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Whoa: £1200 surcharges now showing on BA and Virgin Atlantic redemption flights

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Both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have sharply increased surcharges on redemption tickets.

This definitely covers routes to North America – I’m not totally sure about the impact elsewhere due to a lack of historic data.

Avios flyers have some protection because of Reward Flight Saver which caps your fees, but you will take a big hit if you use Avios to upgrade to Business Class.

EDIT: Virgin Atlantic has now reversed this increase after an outcry. Click here to read the latest.

What’s happened with Virgin Atlantic surcharges?

Let’s take a look at what you pay, starting with Virgin Atlantic.

Here’s an Upper Class return to New York:

BA and Virgin sharply increase surcharges on redemption flights

£900 of ‘carrier imposed surcharges’ (which is pocketed by the airline) is pretty crazy, however you cut it. This is a £200 increase on what you would have paid last week.

Premium is ‘just’ £280 of ‘carrier imposed surcharge’ return:

BA and Virgin sharply increase surcharges on redemption flights

What’s happened with Avios surcharges?

Let’s go across to Avios.

Here’s a Club Suite return from Heathrow to New York JFK off-peak. The price is unchanged at 160,000 Avios + £350 because of the Reward Flight Saver cap:

However, if you look at upgrading a World Traveller Plus flight to Club World, you see the full force of the £900 ‘carrier imposed surcharge’.

Here’s a World Traveller Plus cash ticket to New York which is £999 return:

Let’s try upgrading this ticket to Club World with Avios during the booking process. You may, naively, believe that the price would be 48,000 Avios + the World Traveller Plus cash price of £998.59. You would be wrong.

Here’s exactly the same flight but using the ‘upgrade with Avios during booking’ option. The cash element shoots up to £1,619. The difference of £620 is because the ‘carrier imposed surcharge’ has jumped from £280 (World Traveller Plus) to £900 (Club World).

However …. want to see something weird?

BA has NOT increased the surcharge on First Class tickets, which is ‘only’ £550 return:

First Class – which is not part of Reward Flight Saver, remember – now has total taxes and charges of £849 between Heathrow and New York. Compare this to the £1,199 of taxes and charges you have to pay on a Club World seat when upgrading from World Traveller Plus.

Conclusion

It’s not a coincidence that BA and Virgin Atlantic keep their surcharges in step. This is always the case.

I don’t know who moved first here. The Virgin Atlantic increase happened in the last 48 hours but I don’t know when BA went to £900. If it was British Airways moving first, and Virgin Atlantic automatically followed, then Virgin Atlantic has been caught out.

Ever since BA moved to Reward Flight Saver for long haul redemptions, the carrier surcharge doesn’t have an impact on what you pay. The surcharge only kicks in for anyone upgrading with Avios or who doesn’t qualify for Reward Flight Saver – which isn’t many people.

For Virgin Atlantic, an increase in surcharges makes a difference to everyone who redeems.

£1,196 return for Upper Class is just silly. Pre-covid, BA Holidays would regularly offer Club World flights to New York, plus 3-4 nights in a hotel, for £1,299 per person all-in. Even in recent sales we have seen cash tickets to New York in Business Class drop back to the £1,500 mark.

We have, of course, seen Virgin Atlantic offer a lot of reward seat sales in recent months. There was one just last week. However, even with a 50% reduction in miles, you’d still be looking at around 50,000 Virgin Points plus £1,200 in taxes and charges for a return flight to New York. This isn’t much of a deal.

At the full price of 95,000 Virgin Points plus £1,200 of taxes and charges, you seriously have to consider what value you are getting out of Virgin Flying Club if your goal is premium cabin redemptions.

What is crazy is that you can still redeem Virgin Points for one way Delta flights in Business Class from the USA to mainland Europe for just £5 in taxes and charges.

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 18,000 Virgin Points and the free card has a bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

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SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

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Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

Category

British Airways and Avios, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (231)

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

  • Dirtyneedlebluesky says:
    26 Mar26 March 07:38

    Is this not related to the recent Budget announcement about extra duty on premium cabins or is that yet to be factored in?!??

  • Paul says:
    26 Mar26 March 07:49

    BA have had different YQ for revenue and Avios tickets for a while, atleast in First

    • LittleNick says:
      26 Mar26 March 08:13

      In which case then there’s no need for YQ on redemption fares other than some free money for BA/airline.

