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There are few things more annoying in the travel world than giving up some of your hard-earned miles and points only to find out that you ALSO have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars in airline fuel surcharges. Ostensibly, these fuel surcharges were implemented several years ago to help combat the rising cost of fuel. But when fuel prices went back down, “fuel” surcharges remained in place. When paying cash for a ticket, these fuel surcharges are included in the cost of your ticket; you probably don't even notice them. But when redeeming miles for an award flight, in many cases you also have to pay these fuel surcharges.
While some airlines don't levy fuel surcharges, British Airways is known for charging pretty hefty fuel surcharges. But if you have the British Airways Visa Signature® Card (Rates & Fees), you can get up to $200 in rebates (per booking) to cover award taxes and fees, available up to three times a year. That's a potential savings of $600 every year. Let's look at how this benefit works.
- Earn 75,000 Avios after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.
- Earn 3 Avios per $1 spent on purchases with British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and LEVEL.
- Earn 2 Avios per $1 spent on hotel accommodations when purchased directly with the hotel.
- 10% off British Airways flights starting in the US when you book through the website provided in your welcome materials.
- Every calendar year you make $30,000 in purchases on your British Airways Visa card, you'll earn a Travel Together Ticket good for two years.
- Pay no foreign transaction fees when you travel abroad.
- Simply tap to pay with your contactless British Airways Visa Signature Card. Just look for the contactless symbol at checkout. It's fast, easy and secure!
- Member FDIC
- Rates & Fees
- 3X Avios per $1 spent on purchases with British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and LEVEL
- 2X Avios per $1 spent on hotel accommodations
- 1X Avios for every $1 spent on all other purchases
How To Save Up to $600 Annually With British Airways
With this benefit, you can claim up to $200 (awarded in the form of a statement credit) for a transatlantic flight. The amount of the rebate depends on the class of service you book for your award ticket:
- Get a $100 credit for economy (World Traveler).
- Get a $100 credit for premium economy (World Traveler Plus).
- Get a $200 credit for business class (Club World).
- Get a $200 credit for first class.
You can claim a credit on three bookings per year, worth up to $600 in statement credits. This applies as long as you use your British Airways Visa Card card to pay the taxes, fees, and surcharges on your award booking. Note that these amounts are per booking, not per passenger. For example, you will only receive a $100 credit for an economy flight under this benefit, even if there are two or more passengers on the reservation.
Why This Benefit Is a Huge Win
British Airways Executive Club can be an incredibly useful loyalty program, thanks to the unique way it prices award tickets. Instead of paying a flat rate from the U.S. to Europe, the Avios points required for an award will be based on the distance you fly. Sometimes, that means you'll pay far fewer Avios when taking shorter flights.
The problem when it comes to British Airways award tickets is that the program imposes huge out-of-pocket costs when you redeem Avios. Most of those fees can be blamed on a single factor: the dreaded fuel surcharge. On flights operated by British Airways, you have to pay this “fuel” surcharge, even when you’re redeeming points for your flight. Until now, our advice to maximize value with Avios points has been to avoid British Airways flights like the plague. Why? When you fly with partner airlines like Iberia or American Airlines, you won't pay these huge fuel surcharges, even when making redemptions through British Airways' reward program.
But this benefit means that Chase is sharing a significant part of the cost to book British Airways award flights when you pay the taxes and fees with your British Airways Visa Card.
The Fine Print
The only awards that qualify for this deal are British Airways flights departing from the U.S. and crossing the Atlantic. It's fine if other flights on your itinerary are with partner airlines, so long as the U.S. to Europe transatlantic flight is with British Airways. For example, you could connect from your hometown to New York on American Airlines and connect from England to Spain on Iberia while using this benefit, so long as the flight from New York to London is operated by BA. Additionally, the award travel must be booked from the primary cardmember's Executive Club account.
