Originally Posted by
guv1976
The fee would apply in that case, because the award's country of origin is changing. If the original award were MAN-LHR-SYD, then you could drop the MAN-LHR segment without charge.
Flying LHR-MAD on a separate ticket then MAD-LHR-SYD might be considerably cheaper (but would cost more time). Flying "ex-EU" as it is called to avoid the tremendous BA LHR fees is quite a popular sport on the BA forum.