British Airways starts to cut long-haul fuel surcharges on Avios redemptions

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• callum says:

  28 Jan28 January 09:35

  The carrier surcharge is for all intent and purpose part of the fare that has been separated from the main fare – hence why you can sometimes find a fare of 2 or 3 quid. That obviously wouldn’t happen if they didn’t have the surcharge. It is NOT a fuel surcharge so there’s no reason why it should half if fuel prices half – these modest cuts could have happened to the fare instead if there was no surcharge.

  And there is also no reason to get a refund of this now it’s been cut. You don’t get a refund if the fare drops in a sale – why should you now?

• James 67 says:

  28 Jan28 January 09:55

  OT: BAEC to be revenue based according to reports this morning 🙁

  • @mkcol says:

    28 Jan28 January 10:06

    Hardly surprising given what United & Delta have already done, and Cathay are looking at too.

• richie says:

  28 Jan28 January 10:18

  its very early days to judge but looking at the new reward peak/offpeak callender it actually looks like an improvement.
  bad news for economy traveler on earning though.
  more award seat avaliable, and higher earning rates for premium cabins. im actually quite happy with the changes

• Nathan says:

  28 Jan28 January 10:19

  Just tried to book a cash+avios biz class return to JfK from both London and Dublin to see price difference… An extra 9,000 avios needed and the taxes etc are the same pretty much… I am sure the difference in price when I checked last time was huge

  • DONE4 says:

    28 Jan28 January 10:55

    Nothing has changed yet so you are incorrect, even for bookings a year away.

• richie says:

  28 Jan28 January 10:20

  silver bonus down from 100% to 50% is bad news though

• Melvin says:

  28 Jan28 January 10:46

  I drafted this long (sorry) message yesterday but did not where to post it. This thread seems appropriate as it may have an impact on any replies to my questions. Here goes…

  I am planning a family trip in March/April 2016 which will involve long haul travel (Caribbean or Mexico) and I would like some advice on the best use of my BAEC Avios points. My family comprises two adults, one child and two infants. There’s no way that my wife and I are prepared to travel WT with an 18 month old (each) plus a 5 year old and therefore I am looking at the most appropriate entry into CW – either by booking WT+ and upgrading or a straight redemption. I currently do not have the full 320,000 Avios required for the CW redemption however I believe I will by the end of March (in a HH account), in time for the 355 day booking window.

  Other factors which will affect the best course of action are:

  1) The trip will fall within the Easter school holidays (either part of it or possibly all of it) and there is no flexibility there.
  2) I am not currently set on any one destination or hotel.
  3) I plan on obtaining Amex Platinum so that I can reserve our seats (via CX Gold) well in advance.
  4) I am looking at direct flights with BA only.
  5) If booking redemption tickets I will book the return leg for the same day, at the same time, so not to lose out waiting for the return leg to become available.
  6) I do not have a 2-4-1 companion voucher nor the capacity to spend the £10k withing the next two months.

  My current thinking, from reading this forum and others, is that I will be better off with a straight redemption (based on my circumstances). The advantages seem to be that I can cancel/reschedule without too much trouble. An advantage would appear to be that I’ll spend less cash as the taxes and fees in CW than the WT+ fare + taxes and fees.The disadvantage would appear to be that it uses more points and I would not earn any further rewards from taking the flights.

  The other option(s) open to me seem to be:

  a) Book WT+ with cash via BA MMB and upgrade at the time of booking.
  b) Book a package holiday inc. WT+ seats and then use MMB to upgrade.

  Option (b) sounds risky because there is no guarantee of an upgrade being available for the dates booked and trying to liaise with the TA whilst searching for available seats appears complicated for the size of my party and the limited dates.

  I would be very grateful if my assumptions above could be confirmed or disputed and for any further suggestions not stated here.

  Thanks

  • nick says:

    28 Jan28 January 11:21

    I am certain there will be a post on here which discusses the significant changes to redemption prices. These come for bookings made after 28 April 2015. It will almost certainly mean an increase in the amount of avios you need for a CW redemption, so you will want to book it before the changes come in.

    You can book your flights up to 355 days in advance, so you should just about be able to get it booked in time, but whether you can find availability for all of you in the same cabin is probably going to be an issue. You might also have a problem as you will be trying to book flights at the same time as everyone else as people try to burn through their Avios mountains before the 28 April 2015 devaluation hits.

    • Melvin says:

      28 Jan28 January 11:56

      I will definitely be booking before 28th April. BA say that bookings before this date will receive today’s benefits even if flying after this date. I wonder if this will work to my advantage as the additional seats that they are promising may be available at the time of my booking?

  • goglobalnz says:

    28 Jan28 January 10:50

    Cathay Gold with Amex Platinum is no longer an option.