  • Pb says:
    26 Mar26 March 07:52

    These are reward products and I assume could not be counted as part of ordinary pricing and therefore not under the auspices of the competition authorities.

    • Rob says:
      26 Mar26 March 08:01

      It’s totally normal in business for one company to follow a competitior in increasing or decreasing prices. It’s only a problem when they collude to do so which will not be the case here.

      Let’s face it – airlines spend all day looking at the prices being charged by competitors and adjusting their own accordingly.

      • CarpalTravel says:
        26 Mar26 March 08:56

        This however is not the first time that BA and VAA have made big and sweeping alterations to an existing pricing structure at almost the exact same times, an in the same manner.

        It is one thing varying a subset of your prices, but to do it so broadly and yet specifically? At the bluechips I have worked at it would take weeks of meetings of senior execs studying forecasts before deciding to do such a thing on this scale. I know one airline that spent over 6months agonising over what was a tiny pricing decision.

        Of course it is all easily dismissed as paranoia and almost impossible to prove, but at the same time, deeply suspicious.

      • Kathy M says:
        26 Mar26 March 15:07

        Am I the only one old enough to remember that some years ago I read in the press that Virgin and BA had been colluding on prices, and Virgin went to the Competitions authority and ‘confessed’ saying it was all BAs fault. BA got fined heavily and Virgin walked Scott free. I only know what I read in the daily newspapers, and it is a very long time ago, so I may not be correct.

        • NigelHamilton says:
          26 Mar26 March 18:55

          Often in competition/anti-trust law a reduction or even entire removal of penalty is given to the member of the cartel who goes to the authorities first.

  • Den S says:
    26 Mar26 March 07:52

    If you use a Companion voucher on BA or Virgin surely it is still a no brainer! I do 2 holidays a year to South Africa. One on BA and the other on Virgin, I do £10k spend on both to get the companion voucher, the advantage of Virgin is the Mastercard spend. I travel BA Bus and Virgin Upper Class, if the charges have increased on these routes, yes not so good but still a massive saving as opposed to a cash fare.

    • Den S says:
      26 Mar26 March 11:31

      Cash flights to Cape Town are relatively expensive, we paid £3300 (well in advance) for Prem Economy return (not reward). So say you have a card (5% cash back) that is only £500 for £10K. On my calculations it is still worth it I think it depends on the route you are looking at, also if you can wait for the sale, yes maybe, but then your accommodation is not available. I suppose it just depends on your reqirements.

  • SamG says:
    26 Mar26 March 07:58

    I paid £315 YQ on a one way BA WT+ to CW upgrade a couple of weeks ago from Newark

  • Richie says:
    26 Mar26 March 08:00

    There’s already a very popular cash saving website.

  • JRC says:
    26 Mar26 March 08:10

    Looking to book 6 tickets in business to Thailand (end destination Koh Samui). Are there any companies that do group rates?appreciate that 6 is not a very large group. Thanks

    • Rob says:
      26 Mar26 March 08:45

      Doubt you’ll get anything. Many families are 6, hardly a group.

      • Nick says:
        26 Mar26 March 09:12

        Groups in airlines is 10+.

        • Thegasman says:
          26 Mar26 March 13:04

          Don’t think group fares get you much, or any, discount anyway. Tends to just be more flexibility on payment & name changes.

    • NigelHamilton says:
      26 Mar26 March 18:58

      Not a group rate, but you might well get a reduction through a travel agent

  • Lady London says:
    26 Mar26 March 08:12

    Did someone say Avios is desperate to stop the rush by collectors to get cash for their avios instead?

    Need to watch co-pays for tix on partner airlines now.

    Trouble is, BA’s participation in the Oneworld Transatlantic cartel, sorry I mean the Joint Venture, keeps cash flights profitable.

    And the way OneWorld also seem to have the majors done another ‘we agree not to compete with each other’ carveup geographically, customers might still get reasonable award flight costs and cash costs on whichever airline amongst them they agreed to leave flying the route after the others pulled out, for a while initially. But whenever the next world business cycle comes (like now more equilibrium following bumpy re-upresourcing after covid) we get shocks like this as the dominant provider ratchets up pricing.

    We’re already looking at Iberia as prime for South America, Qatar for Middle East and Indian subcontinent, what territory does Finnair grab? Is Japan Airlines getting more of Japan to itself now in OneWorld, with route-cutting by BA and Finnair?

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