Price increase for British Airways Reward Flight Saver flights

I am a big fan of Reward Flight Saver flights.  These allow you to redeem Avios points for BA or Iberia flights within Europe for a modest level of taxes and charges instead of the £100+ charged on a revenue ticket.

The following announcement has appeared on avios.com:

Reward Flight Saver gives you a great deal on British Airways and Iberia flights to Europe and further. It’s a fee you pay and we cover all your taxes, fees and surcharges.

If you book before 8 October 2012, the fee is £27 in Economy Class and £34 in Business Class. After this date, our prices are rising by a small amount to £30 in Economy and £40 in Business.

This increase reflects rises in air passenger duty (APD) – the government’s flight tax – and rises in fuel prices. We’ve kept the increase as small as possible, so we can continue to offer you big savings on flights to Zones 1-3. On average, £30 Reward Flight Saver will save you more money than before.

This is obviously not great news. The statement that this “will save you more money than before” is also spurious, since it assumes that BA will raise flight prices by the same as the increase in APD. In reality, the short haul market is so competitive that I doubt they can do this.

A £3 or £6 rise is clearly not the end of the world, but it is disappointing nonetheless.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)