Questions and Answers

Hi team and especially James. Love your articles about Avios and QFF programs, as these are the main programs I use. I was hoping you could advise on the variability of Avios redemptions for BA flights originating in HKG where BA complies with the HK CAD requirement to limit YQ to very low values of less than HKD150 whereas IB+ redemptions for the same flights seem to ignore the HK CAD regulations and charges EUR 224.41 for a HKG to LHR flight. This seems to arise from Amadeus showing the EUR 224.41 amount when quoting for a flight where the selling country is not Hong Kong, but he CAD reg is quite clear that YQ for all flights originating from HKG is controlled by the CAD, and it doesn’t matter where in the world the ticket is sold. This error seems to exist in quotes from other selling agencies such as Expedia etc, that pass through the Amadeus price without consideration for the Hong Kong regulation. Last year the View from the Wing blog exposed similar overcharging by AAdvantage for award flights on BA ex HKG, and managed to get AA to accept their error and to refund all overcharged bookings. I was wondering whether you might be able investigate this issue and if necessary to use your influence with Avios, BA and IB to get them to see their error, and fix it?