3 Great Ways To Avoid Avios Fees

If you are new to collecting Avios you may be shocked by the ‘taxes and fees’ British Airways charge on Avios redemptions. With around £600 of ‘taxes and fees’ on long-haul business class flights, you’re probably looking at a way you can avoid Avios fees as much as possible! Read on to find out different ways you can minimise the ‘taxes and fees’ that you pay…

How to Avoid Avios Fees (as much as possible!)

Below are several methods that will help you minimise the ‘tax and fees’ you are required to pay on your Avios redemptions

1. Sticking to Europe! In Europe, with BA’s reward flight saver scheme, the ‘taxes and fees’ of flights are capped at £35 return in economy class and £50 return in business class per person. You’re eligible as long as you’ve collected at least one Avios in the past 12 months.
2. Start your long-haul flight in Jersey or Inverness. Journey’s that start in either location don’t have any Air Passenger Duty charged. This means a long-haul flight from these, connecting in London, will save you around £150
3. Start outside the UK & fly with a partner and not BA. You have a few different options here…

Option A

Iberia offers low ‘taxes and fees’ compared to BA. Flying to Madrid – New York with Iberia rather than London – New York with BA will save you approx £500 on a Business Class return. You will need to book via Iberia.com rather than BA.

Option B

b) Another option when flying to America/Canada is Aer Lingus from Dublin or Shannon. Unfortunately, you will need to ring BA to book onto these flights but that small inconvenience could save you up to £600!

Option C

Qatar Airways serves a lot of Europe and via Doha, you can connect to almost anywhere in the world. Flights tend to be more expensive in Avios but you will save a couple of hundred pounds in ‘taxes and fees’. Try different European cities to find the best deal!

Remember if you are trying to Avoid Avios Fees…

If you have to locate to another European city before taking your long-haul flight you will need to account not only the timings to arrive on time and make your connection but also the Avios/Cash required to locate to that city.

Don’t forget the BA Companion Voucher (Amex 2-4-1 Voucher) is ONLY VALID ON BA FLIGHTS.

Conclusion

I hope this post has given you a few ideas as to how you can avoid Avios fees & potentially get better value out of your Avios points.

If you are looking to kick-start your Avios with a huge 200,000 haul don’t forget to take a look at our guide to fast track yourself to a rather cool 200,000 Avios points – https://pointsuncovered.com/american-express/fast-track-yourself-to-2000000-avios-points/