

          I assume you have to travel to Dublin to be on the first leg of the outbound flight? U can’t just hop on at lhr?

        • Rob says:

          24 Aug24 August 20:57

          Certainly not – you must go to Dublin.

  • Thywillbedone says:

    24 Aug24 August 12:27

    The value proposition for the UK air miles game is razor thin these days ….basically it’s a bump in travel class for ‘free’, but only just. And when that travel class is potentially old ‘club’, it is very hard to get excited ….

    • jj says:

      24 Aug24 August 12:52

      And yet you continue to read and comment on a points blog? I find plenty of value; maybe you aren’t looking in the right places.

      • Thywillbedone says:

        24 Aug24 August 15:09

        You didn’t read my comment. I said the value proposition is razor thin in the UK, that is a fact …but there is still value, just not as much as there once was. Anyone in the hobby for more than five years will tell you that.

        • Rob says:

          24 Aug24 August 15:30

          You’ve clearly not tried buying a cash ticket recently. I paid £1,200 for two tickets to Hamburg last week and £1,800 for 4 x one-ways (Club) back from Dubrovnik next week. The last Aer Lingus ‘sale’ to New York from Manchester advertised headline prices from £3,300 in Business (you didn’t read about it because we didn’t print it).

          ‘Value’ can be a factor of what you are willing to pay (ie the hard cash number) but it also a factor of how it compares to the cash price.

          Now, you may think that £900 of taxes on a £3,000 cash ticket represents bad value, because you’re simply not prepared to pay £900 regardless (albeit that £900 probably won’t buy you an Economy ticket either at the moment). Other people will consider it ‘value’ because they want to go and they will go in a premium cabin regardless of cash or Avios.

          If you saw a £750 pair of Armani trousers reduced to £200 in TK Maxx, you may not consider that ‘value’ either. Others would be all over it.

  • Nick says:

    24 Aug24 August 13:02

    Taxes are set by airports and governments. And believe it or not, BA doesn’t actually set YQ for redemptions – it’s actually going after corporate travellers with negotiated deals. It’s just a happy side benefit (for them) that it can’t be differentiated, it either applies or it doesn’t.

    So until corporates agree new fare structures then redemption fees won’t change. The alternative would be to massively hike up the Avios required, which would likely not go down any better.

    • yonasl says:

      24 Aug24 August 13:32

      What BA calls “taxes and fees” is not really 100% that but also has a pretty large % that goes into their pocket.

  • ChrisC says:

    24 Aug24 August 13:03

    Well the taxes will be the same as any other ex UK long hail i.e. APD

    The BA surcharges on the otherhand …

    But you could do a dummy booking …

  • cinereus says:

    24 Aug24 August 13:29

    Crazy enough thst it’s definitely not worth booking with Avios. Def a cold deal.

• ChrisD says:

  24 Aug24 August 12:03

  Vegas only booking until mid August it seems.

  • JW says:

    24 Aug24 August 12:14

    All BA flights open up for bookings at 355 days in advance meaning the available window, right now, runs up to mid august 2023. Why would these be different?

    • ChrisD says:

      24 Aug24 August 12:49

      Just correcting the article: “Seats are wide open from the end of March until the end of October”

      • Rob says:

        24 Aug24 August 12:59

        Sorry, not clear I admit.

        • Lady London says:

          24 Aug24 August 15:16

          “Not clear” ? 🙂
          I’ll add that to my arsenal of good responses to have in reserve for sticky questions. Still grateful for “organically” as another key word for difficult answers learned here the other day

  • Peter says:

    24 Aug24 August 12:15

    Would that be 355 days away 😉

  • AndyGWP says:

    24 Aug24 August 12:23

    I was also initially thrown by the “Seats are wide open from the end of March until the end of October” line in the article.

    Forgot we’re still in August 🙂

• Mikeact says:

  24 Aug24 August 12:08

  Too early to know what equipment will be used ?

  • john says:

    24 Aug24 August 12:33

    Gatwick will be 777-200ER club-world. There are no plans to refurbish them to club suite as yet. Maldives is 789 and EZE is a 788 atm but you should probably consider that stuff from LHR is subject to change.

  • Jess says:

    24 Aug24 August 12:37

    I have a flight to the Maldives in November and that is club suites.

