British Airways cuts Avios flight taxes to £1 in the UK and Europe – but it isn’t as good as it sounds

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

It’s back. Following a short trial in April, British Airways is rolling out ‘£1 taxes’ Avios redemptions on ALL UK and European routes for a trial period.

Instead of paying £35 (Euro Traveller) or £50 (Club Europe) in taxes and charges on return short haul flights, you can now choose to use more Avios and reduce your taxes and charges to just £1.

Be wary, however. This is not necessarily a great deal.

Avios wing 9

Take a look at the screenshot below as an example. It shows a return Avios redemption on British Airways in Euro Traveller (economy) from London Heathrow to Nice.

If you look at our full list of Avios redemption pricing by route (click here), this would normally price at 8,000 Avios + £35 for a Reward Flight Saver reward redemption on an off-peak date.

Instead, you get (click to enlarge):

The ‘headline’ price is shown as 15,000 Avios + £1 in taxes and charges.

When you click through to the payment page, you are given this list of options:

The ‘old’ option of 8,000 Avios + £35 is not there. It has actually got cheaper – you are now offered 8,000 Avios + £31.

It isn’t easy, at first glance, to see which option is the ‘best’ value, assuming you have a lot of Avios and a lot of cash. However, doing the maths:

15,000 Avios + £1 = base offer

11,500 Avios + £21 = £20 spent to save 3,500 Avios = ‘buying’ Avios at 0.57p

8,000 Avios + £31 = £30 spent to save 7,000 Avios = ‘buying’ Avios at 0.43p

5,900 Avios + £61 = £60 spent to save 9,100 Avios = ‘buying’ Avios at 0.66p

5,000 Avios + £71 = £70 spent to save 10,000 Avios = ‘buying’ Avios at 0.7p

4,400 Avios + £81 = £80 spent to save 10,600 Avios = ‘buying’ Avios at 0.75p

As long as you value an Avios point at 0.43p or higher – and all HfP readers should value them far higher than this – you should NOT take the £1 offer.

The only question in your mind should be which of the other scenarios is best for you – all of them are basically letting you ‘buy’ Avios VERY cheaply by using more cash. The only issue is whether you buy a few for a very low price (8,000 Avios + £31 is the best ‘price per point’ spot) or buy a lot for a higher price (4,400 Avios + £81). Taking the £1 offer is a bad deal.

British Airways reduces Avios taxes to £1

It happens in Club Europe too

If you try to book a Club Europe return flight to Venice, you get these options on a peak day.

This flight SHOULD cost 30,000 Avios + £50 return. The new headline offer is:

…. with the following alternatives:

If we do the maths again:

40,000 Avios + £1 = base offer

35,600 Avios + £25 = £24 spent to save 4,400 Avios = ‘buying’ Avios at 0.55p

30,000 Avios + £50 = £49 spent to save 10,000 Avios = ‘buying’ Avios at 0.49p

22,000 Avios + £121 = £120 spent to save 18,000 Avios = ‘buying’ Avios at 0.67p

20,000 Avios + £141 = £140 spent to save 20,000 Avios = ‘buying’ Avios at 0.7p

16,000 Avios + £161 = £160 spent to save 24,000 Avios = ‘buying’ Avios at 0.67p

You get the same result as in the Economy example. The £1 deal is the worst deal. As long as you believe you can get more than 0.49p per point on another redemption, it makes sense to pay more cash and use fewer Avios.

Another factor …. cancellation costs

I have just said, twice actually, that the £1 deal is the worst deal.

Except ….

If you believe that there is high chance of cancelling a ticket, the £1 route is possibly the best one. When you cancel an Avios redemption, the cancellation fee is the lower of £35 per ticket OR the taxes paid. If you only paid £1 in taxes, your cancellation fee is only £1.

For a family of four, you are getting your potential cancellation cost down from £140 to £4 by taking the least cash route.

Is offering ‘£1 taxes’ a good thing or not?

On the face of it, it is fine. It gives people more options and that is generally a good thing.

I don’t recommend taking the £1 deal if you earned your points from credit card spending, Tesco Clubcard conversions, Heathrow Rewards conversions etc. You are getting a poor return compared to taking one of the other deals.

Of course, you may be happy with this new offer if all of your points came from flying or you are ‘Avios rich, cash poor’.

I’m sure that more quirks in the pricing will come clear in the next few days. And, of course, this is officially still a trial.

PS. You need to qualify for Reward Flight Saver to get the £1 deal. We explain Reward Flight Saver here. This means that your British Airways Executive Account needs to have earned 1 Avios over the past 12 months. If you have not done this – unlikely for a HfP reader – you will be shown the full taxes when you try to book.

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

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

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

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: