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Our Recent Experience w/ FF Award Seat Travel

jerseyfinn

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Lots of us here strategize how to use our TS weeks, MR points, & FF miles for award flights. It varies by the individual & your goals. Thought I'd toss out a caveat we encounter recently when booking our own FF agenda. I don't suggest that all TUGgers might have this problem. It's dependent upon your airline & the alliance to which it belongs & the destination to which you are flying, specifically international travel to/from Europe.

Our problem involves flying in or out of the UK via British Air. We encounter high tariffs which turn a supposedly "free" award travel into a costly headache. Our situation is constrained by the pending merger between US Air & American. Presently individuals who still fly US Air are now required to book all award travel via American. Your award travel can be transacted on US Air, American, or British Air flights depending upon dates & availability. So in this sense, life is good ;)

We have no problem finding award seat availability booking award travel with American. Our issue becomes avoiding excessive taxes/tariffs on our award seats. Keep in mind that these fees vary according to the type of award seat you seek. In our case, we want lay flat business award eats which understandably will create higher fees. Our problem is our difficulty booking award travel via American/US Air that does not book us on a British Air flight either as a single or connecting flight.

We encounter taxes/fees that ran as high as $1800 for the two us & at minimum, $1400 no matter what routing, city pairs, or dates we submit. ALL of this is a function of being booked on a British Air flight. So the solution here for any TUGger who encounters a similar situation is to keep searching until you find a routing that does not fly BA metal via London or UK where the taxes are draconian. In our case we settle on routings that fly award business seats RT PHL-LHR on BA ($400 in taxes ) & BCN-MIA-PHL on AA ( $74 in taxes ). And please understand, I don't object to award fees. But it is ridiculous when your "free" seats cost you $1400 to $1800 in fees.

Folks can stop reading here as this ends the gist of the problem & solution. Below I continue with more details about the 2 1/2 days it requires me to book our Europe award seat trip. :wall:

Some of you veteran intrepid travelers might enjoy the story as we've all got stories to tell.

____________- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -__________​


We are recently retired & now we begin to reap the benefits of 15 years building up MR points & FF miles. We've got quite a war chest & our strategy is to use Travel Package Awards for the hotel certs & additional FF miles along with using DC points from our enrolled linear TS weeks. No problems finding an award stay at the London Park Lane or resort weeks at MMB resort in Spain. Gonna get our money's worth even if the MR points are devalued. ;)

Our master plan is to fly PHL-LHR with business award seats, stay at Park Lane using our hotel cert for a week -- I will be out of my element here as I'm not a hold your pinky out when you drink your tea kind of guy :eek: . Next, head to Spain where we do 2 separate stays at MMB separated by 5 days or so to loop around to Sevilla/Cordoba etc & go back to MMB for another week. Our "big idea" is to pack lighter ( actually impossible with my wife :rolleyes: ) & do laundry at MMB on alternating weeks. Then off to BCN for several days to enjoy that city and finally fly back home to PHL. Our flying dates and departure cities are flexible.

No matter what return routing we use to PHL ( BCN,MAD,LIS, FCO,MUC,FRA,ZUR,VCE, BRU,AMS, DUB) American always routes us from those cities to London connecting to another BA flight and this triggers the ridiculous tax/fees flying home which totals $1800 most of the time.

It takes me 2 1/2 days to finally conjure up a BCN-MIA-PHL routing that has $74 in taxes.:doh:


HOWEVER . . . since this is a sort of Twilight Zone travel story, I get to thinking about that MIA-PHL return leg. We get into MIA @ 4P but our PHL leg gets us into Philly past midnight. I ask my wife if she knows what is just 50 or 60 miles up I-95 from MIA ( the answer is Singer Island & Ocean Pointe ;) ). So given all of the headaches executing this first retirement trip, I think like the guys in Animal House would at this stage -- they'd be drunk however & I was sober.

We decide to use DC points & book 5 nights at Ocean Pointe to wind down from our trip :clap:. Yeah, I know, we must pay for our own flight home PBI-PHL, but it's money we spend on ourselves and we don't hand it to British Air. It all sort of fits the hours of searching and headaches we have avoid those taxes.

A nice way to celebrate retirement as well. Just an insight as to how the brain of a stubborn Finn thinks and processes when the travel gods throw lightning bolts down upon us. :cool:

travel safe & happy

Barry
 
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BocaBoy

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The taxes on flights to London are not very different on the different airlines, but British Airways also has exorbitant fuel surcharges on its flights that they instituted a few years ago. We used to fly BA on all our flights to the UK, but never since this change. And the problem now is that American has fewer flights to London on its own metal because of their alliance with BA. I feel your pain as American is our primary carrier.
 

MichaelColey

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From what I understand, that only affects flights into and out of the UK. If you fly somewhere else in Europe, you should be fine.
 

BocaBoy

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From what I understand, that only affects flights into and out of the UK. If you fly somewhere else in Europe, you should be fine.

That is correct for the UK taxes, but I believe all BA flights still have big fuel surcharges (even with oil at multi-year lows), so award tickets on BA still are much more expensive than on the other airlines.
 

TSPam

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Hi,
Air Canada aeroplan also had horrible fuel surcharges if you fly on air canada. They cost almost as just buying the seat!

Pam
 

Ken555

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From what I understand, that only affects flights into and out of the UK. If you fly somewhere else in Europe, you should be fine.


Yup, and in particular London (I believe it has higher taxes but I may be incorrect). Otherwise, it sounds like the OP has experienced the reality of avoiding BA and London whenever possible for return flights. FWIW, flights to the UK don't have these exit fees, so you could start your trip there (just not on BA as they also sometimes add fuel surcharges...for instance, with Alaska awards...).


Sent from my iPad
 

jerseyfinn

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Yes, the big surcharge factor here is avoiding British Air.

The main take away for TUGgers is that those of you who whose main airline is US Air or American will want to keep an eye on routing ( both award or paid travel ) which takes you through the UK via British Air. You're going to get spanked hard by the BA surcharges. :eek:

Seasoned travelers who already fly American are likely already aware of this situation. But US Air folks who are being merged into American will be surprised to discover this "enhancement" that the merger creates. Truth is that the Star Alliance which US Air belonged to prior to this merger was a better alliance in the sense of routings and surcharges flying to/from Europe on any of the alliance partners. For better or worse American is part of the One World alliance which means British Air is the big gorilla in the room.

It's a bittersweet situation for my wife and I as we are a 20 minute drive to PHL which is our logical airport. US Air had great direct connects to Europe. This will continue as we are merged into American, but with the caveat of avoiding BA codeshares.

Our being retired & possessing more flexibility in how to travel helps us in the sense that we can move around to find routings that avoid BA. But we do sacrifice convenience.

Of course the "home run" with Europe award travel is to snatch that pair of direct AA metal awards seats when that 330 day window opens. But that's an award lottery that only two people win for any direct connection. The irony is that we could find plenty of minimum FF miles AA award seats ( coach/business) 9 months out from our travel dates. Problem was we could not get US or AA metal for most of those flights.

Live and learn I guess.
 
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