Lower fuel surcharges: Reward Flight Saver rolled out on all British Airways flights

If you’ve gasped at the sky-high fees, taxes and fuel surcharges for Avios redemptions on long-haul British Airways flights, there is now a solution.

From Wednesday, British Airways is rolling out its Reward Flight Saver offer on all BA-operated flights — long-haul and short-haul — in every cabin except first following a trial on some long-haul routes in economy class.

The popular offer on short-haul flights has long been a great deal; it requires low Avios and fixed fees, taxes and surcharges for redemptions across the airline’s expansive European network.

As a solution to the ever-increasing surcharges passengers must pay on long-haul flights operated by British Airways, Executive Club members can now redeem more Avios in exchange for paying less cash.

Using a round-trip ticket from New York to London in Club Suite business class as an example, this new Reward Flight Saver long-haul option gives members the chance to redeem 160,000 Avios and pay only $700 in fees, taxes and surcharges. With traditional rates, this same trip would require you to redeem 100,000 Avios plus $1,900 in fees, taxes and surcharges. You’d also have the option to redeem fewer Avios and pay more cash — down to 50,000 Avios and $3,360 — to cover taxes and fees.

So, while you would be using an additional 60,000 Avios — which TPG values at $900 — you would save $1,200 cash on surcharges.

How to get the best value from new long-haul Reward Flight Savers

The new Avios/Surcharges pricing options will be especially valuable for Travel Together voucher redemptions. This is because when redeeming one of these vouchers — which requires paying the Avios for the other passenger on your reservation — both passengers still need to pay the fees, taxes and surcharges.

With the traditional rates for a New York to London redemption, you would need to pay 100,000 Avios plus roughly $1,900 in fees, taxes and surcharges per person. This comes out to an eye-watering $3,800 for both passengers combined.

Using the new Reward Flight Saver option in conjunction with a Travel Together voucher would reduce this cash amount significantly, letting you pay 60,000 additional Avios to save $2,400 in surcharges across both passengers, which is a fantastic use of Avios.

Daily Newsletter

Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter

Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts

Email address

Sign up

By signing up, you will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Here’s how the new Reward Flight Saver pricing breaks down on two popular routes from the U.S. to Europe with return flights on off-peak dates.

Bottom line

If you are sitting on a large Avios balance — especially if you earned those Avios with little effort through your everyday spending — this is a fantastic option to save money on your next redemption. Having an additional choice is never a bad thing.

Remember that you can still redeem your Avios at normal rates. This is just an additional option for Executive Club members.

Additional reporting by Andrew Kunesh.