One sad consequence of APD and all the other charges is that a “free” frequent flyer flight is very far from free. Indeed it sometimes seems more expensive to fly economy on a redemption ticket than to pay for one – on a recent booking query I was quoted £68 all in to buy a ticket with BA from London to Frankfurt, and £72 in charges if I tried to buy it by redeeming BA miles. This I simply don’t understand!
It is hard today to remember, but redemption flights used to be entirely free. The very first flight I used my accumulated miles for was on the London – Buenos Aires route. I flew F class. And it was FREE.
If you’re willing to pay a bit more, LH and LX allow you to use the coupons in any order.
I’ve just booked JNB ZRH MXP one way with LX for 85,000 miles and CHF 200 in taxes and fees. I don’t bother with using miles for Y tickets for the reason you mention Cedric, but long haul is another matter, as is using miles for upgrades.