    Booking with a baby gives you free seat selection on BA though

    • goglobalnz says:

      28 Jan28 January 10:54

      Although you might like to try a dummy booking as 18 months will be too old for bassinets (Which seem to trigger the free seat selection).

      Follow the flyertalk link above, everything’s changing as of April and quite a bit to digest there

    • Melvin says:

      28 Jan28 January 11:04

      I flew CW to Orlando last March with a large family group and one of party was able to somehow ‘port’ his Cathy Gold through the Finnair website in order to reserve all of our seats (he learnt about it from FlyerTalk). It this not an option any more?

      • goglobalnz says:

        28 Jan28 January 12:29

        Hi – it’s just that CX Gold is not a benefit for new AMEX Plat applications. That horse has bolted

        • nick says:

          28 Jan28 January 13:13

          Amex are confused too. There are still parts of the UK website that tell you that you get elite frequent flyer status with the plat card, as do the welcome packs. But it is absolutely the case that you do not. Not even sure that Centurion cardholders get it any more either.

        • Melvin says:

          28 Jan28 January 12:48

          I’m confused then? Am I misinterpreting this:

          https://www.americanexpress.com/india/microsite/plat_rcp/cathaypacific_2.html

        • Alan says:

          28 Jan28 January 12:56

          That’s the Amex Plat in India though, so probably not relevant to most HfP readers 😉 Each country has slightly different benefits, CX Gold is no longer one of them in the UK.

• Chris says:

  28 Jan28 January 11:35

  Basically (from 28 April), the changes to Avios redemptions mean (that for long haul) you’ll pay Business rates for WT+ and First rates for Business redemption during peak times.

  Off peak is a bit less (but still more than current).

  Just hope Tesco -> Avios conversion doesn’t change.

  • richie says:

    28 Jan28 January 11:46

    wtpluss rates are 13% less for off peak and 7% more for peak
    business is 50% more
    first 50%more
    the option to upgade economy is now a good thing

  • SingingDwarf says:

    28 Jan28 January 11:48

    I wouldn’t be surprised, not with all the surplus currency HP readers have been generating at Tesco with the gift card purchases. If they are printing more money, there is bound to be a devaluation in the pipeline.

  • nick says:

    28 Jan28 January 13:09

    BA are telling us that the amount of avios needed will go down for 2/3 of the year so presumably they will strongly deny that there has been a devaluation here. That being the case, I don’t really see the justification for changing the Tesco conversion rate. They’ve already effectively done this by ending the bonus conversion periods.

    I stopped converting clubcard in to avios ages ago anyway – there is better value to be had.

    • Mike says:

      28 Jan28 January 17:34

      It’s a devaluation for people who only book J+F – though if availability is increased significantly then I wouldn’t be too upset about that. After all, Avios that I can’t use aren’t worth very much anyway!

• Aeronaut says:

  28 Jan28 January 11:49

  For all the criticism that Ryanair used to get (of late FR has got rid of most of the nonsense and is also upfront about its extra charges), one could say they weren’t so different to BA et al with their fuel / ‘carrier imposed’ surcharges malarkey. A fare should be a fare – otherwise you might as well have staffing surcharges, cleaning surcharges, refreshment surcharges etc etc.

  The way that airlines still manage to get people thinking and talking about “taxes” when most of the supposed “tax” is nothing of the sort is equally ludicrous and misleading. Afraid Raffles is often guilty of perpetuating this too!

  • Cheshire Pete says:

    28 Jan28 January 12:02

    Manchester stabbed in the back after BA promised we wouldn’t be disadvantaged when they pulled their Euro services. No more free connections to short haul.

    Quite nasty reslly

    • M says:

      28 Jan28 January 12:21

      Totally agree.

    • czechoslovakia says:

      28 Jan28 January 13:07

      Couldn’t agree more. so now its going to cost 18,000 avios + (presumably) £70 RFS on my monthly MAN-XXX-PRG trip, or just £130 cash with LH/LX. Factor in via BA its usually 6 to 7 hours including the stop off in/around/above LHR, or just 4 hours via ZHR/MUC/FRA – no point grabbing avios anymore. Had planned on getting BA Silver this year booking 4x CE, but since the seat enhancements, cancelled them too.
      I have earnt my *A FTL status, and as long as Lufty continues to look after me, from today onwards they get all my business. Actively looking to burn my avios stash now – as I`m sure the masses are doing also.
      Luckily I have not converted my stash of MR points to avios. And Avios bonus or no-bonus, whats in my Clubcard account will be converted into Goldsmiths/Hotel vouchers instead.
      Bye Bye BA! That really was the last nail. And I`m sure most of north agrees with me.

      • nick says:

        28 Jan28 January 13:11

        yeah, I do feel for those in the north and northern ireland. It’s a staggeringly biased change.

        Unless you live in London, BA don’t want your business.

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