You must cover the taxes, fees, and surcharges of the flight with your British Airways Visa Card to get the rewards. Chase reserves the right to reverse the credit if the flight is canceled. Otherwise, the reward should show up in your account within 45 days as a statement credit.
Related: How To Search and Book British Airways Avios Award Flights
Our Take
Transatlantic British Airways awards have some pretty steep surcharges. One-way business- and first-class redemptions can come with taxes and fees well above $500. Economy and premium-economy flights are a bit more reasonable, but one-way award fees can easily exceed $200, depending on the flight.
Based on the language in the terms and conditions, it seems reasonable to assume that you will still get a credit (but only one credit) if you book a round-trip award ticket that also includes a return westbound flight from Europe to the U.S. It's also good news that you can include partners for the non-transatlantic segments of the trip. That means you could include a flight on American Airlines if you don't live in a U.S. city served by BA, and you can continue on from London to another European destination with a partner like Iberia without affecting your eligibility for the credit.
However, you won't get a credit for a one-way trip booked from London to the U.S., and it isn't clear whether you'll get a credit for a round trip that originates in the U.K. (In other words, if your first transatlantic flight is westbound, does flying back from the U.S. to the U.K. still trigger the credit if that flight is operated by British Airways?) We'll continue to update this post as we learn more.
Regardless, this benefit has a huge impact on the value of the British Airways Visa Card. If you can use the credit on a single economy flight, you've covered the card's annual fee of $95.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: British Airways Visa Signature® Card (Rates & Fees)
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Thinking about how to maximize the benefit. Is it possible to split the charge, paying for the fuel surcharge specifically with the BA VISA and the rest of the ticket with another card (AMEX Platinum 5X points)?
If so, then purchasing two round trip tickets individually, paying surcharges with BA Visa (3X Avios, $200 rebate per ticket) and the rest with AMEX Platinum (5X Membership Rewards) seems like a good strategy.
Of course, it would be better if the fees were not there in the first place and the ticket were cheaper. But the fees are there and if buying the tickets anyway I will happily take hundreds of dollars in my pocket.
No way to do it that I’m aware of, but it could be possible if you talk with a BA phone rep. Anyone ever try this?
Great!
So it would cover half of one person’s fuel surcharges on a US to Europe business class flight. ?
Definitely a good feature, BA redemptions are ridiculously expensive on longhaul flights.
Great offer, but as others have said some surcharges that BA imposes are ridiculous. On the other hand RFS is one of the few best ways to redeem points in any FFP.
Wish UK-based BA card offered anything this generous.
How about they just do away with a “fuel surcharge” that has ZERO to do with fuel but everything to do with Surcharges and deceiving consumers.
This benefit makes this card a no-brainer for BA flyers. Easily covers the annual fee.
At least BA is admitting that they have high taxes and fuel surcharges.
How does BA keep up in the face of competition from low cost carriers?
This would be better if the surcharges on BA tickets were lower.
Exactly!!
The restrictions on flights originating in US is still weird. Wish they could have made it originating or ending in US.
For my purposes, I completely agree. 🙁
Probably doing that to keep their costs down
Makes the charges more palatable for a trip or so but overall, the fees are a rip off.
Those surcharges make me cringe, but it’s always nice to see positive changes.
Seems like there are a lot of gotchas. Very careful planning might net the full $600, but only if you can snag biz/first seats to start with. At least at $95 (easy to make the 3 mo 50K miles spend; most probably won’t make the second 50K) it’s a reasonable gamble.
As mentioned by quite a few above, while certainly welcome, this only makes a small dent in their ridiculous surcharges.
BA should get rid of this charge in the first place instead of giving partial credit.
The spending requirement to get the full bonus is pretty absurd for a consumer card. Out of reach for most, I imagine.
Not if you put every single possible expense on a credit card. But def still a reach. Helps keep my 5/24 count down
So if you travel, economy, you’ll need 3 bookings to save a maximum of $300.
