I’ve flown on tons of airlines, but never on British Airways. They may be a great airline with some of the best kosher meals in the sky and in the lounges, but they impose such heavy fuel surcharges that I’ve never had much of a desire to fly on them.
Don’t get me wrong, British Airways runs a good mileage program as long as you stick to airlines without fuel surcharges. That includes flights on Alaska, Aer Lingus, Air Berlin, LAN, USAirways, American flights within the Western Hemisphere, Qantas flights within Australia, etc. Flights within Europe and on Cathay Pacific also have low surcharges.
But flights on British Airways are just ridiculous. JFK-London-Tel Aviv and back in first class is 195,000 Avios plus $1,054.
I’ve heard through the grapevine about USAirways not collecting fuel surcharges for BA flights but posting something like that is sure to get it killed. I think it could have lasted a while had it stayed within the grapevine and talked about at seminars and the like. However lots of major websites and blogs are covering this story now, so I’m posting it now as well as it will surely die soon anyway.
BA forces airlines like Alaska and American to collect fuel surcharges for their flights, something that other airlines don’t do. You can use LAN kilometers to book BA flights without fuel surcharges, but that got much less attractive after Starwood slashed the overly generous transfer ratio to them.
I called USAirways to hold the first class itinerary pictured above and was quoted 180,000 miles plus $158.70 in tax and $50 award processing. In business class it would have been 120,000 miles.
The easiest way to search for availability for BA flights is on AA.com. Once you find what you want just call USAirways to book. You can’t book BA flights on USAirways.com. Be aware that USAirways has lots of incompetent agents, so it may take a few calls to find a rep who knows how to book BA flights.
You can transfer Starpoints to USAirways miles at a 20K:25K ratio.
You can transfer AMEX MR points at a 1:1 ratio into Air Canada Aeroplan and then from Air Canada to USAirways via Points.com. Up to 100,000 miles can be transferred out of one Aeroplan account per year and 100,000 miles would yield 84,011 USAirways miles.
It’s a great deal, enjoy it while it lasts as it won’t last long. And bear in mind that while you can hold tickets with USAirways for 3 days, they can add fuel surcharges into the quote until you actually confirm your ticket.
Leave a Reply
37 Comments On "USAirways Not Collecting Fuel Surcharges For Travel On British Airways"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
Thanks. any clue when the A”Advantage and the US Airways points will merge?
Nope.
Although other blogs are covering this, perhaps it might be best for you to keep it secret in the interest of allowing it to continue since by now the airlines are probably all dansdeals twitter followers while I doubt they are following the two-bit guys.
@Chaim yankel:
The other blogs covering this are far larger and far more mainstream and followed by the industry than DD.
I don’t post things that are sustainable and will die by posting them. There are things I talk about in seminars that are still alive years later that would be killed overnight if posted online. This could have been sustainable but the cat is way out of the bag here. At this point this is as good as dead as soon as USAirways can figure out how to implement a system to collect the fuel surcharge.
Whether that takes them a day or a month is the only question.
Can one book a BA ticket using AA miles over the phone with US Airways?
@BarryLincoln:
No.
Dan,
Is selling or exchanging points on points.com legal ?
Can i check flights on ba.com and book through us airways?
This leads me to a question which I’ve wondered about for a very long time, but never asked.
Dan, do the airlines and banks love you for what you do, hate you for what you do, or is it both?
Some deals mess them up real bad, while others bring them a lot of business. So at the end of the day, which one do you think it is?
Just wondering…
What is the redeposit fee for US airways (BA flight) if the ticket is cancelled?
How many points in economy is round trip NY to London using us airways points?
@meir:
Yes.
@q:
Yes.
@Brian:
Love hate relationship.
@bruce:
http://www.usairways.com/en-US/dividendmiles/usemiles/booktravel.html
@Moko:
http://www.usairways.com/en-US/Resources/_downloads/dividendmiles/oneworldawardtravel.pdf
Just to confirm:
You search on AA.com for availability, but then call US Airways to book? And you book with US Airways using BA miles? Is this correct or am I missing something?
