Increase in charges ?

[Mikeact]

Our neice is coming over to the UK from the US..she’s a bit upset..has enough Avios for round trip Business but stung for increase in charges, now $1600….doesn’t seem right to me and told her to check 2xone ways…or try Iberia or AerLingus.
I think for our flight tomorrow we were charged just over £400 each each for a one way flight in Business…maybe US flyers have to pay more than us ?

• This topic was modified 54 years, 3 months ago by .

[Thegasman]

BA have always charged a significant premium for Avios redemptions ex USA. Can’t say I blame them when you can get 100k Avios as a sign up bonus over there!

The other thing to consider is that BA’s availability is much better than AA etc who offer very few premium seats at standard rates meaning mileage earning & burning is essentially revenue based.

[Lyn]

Yes, unfortunately one way or round trip BA awards for flights starting in the US have much higher cash surcharges etc. than awards starting in Europe. If anything, the differential seems to be getting worse. It has been mentioned in comments before and perhaps in one of Rob’s articles.

[Mikeact]

Thanks…as a UK BA member, would I be charged the same as her if I used my Avios for her ticket ?

[andy]

Mikeact wrote:

Thanks…as a UK BA member, would I be charged the same as her if I used my Avios for her ticket ?

It’ll be no different…you can try to price up JFK-LHR-JFK on your account and charges will be ~1,500£, whereas LHR-JFK-LHR is ~800£

[NorthernLass]

@Mikeact, where is she flying from? One way to get round this is to book a RFS flight in Y on the outbound (e.g. 25k avios plus £50 from NYC, BOS etc) off-peak. Ok it’s economy but she could pay for extra leg room, and the east coast flights are very short. Then book the inbound separately in J in CW and pay the one-way fees from London. She’s have 2 separate PNRs but that doesn’t need to be a problem.
Or I’ve seen decent rates with Aer Lingus on one-way redemptions from the US.

[Lyn]

Yes, it has nothing to do with whether the avios belong to a US or UK BAEC member. Just where the flights start from.

Unfortunately Northern Lass’s suggestion, travelling outbound / eastbound in economy and business on the return, is one of the more viable options. But by no means a perfect one, especially if your niece is flying from the west coast. I think the fact that this is the beginning rather than the end of her journey also makes this a less comfortable option.

Our most recent BA avios flights have had to be booked as 1-ways due to Covid. So Club Europe / First class from Europe to the US extended from the 50% avios sale. Followed by off-peak economy from the west coast back to Europe. But this was partly because economy was the only award booking available. It could have been worse, at least we had an empty middle seat between us in economy!

[Rob]

Noticeable cheaper to book as 2 x one ways.

Look at Iberia to Madrid, Finnair to Helsink and Aer Lingus to Dublin / Shannon. Even Royal Air Maroc to Casablanca.

[Mikeact]

Appreciate the advice. We’ll probably look at Madrid and go down to meet her. Interesting, that’s always been our way to get to the US…tomorrow a bit different, last of our Lloyds vouchers!