This is an update to a previous post. As you can see below, in June I wrote about a British Airways class action settlement involving how British Airways was marketing carrier imposed surcharges as “fuel” surcharges.”
For those of you who are entitled to Avios as part of this, Avios are now posting to eligible accounts. Over six months is longer than I was expecting it to take, but at least it’s finally happening.
Personally I chose cash, as the choice was between $837.08 or 35,000 Avios, and I don’t value Avios at ~2.4 cents each. I assume this means that a check is also likely coming soon.
Have your bonus Avios posted as part of this settlement?
Yesterday I wrote about how a settlement has been reached with British Airways regarding a class action lawsuit over fuel surcharges.
This settlement includes all US Executive Club members who redeemed Avios for award tickets between November 9, 2006, and April 17, 2013, and who paid British Airways imposed fuel surcharges. If that describes you, and if the judge signs off on it, you’ll receive either Avios or cash.
Note that if you redeemed other points currencies for travel on British Airways during that period and paid surcharges, you wouldn’t be eligible for this. That’s because this lawsuit is in regards to the Executive Club program terms, and how they referred to these fees as “fuel surcharges” rather than “carrier imposed surcharges,” even though their existence had no correlation to the cost of fuel.
You can choose Avios or cash in this settlement
If you’re eligible for this settlement and do nothing, then you should automatically have the following number of Avios deposited in your Executive Club account within 30 days of when the case is signed off on (which is expected to be July 27):
- 12,500 Avios if you made one redemption
- 20,000 Avios if you made between two and five redemptions
- 35,000 Avios if you made six or more redemptions
Alternatively, members can elect to receive a payment of 16.9% of the total fuel surcharges they paid for all award tickets they purchased during the period, with a minimum of $5. In order to select this option you’ll have to file a claim by July 29, 2018. When I wrote the post yesterday the option to file a claim (or to see what you were entitled to) wasn’t live yet, though it is now.
Check your British Airways fuel surcharge settlement options
To see how many Avios or how much cash you’re entitled to, you’ll want to visit this page. There you’ll be asked to enter a “Unique ID.”
As it turns out, there was an email sent out to eligible members within the past couple of days about this, and I completely missed it, since it went into my spam folder. So check your spam folder. The email was sent from [email protected], and the subject line was “Dover v. British Airways Fuel Surcharge Class Action Notice.”
I entered my information, and to be honest I wasn’t sure I made any eligible transactions during that period. At least off the top of my head I couldn’t remember any eligible bookings I made during that period. Boy was I wrong (and now that I look through my old emails, I see the redemptions from then).
After entering my Unique ID I was presented with the option of 35,000 Avios or $837.08. That means I paid almost $5,000 in fuel surcharges during that period, which is a surprise to me. My guess is that this included redemptions on partner airlines as well, as long as you booked through the Executive Club.
As I explained yesterday, if you want the Avios as part of the settlement, you don’t have to do anything. You’ll automatically have the Avios deposited in your Executive Club account. However, I wouldn’t pay 2.4 cents per Avios, so in this case cash is the much better option.
If you do want cash in this settlement then you’ll have to specifically request it by filling out the form by July 29, 2018. The process of doing that is easy, though. You just have to enter some basic personal information.
Then you have to agree that all of the statements listed describe you, and then you have to sign.
For those who also made redemptions during the eligible period, are you selecting the cash or points option?
I received my 12,500 yesterday. i didn't even know about this, so it's a nice bonus. I like a class action that pays out with no action needed.
Received 20000 Avios yesterday but never offered alternative cash. But as it was never expected anyway am pleased with the Avios.
35,000 Avios or $2,253 in my case. Pretty much BA paid for my recent business class flights in them. In this case, cash of course.
Where is my check ?
Got my 12,500 points today!!
First of all, thanks for posting this last summer! It's one of the things that makes your blog so valuable! We quickly checked and, while I wasn't eligible for anything, my husband was eligible for an $837 payment. We filed the paperwork. No check yet, but we'll start watching for it!
I am perplexed. I filed my claim in time and it was for over $1300.00. I checked my spam folder and nothing. I have been wondering about this and just sent an email today as to why I have not received any notification as others. Thanks for the update, Ben. I am concerned though that my claim has somehow fallen through the cracks.
