Too good to be true?!

[robknight]

Hi guys,

Long time lurker…first time poster!

I am looking at flying 5 people from JFK to LHR using Avios.

If I book with BA, the taxes are going to be about £3,000.

However, if I use Avios to book with American Airlines, the taxes seem to be only £4.70!

At least, that’s what the AA website says!

Is that true? Surely it can’t be?!

What am I missing here? Thanks

[BJ]

Prices at AA website are for using AA miles not avios.

[robknight]

Thanks
When you say ‘prices’ do you mean the taxes? Or the amount of points shown?

[Rui N.]

Both…

[RK228]

robknight wrote:

However, if I use Avios to book with American Airlines, the taxes seem to be only £4.70!

What am I missing here? Thanks

As others have indicated, the key thing you’re missing is that the AA website uses a different reward currency so to speak so you can’t use Avios to book on AA’s site.

[davefl]

You’re missing a few things.

You can’t use Avios to book via AA.com AA have their own reward currency.

AA taxes to the UK are low, that’s correct

You can book AA metal from JFK-LHR on ba.com but you’ll pay the extortionate BA taxes and only IF you can find availability. BA.com will only show what were formerly called AASupersaver awards (no longer shown as such at AA.com) which are the lowest type of award. Pretty rare to find one.

[AJA]

One of the reasons taxes and fees and other charges on BA Avios reward flights departing the US are so high is because Avios are relatively easy to accumulate in the US from generous credit card sign up bonuses. BA is effectively recovering some of the cost of giving away Avios.

[kevind]

Interesting thread. I know this is an Avios/Reward Flight discussion but it peaked my interest in different costings. I decided to have a look at my upcoming trip to NYC with AA and various prices depending on how it’s booked. Just for interest.

Conclusion: My flight AA105 on 23/08/2022 costs exactly the same (one way and return, in all classes) if booked on BA or booked on the American Airlines website.

For some reason, for Flight AA105 on 23/08/2022 it does not allow you to book a First Class seat on either website, despite vacant 1st class seats shown in the first class cabin when you click “Seats”. The aircraft is scheduled to be their 777-300 (77W) and has only been operated by a 777-200 (with no first class) 6 times since 27th March. Is there a reason for this?

[Rui N.]

Yes, you’ve discovered that AA and BA have a joint venture 🙂

[AJA]

@kevind firstly it is piqued not peaked (apologies but I have to correct that error), secondly the revenue sharing agreement between BA AA IB and Finnair is why the fares are exactly the same on both BA and AA websites and thirdly the inability to purchase seats could simply be down to the fact that that flight had already departed by the time you tried to book. It left LHR at 12:18pm yesterday.

[kevind]

LOL
My bad! I meant 23rd September. I’ve double checked tonight and still unable to book a seat in First class despite the seating diagram showing 5 out of the 8 seats in the First cabin are “Available”.

I thought I read somewhere on here about the differences in price on the same flights when booking with different airlines of the same alliance. I’m getting confused. Excuse my newbie status!

Thanks AJA.

[ChrisC]

If they aren’t selling F the likely hood is they’ve sold all the tickets they are prepared to sell.

Looking at a seat map is a very poor indication of how busy a flight will be because not everyone selects a seat at the moment of booking.

[kevind]

Fair enough Chris.
Cheers