@Dan: Hear that! 🙂
Has any highup from an airline or bank ever reached out to you to “discuss” it? (Even though there’s obviously nothing they can do…other than I guess banning you from flying with them or never approving you for another card again…)
@newdanfan:
No, you need to use USAirways miles.
@Brian:
No airline has ever reached out to me.
Does the up to 25,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles With Partner Transfer Promotion work by transferring from Member Rewards and then to US Airways ?
will you be able to also use a BA voucher with this method?
@Jeff:
No, there’s no bonus from AMEX MR to Aeroplan.
@bob99:
No.
i have chase points will that work?
@jl:
No.
So what is the best use of BA miles? I thought that’s what you were mentioning when searching BA availability. Can any AA flight be purchased with BA or am I limited to just BA directly? What airlines can I be searching and use with BA miles?
Why does BA care that their partners should collect YQ?
@newdanfan:
“British Airways runs a good mileage program as long as you stick to airlines without fuel surcharges. That includes flights on Alaska, Aer Lingus, Air Berlin, LAN, USAirways, American flights within the Western Hemisphere, Qantas flights within Australia, etc. Flights within Europe and on Cathay Pacific also have low surcharges.”
@Why:
Makes their own Avios program weaker if they don’t force everyone to collect YQ.
BA is thankfully uniquely evil in that regard.
Can you book ba with usair asia>usa?
If i use my US airways mastercard, and book an award flight BA metal, does the 5k point reduction count?
@jason:
Sure.
@Allan:
No.
Asia > USA using USAIR miles with BA Metal is 67k or more?
were do i find availability? which site?
Putting aside all the noise above, is it possible to use AA miles to book BA flights via US Airways to avoid fuel charges? I have close to a million AA miles so this would be a useful trick.
I’m planning to go for svuois to London me my wife & my 2 kids which they are over 2 but under 11 & regularly the tickets came out to over $6000 is there anyway that I can get cheaper than that ? From June 2 to June 9
@a yid
ASK A TRAVEL AGENT!!!
you’re lucky I had some time, i checkd ITA-MATRIX you can get it for $5,517
————————————–
Newark (EWR) to London (LHR) – Mon, Jun 2
British Airways p.l.c. British Airways p.l.c. 184 Dep: 6:25PM Arr: 6:20AM 6h 55m Boeing 777 Economy (N)
Tue, Jun 3
London (LHR) to New York (JFK) – Mon, Jun 9
British Airways p.l.c. British Airways p.l.c. 181 Dep: 7:00PM Arr: 10:00PM 8h 0m Boeing 777 Economy (N)
New York (JFK) to Montreal (YUL) – Tue, Jun 10
American Airlines Inc. American Airlines Inc. 3509 Dep: 9:20AM Arr: 10:45AM 1h 25m Embraer ERJ-140 Economy (N)
OPERATED BY ENVOY AIR AS AMERICAN EAGLE
Cost per passenger (including taxes & fees) $1,477.80 x 2 (2 adults)
Cost per passenger (including taxes & fees) $1,280.80 x 2 (2 children)
Total cost for 4 passengers $5,517.20
@a yid
when you arrive to back to ewr just go home and miss the flight to montreal… but you might not recieve miles for flying.
what does it cost for coach to tlv?
using 71,000 Amex miles to change into US Air miles makes this deal more expensive than buying a ticket we got for $1150, because you can sell AMEX points for 1.4/mile, so 71,000 costs $994, plus US Air charges over $300 in taxes and fees for the ticketing, but thanks anyway..
Transferring 100,000 aeroplan to Us airways through points.com, does points.com charge any cash fee? And how long takes for the miles to show up in my us airways account? Thanks
Dan,
I have free tickets to Vegas from NY and was wondering what is the best/least airline for me to upgrade to business/first.
I have BA, Amex, Starwoods & Chase points.
Dan, I’m flying AA from Montreal to CA with a Dallas stopover business and first class. I get meals but they say no kosher meals are offered for such flights. Only on long international flights. Is there a way to get kosher meals? Speak to a supervisor? Thanks.