Feb 22, 2019, 9:45 am
Last edit by: JDiver
Help with British Airways / BA and IB / Iberia Surcharge / YQ (AA award on BA or IB)
Please see here for the current thread.
Intra-European awards using BA have significantly lower carrier imposed charges; some members may find using AA or other partner transatlantic connecting to BA may be acceptable.
NOTE: Paying YQ may trigger a host of other taxes and fees otherwise not charged on awards that do not include carrier imposed surcharges such as YQ. Flights within the Americas are YQ exempt.
As this is still flying on an award, these carrier imposed surcharges do not qualify for EQM or EQD earning.
Be sure to read the oneworld and Other Airline (Partner) Awards info, rules 2014 on thread wiki for information on searching for and finding alternative flights or those not shown on aa.com, which airlines' websites can find those, etc.
Read more about BA Carrier Imposed Surcharges
Fuel Surcharge for AA award redemptions on BA are up - again.
Partner airline awards now bookable on AA.com (AB, AS, AY, BA, HA, HG, QF, RJ, US)
Does AA push most of its European Awards to BA to collect fuel surcharges?
Charts from TravelIsFree for the three alliances and how you will pay (or avoid) YQ: http://travelisfree.com/2014/04/15/m...surcharges-yq/
HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance
AA oneworld and Other Airline ("All Partner") Award information, rules (2015 on)
Originating a flight in the UK incurs an Air Passenger Duty, reduced for seats with less than 40" seat pitch (except those originating from originating in BFS / Northern Ireland, Scottish Highlands (INV) or Islands, and connections less than 24 hours do not incur UK Air Passenger Duty, though they do incur airport Passenger Service Charges). Separate topic, dealt with:
UK APD / Air Passenger Duty charged for UK departures (Master Thread); defines what the APD is in the wikipost.
Avoiding crazy UK "APD" taxes when transferring through LHR on separate tickets
*Note: BA now calls the YQ a "carrier imposed surcharge" after complaints about the so-called original "fuel surcharge" language. As of October 2017 BA seems to be calling the YQ an "Insurance and Security Surcharge".
ARCHIVE: Avoiding YQ Surcharge: AA award on BA / British (& Iberia - 2012-2016)
Nov 29, 2016, 2:50 pm
#781
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Wesley Chapel, FL
Programs: American Airlines
Posts: 30,028
The other issue is that the ba.com award-search engine often has trouble displaying award itineraries that involve connecting flights, especially when at least one of the connecting flights is on AA. So search for IB availability just on IB's MAD-U.S. gateway flights, and search for the connecting AA flights separately -- either on ba.com, or on aa.com.
I just assumed that those flights are daily and year round so what the previous poster said was important...and what a pain.
Nov 29, 2016, 3:19 pm
#782
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,588
IB flies to more than just those four U.S. gateways. Google "MAD Airport Wiki" to see the airport's Wikipedia entry, which will list all of IB's nonstop destinations from MAD.
Nov 29, 2016, 4:58 pm
#783
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: ORD
Programs: AA, UA, GE
Posts: 5,123
Then you have to do it all over again for the return journey. Not fun.
Nov 29, 2016, 5:05 pm
#784
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: ORD
Programs: AA, UA, GE
Posts: 5,123
Did a schedule search and it looks like LAX and BOS are not year round flights. So the IB flights may be just ORD, JFK and MIA.
Last edited by cheltzel; Nov 29, 2016 at 5:23 pm
Nov 30, 2016, 8:50 am
#785
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Wesley Chapel, FL
Programs: American Airlines
Posts: 30,028
I'm unable to find anything. I first confirmed I have enough points to search, which I do.
At the main page I put in an orgin and destination, clicked 'one world" then selected date range (7 days) from mid January. Am I missing something obvious or is this website also crappy to use too?
Thanks
ETA I think I got it now. I didn't realize it takes several minutes to run a search. I was surprised I found lax-mad and back in IB saver J late may/early June. There is only one date either way but I'm impressed.
That being said it shouldn't be hard to find award mad-lhr and back and also phx-lax and back. Should I use award nexus to look for saver award on the mad-lhr flight and use aa.com for the phx-lax flight? If I can get the over the sea segment in saver J do the other two legs needs to be in saver J (or domestic F saver for the phx-lax leg?).
At the main page I put in an orgin and destination, clicked 'one world" then selected date range (7 days) from mid January. Am I missing something obvious or is this website also crappy to use too?
Thanks
ETA I think I got it now. I didn't realize it takes several minutes to run a search. I was surprised I found lax-mad and back in IB saver J late may/early June. There is only one date either way but I'm impressed.
That being said it shouldn't be hard to find award mad-lhr and back and also phx-lax and back. Should I use award nexus to look for saver award on the mad-lhr flight and use aa.com for the phx-lax flight? If I can get the over the sea segment in saver J do the other two legs needs to be in saver J (or domestic F saver for the phx-lax leg?).
Last edited by enviroian; Nov 30, 2016 at 9:19 am
Nov 30, 2016, 10:50 am
#786
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: ORD
Programs: AA, UA, GE
Posts: 5,123
I'm unable to find anything. I first confirmed I have enough points to search, which I do.
At the main page I put in an orgin and destination, clicked 'one world" then selected date range (7 days) from mid January. Am I missing something obvious or is this website also crappy to use too?
Thanks
ETA I think I got it now. I didn't realize it takes several minutes to run a search. I was surprised I found lax-mad and back in IB saver J late may/early June. There is only one date either way but I'm impressed.
That being said it shouldn't be hard to find award mad-lhr and back and also phx-lax and back. Should I use award nexus to look for saver award on the mad-lhr flight and use aa.com for the phx-lax flight? If I can get the over the sea segment in saver J do the other two legs needs to be in saver J (or domestic F saver for the phx-lax leg?).
At the main page I put in an orgin and destination, clicked 'one world" then selected date range (7 days) from mid January. Am I missing something obvious or is this website also crappy to use too?
Thanks
ETA I think I got it now. I didn't realize it takes several minutes to run a search. I was surprised I found lax-mad and back in IB saver J late may/early June. There is only one date either way but I'm impressed.
That being said it shouldn't be hard to find award mad-lhr and back and also phx-lax and back. Should I use award nexus to look for saver award on the mad-lhr flight and use aa.com for the phx-lax flight? If I can get the over the sea segment in saver J do the other two legs needs to be in saver J (or domestic F saver for the phx-lax leg?).
AwardNexus shroud handle the connections like PHX-LAX-MAD or PHX-ORD-MAD. I don;t use it much so I am not sure how to set it up to look for specific routes although the site seems to indicate that you can.
Please see here for the current thread.
Last edited by JDiver; Mar 19, 2019 at 6:56 am Reason: Insert moderator note