My wife's 12,500 Avios points posted to her account today. My Check for around $575 (I know I wrote down the exact number somewhere) has not yet arrived. I'm more than happy with everything as I never expected any of this!
I got 12,500 depositted in my BA EC account, but was not offered a cash alternative.
I am fine with the points however. Even with the 50% bonus Avios on offer this week, I could not have bought those miles for the cash equivalent
This is so annoying. I booked several F awards on BA and paid tons of YQ over the time period. I contacted them and was told I wasn't part of the class, but nobody could tell me why.
From http://www.fuelsurchargeclassaction.com/faq
The Court held a Final Approval Hearing on July 27, 2018 to decide whether to approve the Settlement. Even if the Court approves the Settlement, there could be appeals. The time for an appeal varies, and could take more than a year.
The Effective Date is the date when all appeals are completed, and the Settlement becomes final. You can visit this website's Homepage periodically to check on the progress of the Court-approval...
From http://www.fuelsurchargeclassaction.com/faq
The Court held a Final Approval Hearing on July 27, 2018 to decide whether to approve the Settlement. Even if the Court approves the Settlement, there could be appeals. The time for an appeal varies, and could take more than a year.
The Effective Date is the date when all appeals are completed, and the Settlement becomes final. You can visit this website's Homepage periodically to check on the progress of the Court-approval process and the Effective Date. Please be patient.
Avios deposits and Cash Option checks will be issued no more than 30 days after the Effective Date. The Court will have the power to enforce the terms of the Settlement Agreement.
How long until miles credit to your Exec/Avios account?
Ugh I made one booking for two in F in January 2013 for a flight in July 2013. I reckon the fuel surcharge was ~$700 of the $900 in taxes/fees. However I changed the flight in early July, one day before my flight to fly from DC instead of JFK, I suppose that prevents me from being included as they said I wasn't included.
Likely would have gotten ~$100 or 12.5k avios (unless a redemption for 2 people counts as two redemptions).
Thanks, Lucky!
They replied to my emails, but they stated that I was not eligible.
Redeemed Avios for CX flights in December 2012, and I live in the US. Also, the award-ticket receipts show 'Fuel Charges'.
Any idea?
I don't believe they are reachable by phone. I sent an e-mail and they sent me my claim number about 3 days later. Keep trying...
Anyone have any luck trying to contact anyone via phone. We keep getting circuitous replies from them via email, but no id number. Checked spam folders. Been just shy of a week. Thanks!
Data point for those who did not receive an email notification. I posted above on 6/2 that I didn't get any notification.
I can tell you I received an email yesterday (6 June) from "Fuel Surcharge Class Action" at the same email address that's on file with BA. So if you know you're eligible, you can simply wait and it will be likely they'll catch up to you. However if you're antsy, you can...
Data point for those who did not receive an email notification. I posted above on 6/2 that I didn't get any notification.
I can tell you I received an email yesterday (6 June) from "Fuel Surcharge Class Action" at the same email address that's on file with BA. So if you know you're eligible, you can simply wait and it will be likely they'll catch up to you. However if you're antsy, you can email them ([email protected]) and they should be able to help you out that way too.
So does this mean that BA will no longer charge the fuels surcharge on award trips? I understand that this was a settlement payment but shouldn't they eliminate the surcharge or face a future suit? Last week I redeemed an Open Skies award Paris to NY flight with $350 surcharge (purchased on AA.com,, Only option for J flight around my date.
I finally received my claim number today. One thing I realized; if you booked an open-jaw award, in my case JFK-LHR-CPT/JNB-LHR-JFK, that's 2 record locators, so the settlement treats that as 2 redemptions. So, I get 20,000 Avios instead of 12,500!!!
Thank you for letting us know ! My wife and I are both getting $1177.36 each or 35,000 avios each ( no way ! ). It was a pleasure doing business with you !!!!
I was offered:
Avios Option: 12,500 miles
Cash Option: $29
What gives?
Rats...my second 2013 booking was on 6.03.13...
I took almost a dozen qualifying trips during the time period...but I didn't receive an email... Any idea how to get your ID otherwise?
