BA carrier-imposed surcharge on reward flights – domestic connections

[Scott]

Does anyone have any insight into how BA determines its carrier-imposed surcharge (YQ) on reward flights?

Examining the breakdown of taxes and surcharges for LHR-PHX in business shows YQ of £475.
Adding ‘free’ (in Avios) domestic connections for GLA increases the overall cash element by just over £11 (related to UK passenger charge, presumably something to do with transiting an additional airport, which doesn’t seem unreasonable). YQ remains the same.

When checking for a different destination (EZE), however, YQ is £399 from LHR, but £456 when GLA connections are added.

I imagine the reason for different YQ for different destinations is due to a commercial decision, but can’t fathom why for some destinations YQ is the same irrespective of UK departure airport, whereas for other destinations it varies depending on whether a UK connection is added.

[NorthernLass]

When you add a domestic connection to a long haul flight, you don’t get charged any extra avios, but you do get charged the RFS fee for the domestic leg, so usually £50 for a return in CE. The system may now be charging different amounts now BA has introduced all the new options for paying for award flights. You can usually slightly reduce the amount of cash you pay for the connecting leg by choosing ET instead of CE on that sector.

[Scott]

Thanks for the reply NL, but if that’s the case, why isn’t it applied to all destinations?

In case my original post wasn’t clear, if flying to PHX, BA’s Carrier imposed charge of £475 is identical whether I fly direct from LHR, or have a domestic connection from GLA.

The point of my post was that for a different destination, EZE in my example, for a LHR departure YQ reduces to £399, but with a GLA connection it’s £456 – a difference of £57.

If this was a RFS fee I’d expect it to apply wherever I was flying to.

[Scott]

Just to confuse things, I’ve tried a third destination, SFO.

The total charges when flying with a GLA connection are the same as for PHX, with the YQ element of £475.

This time when I remove the domestic connection to fly direct from LHR, YQ actually increases to £500.

So in this example the domestic connection reduces the overall cost, which surely rules out a relation with RFS fees.

• This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .

[NorthernLass]

The IT has been rather quirky of late, e.g. I found that I wasn’t charged avios OR RFS to have a CE LHR-MAN connection when I booked MIA-LHR in Y using the RFS option for long haul. But the general rule I stated for domestic connections had been in place for a few years prior to these current shenanigans!
I recall someone posted a few months ago that they were having issues with the system overcharging on surcharges, then when they tried to book on the phone it was coming out the same or even higher. Not sure how that ended.