• Lewis says:

  24 Aug24 August 12:08

  SeatSpy came in very handy this morning. I only set up the notifications for Summer flights to Vancouver yesterday and managed to bag 4 Club returns this morning thanks to their alerts.

  It seems they are using old planes for this as it’s definitely not Club Suite, but that works for us as a family of four because we can take the middle row and the kids get the double bed…

  We did have to do two separate bookings annoyingly though, they wouldn’t accept an old and new companion voucher on the same booking, now I now need to try to make sure we are sat together!

  • john says:

    24 Aug24 August 14:00

    Gatwick has Club World only. No Club Suites.

    • Lewis says:

      24 Aug24 August 14:26

      whats the lounge situation like at Gatwick vs T5?

      • Rob says:

        24 Aug24 August 14:31

        Gatwick is far superior in my view.

        • Gordon says:

          24 Aug24 August 14:40

          Galleries at T5 gets too busy for my liking. The satellite lounge at T5 has a better drink selection. IE Johnny Walker Black label at satellite lounge but not in Galleries….Prefer Gatwick lounge.

  • Gordon says:

    24 Aug24 August 14:37

    @Lewis, They will sit parents with their children, Also if you have status you can choose seats foc at the time of booking.

    • Lady London says:

      24 Aug24 August 15:20

      Call BA after bookings made, mention age of any kid under 12, give them the booking refs andvask if they can “TCP” the bookings ie link them “To Complete Party”

      • john says:

        25 Aug25 August 11:44

        Although bare in mind that the “linking” is a note in each booking with reference to the other booking reference.. there is no magic, and you can’t see the other booking linked online at all.

• @mkcol says:

  24 Aug24 August 12:16

  Thanks for pinging out an extra email.

• Sally B says:

  24 Aug24 August 12:17

  When are BA going to announce what they are going to do about LHR-MCO – sick of waiting and EF has most flights in Summer 23 scheduled zeroed out.

  • Sally B says:

    24 Aug24 August 12:28

    Just had email advising of cancellation of LHR-MCO and offer of BA 2039 from LGW

• meandthekids says:

  24 Aug24 August 12:24

  Hi – is there a 24 hour free cancellation window or is the £35pp chargeable in the case of any cancellations? Maldives seems to stop mid august and not sure if flights later in the mo th might appear.

  • babyg says:

    24 Aug24 August 12:36

    free if less than 24hr

    • meandthekids says:

      24 Aug24 August 12:40

      Thanks. Have booked using the rfs rates and admittedly not the best value for the avios but we haven’t had use for our avios for a while so £150pp cash seems worthwhile for the summer. Two of our companion vouchers expires before then so that’s a shame, but it is what it is!

      • babyg says:

        24 Aug24 August 12:47

        i usually fly (start) from outside of the UK.. saves 300ish PP on fees, at the expense of additional Avios for the xxx-LHR leg (which if you phone can be booked as economy)..

        • meandthekids says:

          24 Aug24 August 13:06

          Which route would you recommend? We realised in haste we got our outward date wrong so now need to work out if we cancel and rebook etc but if it’s better via an alternative route saving avios we would happily try that.

        • djdjdj says:

          24 Aug24 August 14:25

          Do you mind explaining this further

        • Rob says:

          24 Aug24 August 14:32

          Book Dublin to London to XXXXX and back. BA has far lower surcharges if you do this. Can’t be done with a 241 unless its a new-style BAPP voucher.

• Mark says:

  24 Aug24 August 12:35

  I’ve tried MLE and EZE for several different dates and when choosing flights only get “Sorry there is a problem with booking this journey online. Try selecting other flights”. Tried many other dates and get the same message. Chances of getting through on the lines before they all go – zero!

  • CatchFlightsNotFeelings says:

    24 Aug24 August 13:21

    im having the same problem, shows available online still

  • Gordon says:

    24 Aug24 August 14:43

    Just called it’s 30 min wait atm

    • CatchFlightsNotFeelings says:

      24 Aug24 August 15:45

      Did you man age to book over the phone? Its still showing as available all these hours later! Bizarre

      • Gordon says:

        24 Aug24 August 18:45

        I didn’t call them to book I called them for an amendment on a booking I just made before the 24 hour cooling off period expired….

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