Originally Posted by
ermis177
They are not taxes. They are pretty much what each airline is charging for the 'free flight'. Unfortunately the big groups IAG,LH and possibly AF/KLM are overcharging for redemptions. Ex US is one of the poorest way to use your avios. I will give you an example for a random day i picked up.
09/03/2020. SFO-LON. BA is asking £500+ plus the avios.
LH is asking around 600+ euros plus the miles.
One the other hand if i book with TAP via Lisbon i will only pay 26 euros or with United via Frankfurt 82 euros.
The above prices are for C.
That is true. But every time I've tried booking things like this, the dynamic milage calculator is maxed up and it quotes me 150000 miles instead of the 50000 or so it should be one way. So while the fee component is low, I'd have to have flown an extra couple of LH return in J to get enough miles. Perhaps I haven't looked hard enough, but I've never found much use for my skyteam or star miles. I guess there is always sweet spots. Ba's is UuA.
My Aeroméxico miles went on hotels as to upgrade with points you needed to buy flex economy which was only 100 dollars cheaper than paid J. Any business class redemption was quoted at 300k points, thanks to dynamic pricing.