aircrashsurvivor

Blueboys999

grantsteve

How so? I can fly myself and my wife from LHR to JFK in F during June next year for 136k avios plus £1,336.18 in taxes and charges if I use an Amex 2 4 1. If I chose to pay cash for the same flights the total cost is £6,716.04.

I agree that the taxes and charges are high, but for those of us with champagne tastes and a lemonade budget first class leisure travel is now accessible simply by being careful what credit cards we use for everyday spending (and being flexible when and where we travel!).

I'm relatively new to collecting avios and 2 4 1s etc, and perhaps missing something fundamental to the more seasoned travellers, but to me it still seems like a good deal.

mikeyfly

36902BRF

I agree to a point that it is still a decent option at least for F. But some of this comes down to your other options. If you options are cash then yeah still a good deal. For me I have many, many points across multiple airlines and many in transferable currencies such as Amex and Chase that transfer to BA and other carriers besides. I used to be a fan of the 2-4-1 from Chase in the US but I would transfer to BAEC from Amex MR or Chase UR points. Now other carriers present a better opportunity to me. But then I am points rich and prefer to burn them vs cash when I can. Also several times in the past few years I have been able to get decently cheap J fares ex-US on BA for less/equal/little more than BA's insane taxes and fees. At that point it becomes a lot more interesting to just pay cash and possibly upgrade to F with points and earn many (or most depending on status) back from the underlying J fare.

Incidentally VS seems to have also raised their fees to more or less match BA.

fotographer

Just wondering, where are all these taxes going to?

dylanks

They're not taxes, they're "Carrie surcharges"... I assume the higher amounts are being justified to pay for the cost of the Dover class action lawsuit. See the discussion in Ex-US Fuel Surcharges for F up 50% .

Note that the US surcharges are going in the opposite direction of the exchange rate fluctuations. The changes were made when oil was at its relative high for the past few years, but oil prices have now dropped down ~30%, but we'll never see the surcharges decrease.

Given the level of carrier surcharges, BA might as well offer tier points and avios for award bookings at this point since it's more akin to a part-cash, part-avios payment mechanism at the current rates.

DYKWIA

You lot are lucky... A MAN-DXB redemption on EK has about £900 in taxes /surcharges last time I checked

LTN Phobia

If that is the date you want, then redeeming Avios would be a great value.

If your dates are more flexible, then you might as well look for the £2k fare.

I suspect part of the problem is that BA have created this dissatisfaction by feeding too many extremely low fares for premium class travel, got people used to that, and now that they raised the cash component for Avios redemption, it seems like very poor value, even though in reality it is not poor value by normal standard.

Geordie405

I agree 100% with this. I don't want to sound like Supermac but, really, "You've never had it so good" when it comes to extremely low fares for premium class travel. When you look at some of the fares that have been available over the last 12 months and the TP runs that have been available on an ex-EU basis (or to a lesser extent by booking from INV) it's hardly surprising that people start to baulk at what they perceive to be extortionate fees & taxes etc.

dylanks

I would argue the same has not been the case in the reverse direction (ex-US), where both the fares and surcharges are substantially higher. Other than very short term sales, the prices have been among the highest in CW that I've seen in the past 10 years (though the difference in price between CW and F has often been the smallest I've seen).

I did use Avios and a joker about 18 months ago for a booking less than a week out with only a few days of duration, and it was nice to use the joker plus avios instead of $16,000 or so! Currently the sweet spot for avios redemeptions is last minute premium travel, when you're able to find (or with a joker, force) availability.

LTN Phobia

I think people need to stop comparing Avios + cash component to the lowest possible available fare and look at it on the day they want to travel to assess the true value of it and decide whether to make a cash booking or use Avios, rather than feeling grumpy about the high cash component, or if they feel that the cash components are still too high regardless, then they'd need to vote with their feet, or simply book another carrier with which they can use Avios (although obvious 2-4-1 wouldn't work).

Or Gold redemption at double Avios 30 days out when the fares on a particular date is already high.

Further, Avios seats can also be available to the general public even after all the lower fares with the advance booking requirements are no longer available and they can indeed be terrific value.

Cap'n Benj

That's what I've done, as covered above. I'm going via Europe when on miles now ex-US, paying for Norwegian when flying direct.

BA must be getting bookings, my 400,000 Avios are pretty much ear marked for AA domestics now, although in BOS, my options are limited when charged by sector.

allset2travel

I let one 2-4-1 expire recently. Makes absolutely no sense to redeem it!

clubman