Exorbitant taxes on Redemption Tix
 

I am used to the Miles & More programme charging ridiculous taxes on award tix. For example, a recent search for a flight to Vancouver revealed taxes of EUR350 on top of a Round Trip award tkt. But what about Diamond Club? The call centre seems really inconsistent, and quotes different things all the time. My research for a One Way flight to New York JFK via Zurich revealed taxes of GBP180+, which seems absurd. The booking class was to be Economy, the redemption a Cash & Miles one, thus incurring another GBP70 for the One Way.

Does GBP180 seem about right to you for a OW via ZRH? Is there any other cheaper way of doing it? The choice of carrier or class is not so important, just the need to get there sometime soon on a OW tkt.

It depends, to some degree, where you start from.....

Sorry... I forgot to mention that. The starting point, in this case, would have to be LHR, no way out of it. Maybe some other routing, say US over Philadelphia, might be better.

Possibly, yes.

The question you need to ask yourself is, is it really worth spending £250 plus miles for a one way Economy fight to JFK, when a return flight can often be had for around £300 on a normal revenue booking.

Use your miles wisely for Business or First bookings.

Don't forget that the cost isn't just for taxes. The figures quoted are to cover taxes and fuel surcharges. Depending on the carrier, this can be the real killer part of the cost.

Quite agree. But isn't there a horrible new APD for business class departures from the UK? Or hasn't it come into effect yet? Do all carriers charge such high taxes across the Atlantic?

Interesting this, I have recently had same issues.

It seems LHR is the problem.

I booked in the end MAN-PHL-ORD-DEN and DEN-ORD-PHL-MAN all economy £90 Taxes Return!!

If I went through LHR it was £300+

While the taxes through LHR are probably more than through MAN I would not say they are anywhere as much as in your example. Usually you can find a detailed break down of the taxes on http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ and that should pretty much match what DC quote you for taxes.

Indeed. The reason why msportmad's taxes are so low have less to do with the LHR vs not-LHR routing and more to do with the fact that the tatl carrier is US, which does not charge any fuel surcharge.

Hadnt realised this, the other options i was quoted were including LH and Swiss tatl which both had Fuel surcharges putting them in the £300 region.

Thanks for the clarification :)

I am looking to book my flights to LAX in November. Rang DC and first class from Zurich to LAX was £110 cash + £180 tax (I think it was around this figure). However, my starting point is LON. I asked how much more it would be if I start in LHR and the guy stated £110 cash + £250 tax.

As a result Im going to fly easyjet out of Luton to Zurich for £32. Bargin!! ^

Did you ask how much it would have been if the LON-ZRH segment was booked in Y? I did exactly the same thing as you but never thought of booking the first leg in Y. I suspect the tax man has it all figured out and will charge the premium rate if you tried.

Erm, £110 cash + £180 tax(and charges)
vs £110 cash + £250 tax(and charges)
is only a £70 increase in taxes and charges.

Given the protection and convenience afforded by being on a single ticket, and business class to boot, a 38 pound saving seems a bit low for the 'bargain' label! ;)

The tax man does indeed have it figured out. You would still be charged at the premium rate based on that scenario. You would need a break of journey of over 24 hours to get the lower APD rate, which of course we can't do on a DC redemption in Europe.

I have to agree with that especially if you want the luggage allowance.....a saving of £38 could easily become a extra expense of £****s of pounds if your positioning flight fails to arrive on time. Crazy.