Even more valuable when you think about how this works with one-way flights. Just book your flight back with some other points
that’s great! make a sense
This does have me thinking about BA. They do have lots of taxes yes and that usually is why I don’t use them. Haven’t had any use for intra Europe flights with them. I will still have to look into AA possibly passing on anything using their miles on BA. But I do want to fly them. Their biz really looks enticing.
Would there be any reason to really use Chase points or MR points to cover the paid cost of the flight? I’m sure that there is a post. I will have to look at the basic BA info blog too.
This is good news because it is a way to reduce our costs.
It would be better if BA just didn’t charge as much for fuel surcharges!
This is great! Although I probably still won’t get this card, it is a benefit that I would like to see on some other cards. It definitely would lessen the pain of fuel surcharges.
Agreed. It would be nice to see this type of perk added to the BoA Virgin Atlantic card.
On the surface, this seems like a great deal if you travel on BA a lot. But not sure if it’s a great enough carrot for me to start traveling on BA for a leisure, one time trip.
Do you think it is possible that BA finally became aware of the millions and perhaps billions of dollars in fares they have been losing to other airlines as a result of BA’S EXTREMELY large fees?
Do AA award redemptions on BA count?
Does not seem likely. From the T&Cs: “a. …receive a statement credit of up to $200 US per booking… when redeeming Avios for a reward flight on British Airways.” If it’s an AA award, one is not redeeming Avios.
$600 goes really fast considering the surcharges but it’s better than nothing
This beats paying for tickets to and from Europe in that the Avios points you pay for are awarded based on the distance you fly. This could work.
I have to say, even with the spectre of fuel surcharges always looming, I have still felt like I was getting huge value from the BA F redemptions we’ve made over the years. The way I’ve always viewed it is that we were “purchasing” massively discounted F tickets. Experience-wise, our flight crews have ranged from excellent to downright awesome, and the First Class ground experience is right up there near the top… in fact, I think the Concorde Room at JFK might be my all-time favorite lounge. To me, this is an “enhancement” that actually is an enhancement.
Even with $200 off, BA’s carrier imposed charges are a massive rip off.
I’ve noticed some high taxes on AA bookings through British too.
This is better than nothing, for sure, but the surcharges on BA flights are so insanely high sometimes that even getting $200 off is still not enough to make the flight worthwhile. I would not use the BA miles on BA flights – maybe AA short-hauls etc.
Nice to see more BA cards on offer.
BA fuel surcharge is traditionally very high compared to US carriers.
It sounds good until you look at the huge spending requirement, you can currently earn up to 100,000 bonus Avios when you open a new account. Not sure if this will pencil out on my budget.
That certainly is a generous offering with the $600 if you can make the details of the trip work in your favor. Does that mean that if you book a trip for you and your spouse that each would get the $200 credit?
Hi Mara, I think the ideal way to handle that would be to book each ticket as a separate reservation. I’d expect (by don’t have any definitive data) that they would offer only one credit on a ticket for two, but you could earn a credit for each ticket if booked separately, as long as both reservations come from the primary cardholders Exec Club account.
Interesting that the new benefit only covers eastbound flights from the US to the UK.
I suppose as long as the flight originates from the US, booking a one-way or round-trip ticket doesn’t matter?
Yep, that’s our understanding.
But this new benefit is a game-changer because Chase is sharing a significant part of the cost to book BA flights when you pay the taxes and fees with your British Airways Visa Card.”
When I have flown BA from the USA to London in Business Class, the fuel surcharge has been $900-1000 for a round trip. So, getting a rebate of $200 certainly is not a “game changer” for me or for most other folks, I would surmise.
It’s nice to see some of the less popular cards get a makeover. That said, it still seems better to simply avoid BA metal altogether. Last time I checked a BA itinerary, the surcharge was hundreds of dollars, so although better than nothing, there’s better ways to book transatlantic flights.