Tax does not seem less with Iberia, what am I missing?

[al_]

Hi folks, I’m looking at booking a long haul flight to US with a companion voucher and I’ve read that you can make this much cheaper by flying to/from Madrid with Iberia rather than paying UK long haul tax. However, when I search this on the BA website it seems no different

I’ve yet to find a direct flight back to Madrid, they usually connect through LHR. The outbound flight is direct though.

I’m leaving from Scotland so I have to fly somewhere first either way so London, Madrid, Dublin all feels doable, esp if there’s a saving to be made

Am I missing something here?

[VALittleRed]

Are you starting your journey from Madrid and not the UK when you are searching? If not then likely higher uk taxes are being applied

[al_]

Yes, starting from Madrid

[0 post]

140 quid tax and 72k avios for PE madrid to NY. This seems reasonable

[Colin MacKinnon]

Best to search on the Iberia website. You can other posts about Iberia and in them my advice is to go EDI-MAD and back on Easyjet. Stay the night in Madrid on the outbound and have a nice lunch near the airport on the return. Avoids Heathrow.

[zapato1060]

Use aa search which has a handy calendar to find Iberia availability mad to NYC. Search biz. Nonstop.

[ekposh]

Your issue is returning with BA. It might not be pricing the APD, but returning on BA is imposing BA fees.

Though
Return from London to NYC is pricing 85k + £280
Return from Madrid (BA on return) is pricing 72k + £230
Return from Madrid (all IB) is pricing 72k + £140

So there are differences… This is PE

[yonasl]

ekposh wrote:

Your issue is returning with BA. It might not be pricing the APD, but returning on BA is imposing BA fees.

Though
Return from London to NYC is pricing 85k + £280
Return from Madrid (BA on return) is pricing 72k + £230
Return from Madrid (all IB) is pricing 72k + £140

So there are differences… This is PE

I suppose you mean:
LHR-JFK-LHR = 85k + £280
MAD-JFK-LHR = 72k + £230
MAD-JFK-MAD = 72k + £140

My understanding is that when BA gets added into the mix their “Taxes and fees” are different. Remember these are not real “taxes” but just something BA call “taxes and fees” and seem to be higher than the IB ones

You can always try MAD-JFK-MAD-LHR (but personally I would just pay £100 more)

[ekposh]

I did actually mean MAD-JFK-LHR-MAD for the middle option as like the OP was struggling to find availability on IB on return. But you are right in that doing MAD-JFK-LHR would be the same.

As you say, the trick to getting really cheap flights is avoiding introducing any BA metal I guess. For £100 though, I’d pay the extra.

Business might be a different story

[marks7389]

Pricing up business class to/from Mexico, I noticed that the pricing was way higher mixing an Iberia redemption with a BA long haul sector, than booking the legs separately – which of course is a problem if you want it on one companion voucher.

I suspect the BA sector is being excluded from RFS pricing in that case, and you end up paying the now much higher maximum Avios with the full taxes and fees, similar to if you now mix First and Club on a BA redemption.

[Bill_B]

marks7389 wrote:

Pricing up business class to/from Mexico, I noticed that the pricing was way higher mixing an Iberia redemption with a BA long haul sector, than booking the legs separately – which of course is a problem if you want it on one companion voucher.

I suspect the BA sector is being excluded from RFS pricing in that case, and you end up paying the now much higher maximum Avios with the full taxes and fees, similar to if you now mix First and Club on a BA redemption.

You could always book the flights separately and call up to have them linked to the voucher.

[marks7389]

Bill_B wrote:

You could always book the flights separately and call up to have them linked to the voucher.

Assuming that’s allowed. I’m aware of reports people have had problems linking a return BA flight for a 50% Avios refund where different cash/Avios levels were selected from the outbound. I could quite imagine similar issues occurring with a mixed BA/Iberia booking where it may not be immediately obvious which level to select in order to match them, if it even works at all.

Have you successfully done it?