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Any Way to Get Around High BA Taxes on Stopovers?
So I have an upcoming award ticket in F with BA. Basically, I’m trying to organize a 4 day stopover in LHR to visit some friends on my return. Long story short, I called BA You First and made the request… and was quoted over $450 USD to make the change. I was not charged any additional avios and would assume the taxes to remain the same as well. Any ideas why the $450 charge? Any ways I could avoid paying this crazy fee?? I mean I already paid $1600 on taxes for my R/T flight… 🙁
Hi Daniel,
was your original itinerary AAA–>LHR–>BBB – just transiting LHR? If so, you weren’t paying the UK’s Air Passenger Duty (APD) fee. Basically a tax. By changing your itinerary to include a stopover, you are now subject to the APD, whereas you weren’t before. It’s not a BA charge, it is a UK fee.
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