Miami – Nassau using Avios

[iamlost]

I want to fly MIA-NAS return next April, and I’m so confused:

1) The flights are by “Envoy Air As American Eagle On Behalf Of American Airlines” – what does that actually mean?

2) The Avios tickets I see on BA.com say “Hand baggage only fare. No checked baggage allowance.” – since when are Avios tickets HBO? Does anyone know what the fee is to check bags? I have seen contradictory prices on BA and AA sites.

3) When trying to find the same tickets on AA.com to check the cash fare, I see four different classes: Basic Economy, Main Cabin, Main Plus and Business. Does anyone know which class Avios economy tickets equate to? So I can determine how much saving I get by using Avios.

Thanks for any help – I can’t remember ever being so confused by a simple flight booking!

[SteveJ]

1) American Eagle is who you are flying, that is AA’s brand for regional flights. Ignore the Envoy bit, that’s just the operator shouldnt be relevant.

2) AA redemptions are HBO. If you have Bronze or above then you get checked bags for free. For pricing check the AA site, that is who you are flying with. What BA say is irrelevant.

3) it’ll be basic economy

[NorthernLass]

1) American Eagle is a subsidiary of AA, I have avios flights booked with them from DCA to Key West in December. it looks like they fly small planes to US domestic and Caribbean destinations.

2) Baggage policy is per the airline you are flying with – AA charges about $35 per checked bag but you get these free if you have certain BA or OW status (exact allowance is on the internet and other people on here will know).

3) IME redemption flights equate roughly to main cabin, so you get to pick your seat for free but you don’t get a checked bag included. I’m not sure exactly how they decide what to include! But these flights are more geared towards the US market who use AA a lot more than BA.

Ha @SteveJ jst pipped me to it! However I think the lowest class doesn’t include free seat selection so redemptions might be one up from that. We definitely didn’t have to pay to pick our seats on our Key West flights. Can’t remember what we did pre-pandemic.

[iamlost]

Thank you both @SteveJ and @NorthernLass

Re. Baggage, I saw that status gives a baggage allowance on AA flights but wasn’t sure if that would apply on Envoy / American Eagle. I will go ahead and assume it does.

[NorthernLass]

I’m hoping it does as I will have recently got to Silver. I am assuming if you have an AA flight number you get any relevant status benefits. Also IIRC as BA Silver or Gold you get lounge access with these flights, which corresponding AA members don’t get!

I love using AA for US domestic/Caribbean redemptions and only paying $6 tax!

[iamlost]

NorthernLass wrote:

I love using AA for US domestic/Caribbean redemptions and only paying $6 tax!

Hold up Anna, $6 tax? BA is pricing MIA-NAS return per person for me between 8300 Avios + £187 and 15000 Avios + £97. Am I doing something fundamentally wrong?

[NorthernLass]

Sorry, I missed that it was a return. That will probably be because the Bahamas will apply their own departure tax to the return segment, though it sounds on the high side. I think when we did GCM-MIA-BOS one year on AA we were charged about $60 each in tax, but it does differ by country.
Have you tried booking both legs separately and see what the taxes come up as?

[NorthernLass]

Also – are you ultimately returning to the UK? Do you need to return via the US? You could get a direct flight from NAS to LHR if there’s award availability on your travel date.

[iamlost]

Interesting. Two singles work out the same, but you’re right that 95% of the fees come from the NAS-MIA leg.

Thanks for all your help! I already have return LHR-MIA flights booked using a GUF2, so Bahamas is just an incremental stop for a few days.

[NorthernLass]

I think many countries have hiked departure and other taxes post-pandemic. Family in Bermuda tell me that there’s a new charge being levied even on cruise arrivals which is proving highly unpopular and probably counter-productive in the long term!

I’m hoping to take OH to do his dream dive with tiger sharks in Bimini next year but it’s proving very tricky/expensive to plan either from NAS or MIA.

[SteveJ]

American Eagle definitely honour the same baggage policy as AA for one world status.

[JDB]

NorthernLass wrote:

I think many countries have hiked departure and other taxes post-pandemic. Family in Bermuda tell me that there’s a new charge being levied even on cruise arrivals which is proving highly unpopular and probably counter-productive in the long term!

I’m hoping to take OH to do his dream dive with tiger sharks in Bimini next year but it’s proving very tricky/expensive to plan either from NAS or MIA.

Indeed lots of places have added high airport charges. While everyone rails at Heathrow charges although they are quite nominal vs the £180 long haul APD (on any class above Y) and BA surcharges how about some Caribbean airports like St Lucia? Return charges:-

Passenger Facility Fee (International) – St Lucia
£4.20
Facilitation Charge – St Lucia
£0.30
Security Charge – St Lucia
£4.00
Airport Development Tax – St Lucia
£29.20
Airport Service Charge – St Lucia
£44.20

Total £81.90 per person