Bits: BA launches Flight Pass, BA drops fuel surcharges from Brazil

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News in brief:

British Airways launches Flight Pass

Old British Midland flyers may remember that BMI let you buy a ‘carnet’ ticket which gave you 10 flights on a particular route for a discount – and occasionally came with free BMI status thrown in.

British Airways is now quietly trialling something similar. Via this OptionTown link, you can buy route passes for economy travel on flights from Heathrow and Gatwick.

There are a huge number of pricing permutations based on how many people would share your pass, how many tickets you want, what expiry date you are willing to accept and how close to the date of travel you want to book. You can buy a pass for one route or for an entire country.

The most expensive option, ‘Freedom’, lets you book onto any service with an available seat up to four hours prior to departure.

Given the huge number of pricing options, it is impossible to say if this offers decent savings or not. I am not sure who the target market is for such a product in 2015, when anyone can book a last minute flight with a few clicks via their smartphone. Note that you can only book return flights with Flight Pass which means that it is less flexible than you may think – you may be able to book your outbound with just four hours notice but you need to lock in the return at the same time (changeable for a fee).

There is one interesting tweak. The basic Flight Pass books into L class which means you will earn 10 tier points per leg, which is 5 more tier points than you would receive from a standard discount economy flight. A ‘Freedom’ flight books into B class which earns 20 tier points each way.

If you are interested, the link is here.

British Airways drops fuel surcharges out of Brazil

It has been illegal for some time to add fuel surcharges to flights from Brazil. This did not bother BA, which was happy to put two fingers in its corporate ears and shout ‘nah nah nah, we’re not listening’ whilst taking your money with its remaining eight fingers.

Words appear to have been had. It is not clear if any fine or back payment has been made. It is also not clear if you can ask for compensation if you have recently booked or flown a redemption from Brazil.

In any event, you will now find that the taxes on British Airways Avios redemptions from Brazil are just £24 in any class.

It is now substantially cheaper to book Brazil redemptions as 2 x one-way tickets:

A Club World redemption to Sao Paulo from the UK, return, has £517 of tax

A Club World redemption to Sao Paulo booked as two one-ways has (£338 + £24 =) £362

The downside here is that, if you are using a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher, you need to book the former rather than the latter. This means you are paying an enforced extra surcharge of £310 for a couple.

At present, ba.com seems to be causing a pricing error if you try to book as it adds back the fuel surcharge on the payment page. avios.com is working OK so I recommend booking via an avios.com account.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

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 BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

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British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

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

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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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

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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.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Ralph says:

12 Oct12 October 08:41

Would it not be the case if one booked 355 days out online on a 2 4 1that BA would charge the £338 × 2 and then when you call them to book the return leg a week or two later they could only charge the £24 × 2?
- Rob says:
  
  12 Oct12 October 08:48
  
  My gut feeling is that the answer is no but, given BA IT, you never know! Do let me know if this worked.
  
  Back in BMI Diamond Club days, you could book a redemption from Dublin, eg Dublin to Heathrow to Bangkok, to avoid APD. You then rang the call centre in India, not the brightest of the bunch, and tell them to drop the first flight. They never asked for the APD ….
sean says:

12 Oct12 October 08:46

Just did a trial for 10 flights to a destination I go to a lot, and it seems to be a lot cheaper with the options I picked.
May well have to look into this more later when I’m fully awake
Stuart says:

12 Oct12 October 08:49

“Flight Pass” looks interesting for me. I travel to Geneva at least ten times a year. I advance purchase which isn’t always the best option for me, usually in economy but always on the cheaper flights that allow no changes and only give me the minimum number of TP. A run through the Optiontown site shows that I can get eight return economy flights to Geneva with just four hours advance booking time for £145 each. Unless I’m missing something this seems pretty good value. If I wanted to fly tomorrow on BA, returning in two days the cost would be over £500 in economy!
- Cosmo74 says:
  
  12 Oct12 October 09:15
  
  Are you sure it’s £145 return? I believe that the flight prices they show are for a one-way flight, although it’s not entirely clear from the website.
  - Stuart says:
    
    12 Oct12 October 09:42
    
    Yes, you are correct, it’s for a one-way flight only.
    - James Alexander says:
      
      31 Oct31 October 11:26
      
      Just had emailed and (belt and braces approach) had call with Optiontown – which seems run off-shore from UK – and have been given assurance that prices are for one way segments and you must use 2 each time (i.e. make a round trip purchase).
      WAY too expensive compared to old BMI shuttle from GLA to LHR
- Thunderbirds says:
  
  12 Oct12 October 12:22
  
  Prices look poor on my selections when you consider that you are locked in for the duration.
  Also T&C state: The FP is only available to Executive Club Members who have been contacted by British Airways Plc in connection with the offer.
  Do we need an invitation..?
  - Rob says:
    
    12 Oct12 October 12:33
    
    No – that message was there during the recent trial and, even then, it was actually open to all.
neuromancer says:

12 Oct12 October 10:17

Well, if your account is in Brazil nothing has changed. There is still the message that you cannot book online any flights originating from Brazil. I wonder if I call will they still try to include the fuel surcharge as before (adding the off-line fee of course).
Luckily their IT skills are not very good, so with a few clicks around you still can buy a ticket online without having to bargain on the phone.
xcalx says:

12 Oct12 October 10:38

Nothing looks to have changed over on the BA site. When booking one way from GRU the taxes show as £24 when you proceed to payment the cost jumps to £195 just like before (well a little less). Has anyone managed to get the BA £24 Brazil to UK taxes honoured.
- neuromancer says:
  
  12 Oct12 October 11:00
  
  You can use avios.com, they charge the correct taxes if things have not changed. If you can’t (avios distributed in various accounts in a HHA for example), there is still a way to do it from ba.com, if you change your country to Brazil and try to find a way around… I don’t want to share it publicly to avoid it being fixed.
Boddingtons says:

12 Oct12 October 11:08

Worth noting that if you able to plan your trips in advance, starting an Aviios ticket from Brazil and having a stopover in London with an onwards sector elsewhere should result in nil YQ on that sector also.

Eg GRU-LHR/stopover/LHR-SIN

Could possibly be worth booking and paying the change fee, assuming it’s a route with frequent availability
- Rob says:
  
  12 Oct12 October 11:59
  
  So it does.
  
  GRU – LHR (long layover) – AUH only comes with £209 of tax, of which the bulk is the APD out of London.
  - Sebastian says:
    
    12 Oct12 October 22:25
    
    I believe this requires a detailed article Rob.
Dave says:

12 Oct12 October 12:02

Thanks for the update Raffles. I’ve got reward flights booked with BA from GIG in March and have just spent half an hour on the Gold Card line and they have said if I want a refund of these I need to pursue via a legal channel as they haven’t made a public announcement.
James Alexander says:

31 Oct31 October 11:24

Optiontown BA Passes – very expensive as the prices quoted were for single tickets. Eg Glasgow to London at a 7 day notice and buying 10 over 12 months, the cost of each single segment (i.e. a one way ticket) was £135, WAY to high to merit the cost of this upfrontery !