BA Taxes and Fees for Avios Tickets

I have found that the "taxes and fees" for an Avios award ticket are sky high like many - more than 5 x - times higher than a similar award ticket on United or Lufthansa.

Part seems to be London landing fees - but I am connecting directly. (But I have connected via London on United too.) Is there any way around this? (Seems to make BA award tickets pricey compared to other programs.)

What have other people found?

Not really.

In an ideal world, you would have researched the BA frequent flyer scheme before you decided to make it a big part of your strategy. BA's approach - whether you like it or not - is one which has been consistent for many years now. This also goes for seat pre-allocation, about which you asked in another thread.

i'll never use them on BA. i refuse to pay it.

Welcome to ridiculous YQ charges of the BA program if flying on BA metal....not much you can do to avoid being fleeced... unless you use your points for partner redemptions.

One constant here... you are certain to be told (as you must have discovered by now) that its your own fault for expecting Avios to be relatively similar to other FF programs and you most definitely have no one but yourself to blame for getting ripped off.

One word of advice please, please never, ever mention Chase miles or the vultures will most certainly descend.

Their fees are pretty bad.

That makes it important to know just where you can or should use them without paying for a reward flight with the AVIOS points and the taxes/fees could have bought you a second flight.

They suck but can be pretty good if used properly.

Aer Lingus - BOS to DUB or SNN is 25,000 miles +$144 round trip. We purchased flights from DUB to EDI and they were able to print our boarding passes and check our luggage to EDI. There were a couple of challenges with that, but it allowed us to have a hour connection in DUB. EI also goes from JFK (40,000 points), ORD and MCO (50,000 points) You have to call to book and I used Expertflyer to find the award space. I felt that paying $191 for the positioning flights to save 25,000 points was worth the cost. With BMI being purchased by BA, there might be more award possibilities from DUB.

According to One Mile at a Time, you can transfer your points to Iberia and book through Madrid with no surcharges.

Although your chart raises one question: Why would you ever redeem them for a long-haul economy flight?

Costs less Avios.

But I do agree it is all about your travel aspirations. If you have a budget like a boss do it up.

No, I think he means that the prevailing wisdom is either to spend them for Business or First, or use them to upgrade TO Business or First. Economy redemptions on BA across a pond are horrible redemptions.

Sadly, you're better off using Avios for domestic US travel on AA, and AA miles for flying AA metal across the pond.

Perhaps I could suggest you book on United or Lufthansa?

Am I being naive in believing that in the final analysis the OP would be astute enough to make his own decisions as to which airline program he would rather book?

Why would anyone decide for themselves and eschew the collection wisdom opinion of Milepointers?

Heresy here. But I just needed an intra-EU award. Checked AA, it was 10k AA miles...plus $190 in taxes/fees. I have no status on AA but some miles. Checked Aviosss.... a cash+miles is available for 4500 Avios plus $20. Transferred AX MR into Avios for the redemption. A good value.

So it seems for some intra-EU, Avios taxes you less than AA.

I am beginning to...well, not *like*...but not loathe Avios. BA have made themselves much more useful for intra-EU travel from the UK both with more reasonable fares and one-ways, and by improving EC.

Yes, I see that the BA Avios program is not as "nice" as other programs. I was new to the BA program and was surprised by the fees as well as by other things. The fees appear after booking so it was hard for me to tell at the start of joining the program. I didn't know if I had fallen into this or that fee trap by accident. Thanks for setting me straight.

Yes, I have used award tickets from United Mileage Plus, Lufthansa Miles and More, and Air France. I have done a lot of flying. So I did sort of expect a similar situation with BA. Clearly my mistake. Just odd how BA is running a program that looks to me - now in retrospect - less attractive than its competitors.

Next time I'll check out their partners. Or stop collecting Avios.

That, in part, may be the way you're trying to use it. Every scheme will have "sweet spots" and other points at which the value is terrible.

On BA, there really is no point redeeming in long-haul economy. Just buy a ticket.

But, in contrast, upgrades from WT+ to CW cost relatively little, and there are some routes on which many members can do this for a negative net cost (ie they earn more miles/Avios from flying the upgraded trip than it cost them to upgrade the trip to begin with).

Thank you Globaliser! You made an excellent point about finding the sweet spot of each program. Using Avios for upgrade looks nifty.

Did I get it correctly that BA awards miles on the class you flew rather than the class you bought (buy WT+ ticket and use miles to upgrade to CW - one receives that miles for flying CW?

No.

You get the Avios and Tier Points for the class you paid for (WTP).

But it is still a sweet deal. [If you got them for CW it would be crackpot ridicoulous levels!]

Don't go through London?

SFO-HKG-DXB (one-way, booked as two separate awards) was around $300 in taxes and fees on CX booked with Avios.

Granted, I paid only another $100 for DXB-ZRH-SFO on LX with United miles, but I still think I got a fairly good deal out of Avios.

Avios is what it is. It has been reconfigured to benefit those who it was always meant to benefit - British nationals. All programs change and the reason we spend so much time on MP and FT and reading all those bloggers is so that we know how to make the most of what is out there and stay, as much as possible, ahead of the curve.

And each of us is different. I fall in the group of people willing to pay the fees to go to Europe First Class - and other than the fees, pretty much the same. As I and others have said elsewhere, we get to fly First Class for less than the cost of a Coach ticket. I get that there are those who feel differently but at least they should acknowledge that not everyone feels totally screwed!

And the benefit for those of us here in the US is that there are many AA sweet spots - maybe not the reason we accumulated all those miles but still a good deal. And let's be serious - many of us in the US got those miles as bonuses from credit cards so really, what are we complaining about???!!!

I've been playing this game for almost ten years and cannot begin to quantify the amazing experiences that miles and points have provided me and my wife. If it all ended tomorrow, I'm ahead of the game!

I'm sure you meant to say "British residents". Given that there will be a bias towards London, in the light of BA's own focus on London, and given that a high proportion of Londoners are not British nationals, there'll be lots of foreign nationals who also benefit because they live in or near London.

This.

There are many, many good options for redemption out there with Avios. They just might not be what you were hoping for. Knowing what's useful for the points going in to the game is quite useful.

Also worth noting that fees redeeming on the same flights can vary wildly depending on the program.

True because the main offender (and probably the only one) being BA which still quite illegally collects US transport taxes even on AA flights.

Seems to me on the topic of Avios there might be another demographic here.. the people who are being screwed, who dont know (or dont want to know) it.

BTW to correct one misconception here ... bonus mles for CC not only exist in the US but also in the UK, Canada, the Caribbean among many other places.

Huh??

What are they doing illegally?

This was discussed and proven as far as I (and many others are concerned) elsewhere and if memory serves this very same topic was brought up again within the last day or so on FT.

Why exactly do think when one redeems a domestic AA flight using Avios the taxes are higher???

Thanks for the link.

FWIW, I'm not seeing any obvious discussion of it on the first page of threads here.