Originally Posted by
Time traveller
It's true that you don't pay the APD tax unless your inbound/outbound flights depart from LHR. However I believe LHR in general has higher airport taxes than many other North American or European airports. When I look at the total taxes paid for an itinerary connecting through LHR, it seems the taxes are a couple hundred dollars round-trip, even if I flew on AA metal across the pond.
Right, this is my experience as well. Taxes are always higher when connecting via LHR. I have rebooked awards to go AB through DUS vs BA through LHR and got a pretty decent amount of tax back. You are correct that when originating in LHR, the taxes are at a different stratosphere of insane.