Originally Posted by
Rommie2k6
I'm getting very frustrated with the ridiculous taxes for LHR departure flights. Award tickets business class fees are now approaching deeply discount economy tickets. I know the alternative is not to fly from LHR and reposition and fly from somewhere else, CDG, DUB, or any other EU city.
The taxes out of LHR, while describable as "ridiculous", are only GBP 150. Everything else is fees levied by the airport or the airline.
If your FFP has extra surcharges on redemptions out of LHR, it probably has similar surcharges from other European cities, and £150 extra is not that much and should still make it a good deal (but maybe not great) on premium class redemptions.
For paid flights, the tax is probably mostly absorbed by the airlines due to competitive pressures; that is, they have to reduce their base fares by nearly the full amount of the tax to avoid losing business.
For those who fly in/out of UK regularly, what's the best and cheapest, aka no extra fees, no extra hotels, no extra time, method of repositioning, if at all possible? I also know a popular approach is to fly using budget airlines from smaller airports - are you not concerned that flights get delayed and you will miss your actual flight, and you have limited/no options from that small airport should trouble arise (yes, even if it is the day before)
If you meant CPH rather than CPK, I flew Norwegian for £35 last time, and anyway, the cost of the flight out of CPH was about £1500 less than out of LHR (not that I care what it would have cost out of LHR since I wouldn't have paid that). The positioning costs were thus simply a cost of the entire trip. Furthermore, I simply included a visit to Copenhagen in that trip, so it was technically completely free since I would have paid more than that just to visit Denmark on its own.
I'm not sure how you can reposition without any extra time or fees. There are budget hotels and hostels even in the most expensive cities of the world, if you don't want to lie on a bench at the airport.
There can't be any "best and cheapest" way as it will differ for every flight.
Smaller airports only work if you actually live close to one, or are visiting an area close to one. Then, getting to another EU city and connecting to LHR may not take that much longer or cost much more than going from your home to LHR in the first place (bonus if you aren't flying BA and avoid LHR completely). You take out travel insurance to cover missed flights, and leave a reasonable time to make the next one.
Originally Posted by
NWIFlyer
Now in this particular case you might have been unlucky enough to need to catch the first flight out of CPH to connect to your ongoing flight in London, but that’s unusual - mostly, given the choice, you can reach your final destination by picking a suitable flight combination to work the immediate turnaround.
If you need to take the first BA flight out of CPH, you can still do a B2B if you're so inclined: it's more comfortable to go through passport control into the Schengen area as you can lie down flat in the Transfer Centre, where lights are dimmed after around midnight. But even staying in the non-Schengen area overnight is not that bad. Just don't go landside!