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Hi,
I was looking to book avios reward flights to the Middle East and found availability for 5 of us at the end of the year. For the date we were looking to travel they have both business and first tickets (for 5 of us) one way at:
Business – 350k avios + £512.50
First – 212.5k avios + £2497When I last travelled first (several years ago) I remember the taxes were similar to business, but you just required more avios. Now it seems the avios are less for first, but significantly higher fees. Does the above example sound correct (to Jeddah)?
Between the 2 options, I am assuming the business offering is “better” when taking to account combination of avios and fees?
Hi,
I was looking to book avios reward flights to the Middle East and found availability for 5 of us at the end of the year. For the date we were looking to travel they have both business and first tickets (for 5 of us) one way at:
Business – 350k avios + £512.50
First – 212.5k avios + £2497When I last travelled first (several years ago) I remember the taxes were similar to business, but you just required more avios. Now it seems the avios are less for first, but significantly higher fees. Does the above example sound correct (to Jeddah)?
Between the 2 options, I am assuming the business offering is “better” when taking to account combination of avios and fees?
Since you travelled, BA has introduced Reward Flight Saver options which is why the taxes are lower for the J (Business) booking.
The F (First) taxes are the commercial (non-RFS) taxes, which will align to how you previously booked.
Only you can determine if you want to travel in F or J based on the Avios / Taxes cost as we all have personal preferences and circumstances. Given that it is an eight o’clock evening departure, if you fly F then you can at least have sometime in the CCR prior to the flight, whilst others will rightly state it’s a short overnight flight so the benefit of the F seat and service is wasted.
@DJJ – the F taxes/fees/charges seem about right – if anything a touch on the low side. They fluctuate all the time, but ex UK I would expect to see (per person) APD c.£220, Heathrow PSC c. £50 and YQ c. £300. The Business RFS looks right (good given the two first charges apply equally in Business), but the Avios a touch low? The benefits of F service/seats are never wasted; the whole experience is just that much better!
The F pricing sounds like a bargain for 5 of you. As @JDB says, the experience will be much better than CW; you get free seat selection from the time of booking, the services of You First and access to the Concorde Room if departing from T5.
My guess is that the route is Jeddah, which is one of the 42.5k F/ 70k J routes (with old CW seats).
OP, if you’re willing to start your journey in Dublin, you can probably get the taxes down to under £150pp one way in F (you have to factor in the additional time/cost to get a separate outbound to Dublin, possible overnight stay, and connecting in Heathrow), but for 5 of you, could be worth it, although maybe not if you have small children.
I think they’ve closed that loophole recently and the savings are much less. What you need to watch out for is taxes shooting up if you mix F with another cabin – if you’re being quoted a very high cash amount it may be better making separate outbound and inbound bookings.
I think they’ve closed that loophole recently and the savings are much less. What you need to watch out for is taxes shooting up if you mix F with another cabin – if you’re being quoted a very high cash amount it may be better making separate outbound and inbound bookings.
I just checked out of curiosity, and it’s 57.5k avios plus about £149pp if you fly F from Dublin via Heathrow (that’s with the connection in CE, you might be able to do the connection in ET, but I kept getting an error when trying to select Economy for the DUB-LHR leg). This was only for a one-way, but yes, if you mix/match for the return, it will shoot up.
That’s interesting; I checked a few routes after my bargain DUB-LHR-MEX in F in December, but departing from other European airports seemed to have got a lot more expensive. I didn’t have any issues selecting ET for the DUB-LHR leg – did you try with the stopover facility?
I just checked DUB-LHR-MEX in Y/F and it’s coming out at £418 pp in taxes so I don’t know if BA has now tweaked these routes to make the fees distance-based? We paid about that for 2 of us last year.
Yes, I was choosing stopover (under 24 hours), but when I select an economy flight for the DUB-LHR leg, it was giving an error message. If you choose the option without stopover, it would choose CE by default.
As OP has a party of 5, there will either be children or possibly an older person in their group, so it might not be a sensible option, although to save well over £1k, they might decide it’s worth it. I know my wife wouldn’t agree, though!
The TFCs for First change constantly (and can even move sharply intra-day) for both both cash fares and redemptions (which roughly mirror cash TFCs).
The biggest element is the YQ which can fluctuate from £0 to £500+. The current magic number seems to be £333 up from the previous £300. The actual disbursements on ex-EU LHR transits are mostly fixed and relatively low.
It’s simply the method BA (and other carriers) uses to flex fares when the underlying published fare is constant. That flex can then be used to adjust pricing for fares originating in different markets, so passengers on the same long haul flight can pay very different YQ depending on their departure point, precisely when they booked etc.
I know you understand these things better than most, @JDB, how would you explain the difference between £149 and £418 on the same day?
Different markets and routes.
If DUB- (Middle east) has lots of competition then prices will be lower than a route (like MEX) which may not.
Airline prices are based more on what the market can bear to pay then a simple cost plus some profit basis.
But we’re talking about the fees for an award booking, does demand come into it?
I know you understand these things better than most, @JDB, how would you explain the difference between £149 and £418 on the same day?
For the exact reasons I cited above (I even mentioned intra-day). It’s entirely normal.
To your second point re reward bookings, demand (and other connected commercial considerations) does come into it because the TFCs on F reward bookings fairly closely mirror cash booking ones. Also as covered in my earlier post!
But we’re talking about the fees for an award booking, does demand come into it?
Yes.
Also how much BA think they can get away with!
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