I might have deleted the e-mail from my spam folder. Any suggestions on how to find it. I'm definitely eligible. I took 2 Avios trips in 2013...
Thank you so much for flagging this! My notice was in my spam folder as well. As it turns out, the Avios they were offering me were worth a little more than the cash (assuming $0.013/Avios), and I'm an active EC member, so I didn't have to do anything. But apparently some people are being offered much better cash ratios.
@ Richard - Correct. Any claim you might have is beyond the jurisdiction of a US court.
@ Mike - That valuation is intentionally inflated so plaintiffs’ counsel can collect higher fees.
@ Debit - Dover did next to nothing. Thank the wonderful attorneys at Leif Cabraser. They’re among the best in consumer class actions.
The difference is that BA charged ~$1,250 for a RT business ticket from US to LHR and Flying Blue charges ~$500-$600
who want to join with me and we can try to start up a similar suit in Canada-US based people shouldn't be the only ones with standing for a suit.
So the question is, will there be a similar suit against Flying Blue? What is the difference between their fuel surcharges vs. BA?
Colin - I was never under any illusion that these flights were "free", they were merely the best option available at the time...
Sam - No, you're the stupid one if you don't take a flight that offers the best price to you simply because some of that price consists of a fuel surcharge...
Thanks Lucky, just scored $338.00. It really PAYS to read your blog
Bummer - I had an award ticket in 2010 where I thought I paid about 700 in fuel surcharges, so was hoping for about $118, but instead got 20,000 miles or 45.58. What do y’all think I should take?
How do you get the "Unique ID"?
Seems redemption on Partners are not included in the settlement?
We have redemption on NIKI. CX and MA, dont receive the email notice.
Thank you so much for the notice! I would've completely missed the email. It was 20,000 miles or $1052 for me so it was important that I claim the cash amount.
Woohoo $1,073
$487.51 vs. 20,000 Avios points? Getting the cash (2.4¢ per mile) is a no-brainer, especially given all of the Amex miles I have that I can transfer to BA.
Anything for Avios redeemed on Cathay, Latam and JAL flights?
Whatever cash option you receive, multiply it be 5. That's how much you all paid for your "free" flights.
"Score!"
$26 or 12,500 Took the points
Thanks Ben
@Joyce Mitchell you should have gotten the cash....
$1127, score!
$145.43 or 20,000 avios. Taking the points.
You guys are all stupid for paying that ridiculous BA YQ in the first place.
I use BA for travel only on North American route.
And I used over 20 million miles on other carriers w/ only nominal YQ.
I was offered $55 or 35,000 Avios
An easy choice.
@ Ben -- No notice for the Queen or I. I am surprised.
$199 or 20k avios. took the points.
Should I take $109 or 20,000 Avios? What do you guys think?
@ Kevin -- I'd take 20,000 Avios, as I value Avios at more than 0.5 cents each.
Let's all thank Dover for showing leadership where the bloggers should have shown.
Without Dover pursuing the cad you wouldn't be seeing much of anything, but just more whining on the blogs.
I had a CX redemption using Avios during this time frame and no email here either.
Thanks for this post. I had some Avios redemptions on BA (flights used in 2012) but didn't get the email. Are you aware of anything one can do if not contacted proactively?
$1,635. Ummm...no brainer !!
Thanks for letting us know about the email, mine was in junk folder too, never would have seen it.
$247 or 12500 avios, definitely taking the cash.
Interesting....per the Defendant's filing (BA) they value Avios at 2.7 cents each. 2,288,677,500 Avios potential award equates to a valuation of more than $63 million.
http://www.fuelsurchargeclassaction.com/admin/services/connectedapps.cms.extensions/1.0.0.0/asset?id=261b83c3-b42f-450f-ae92-cc0428bdd9ac&inline=true
As a Canadian I get nothing ???
Didn't get email and had multiple bookings on CX and RJ and those have yq on it. Wondering
If I redeemed Avios for CX flights, I assume I am not entitled to anything
$594.89 baby!!!
Offered 12500 avios or $36. Took the points obviously. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.
$5.69 or 12,500 Avios - I will happily accept the points :)