Potential big flight savings

[red cuillen]

Just to clarify, it is often cheaper to fly from Europe as passenger duty etc is lower. BUT I am pretty sure you must take a separate flight from the UK to Madrid or where ever, if you link flights it is assumed you are starting from the UK and extra tax/duty/airport fees for internationl flights will be applied.

[Softy]

Originally Posted by red cuillen

Just to clarify, it is often cheaper to fly from Europe as passenger duty etc is lower. BUT I am pretty sure you must take a separate flight from the UK to Madrid or where ever, if you link flights it is assumed you are starting from the UK and extra tax/duty/airport fees for internationl flights will be applied.

See more...

Yes, that’s right. You need a “positioning” flight on a separate booking.

[Kraken]

Originally Posted by Softy

Yes, that’s right. You need a “positioning” flight on a separate booking.

See more...

My sister lives near Heathrow and has used this trick. They get a cheap Ryanair / easyJet flight out to the EU departure airport the day before the transatlantic flight, then take the first leg of their itinerary back to the UK the same day. Spend the night at home & turn up at Heathrow the following day for the transatlantic flight (& check the bags in then as you've done the flights the day before with no luggage). As long as the transatlantic flight departs within 24hrs of you arriving in the UK the day before, it's classed as a connection and avoids the UK APD tax.

On the return leg, you will land back at Heathrow early morning, so you need to either book the onward connecting flight back to the EU airport for the first flight the following morning (so within 24hrs to class as a connection)... OR book it from Gatwick the same day. Either way you will get your baggage back at Heathrow and you can conveniently not turn up for the last leg of your itinerary.

Just to make it 100% clear though - deliberately missing the last leg of an itinerary will be against the terms of carriage of your ticket & the airline will reserve the right to re-price the ticket and charge you any difference due.

In practice / reality, if you only do this infrequently then you'll probably get away with it. I have a friend who did this a bit too often with BA and he had his Executive Club account frozen while they did an audit of the account & stripped him of all the avios miles for all the segments of any trip where he had skipped the last flight to head home in London.

The other risk is if there are delays / disruption for whatever reason on the return journey. The airline only have to get you back to your original airport of departure on the itinerary (i.e. the EU airport). The fact you wanted to connect via London is irrelevant, so you could end up back at the EU airport with luggage and have to make your own arrangements to get back to the UK.

So it's not without risk playing this game - but if you live near Heathrow / Gatwick it's quite easy to do and for one extra days annual leave you can do your "positioning" flight the day before, possibly have lunch in the EU city, then start your itinerary by flying back to the UK the same day. No hotel costs either. Sister+hubby have done this and had lunches in Paris & Amsterdam in the past on the positioning flight day.

The savings to be made doing this can be considerable, particularly if you're looking at Premium Economy or Business Class for the transatlantic flights, as these attract the higher rate of UK APD.

[landandword17]

Originally Posted by SRB-93

That seems most likely! I am going to query it with BA and see what their thoughts are on the matter.

See more...

Booking these routes and ditching the last leg on the way home is a way to get your Avios account suspended and your points taken away (you can’t ditch the first leg or the remaining legs will be cancelled) Now people with hand baggage absolutely do take these fares and ditch the final leg (I did it once when annual leave was scarce) but you can’t make any announcements and if have a big Avios balance it’s a risk. In other words, you’d never call up an airline and ask about ditching a leg of a cheap ex EU fare, as it’s something they would never publicly condone and you could draw attention to yourself and your account. Best to follow the advise here or on forums like flyertalk.

[WhereIBelong]

Originally Posted by Kraken

My sister lives near Heathrow and has used this trick. They get a cheap Ryanair / easyJet flight out to the EU departure airport the day before the transatlantic flight, then take the first leg of their itinerary back to the UK the same day. Spend the night at home & turn up at Heathrow the following day for the transatlantic flight (& check the bags in then as you've done the flights the day before with no luggage). As long as the transatlantic flight departs within 24hrs of you arriving in the UK the day before, it's classed as a connection and avoids the UK APD tax.

On the return leg, you will land back at Heathrow early morning, so you need to either book the onward connecting flight back to the EU airport for the first flight the following morning (so within 24hrs to class as a connection)... OR book it from Gatwick the same day. Either way you will get your baggage back at Heathrow and you can conveniently not turn up for the last leg of your itinerary.

Just to make it 100% clear though - deliberately missing the last leg of an itinerary will be against the terms of carriage of your ticket & the airline will reserve the right to re-price the ticket and charge you any difference due.

In practice / reality, if you only do this infrequently then you'll probably get away with it. I have a friend who did this a bit too often with BA and he had his Executive Club account frozen while they did an audit of the account & stripped him of all the avios miles for all the segments of any trip where he had skipped the last flight to head home in London.

The other risk is if there are delays / disruption for whatever reason on the return journey. The airline only have to get you back to your original airport of departure on the itinerary (i.e. the EU airport). The fact you wanted to connect via London is irrelevant, so you could end up back at the EU airport with luggage and have to make your own arrangements to get back to the UK.

So it's not without risk playing this game - but if you live near Heathrow / Gatwick it's quite easy to do and for one extra days annual leave you can do your "positioning" flight the day before, possibly have lunch in the EU city, then start your itinerary by flying back to the UK the same day. No hotel costs either. Sister+hubby have done this and had lunches in Paris & Amsterdam in the past on the positioning flight day.

The savings to be made doing this can be considerable, particularly if you're looking at Premium Economy or Business Class for the transatlantic flights, as these attract the higher rate of UK APD.

See more...

There are indeed some risks...my former colleague's return was fine, they got off at Gatwick, skipping the final leg... their luggage had missed the flight and went direct to Dublin. Cost a pretty penny to get it shipped.

[duchy]

Originally Posted by WhereIBelong

There are indeed some risks...my former colleague's return was fine, they got off at Gatwick, skipping the final leg... their luggage had missed the flight and went direct to Dublin. Cost a pretty penny to get it shipped.

See more...

That doesn’t make sense.
You can’t skip the last leg and short check baggage to just London (the airlines aren’t daft they don’t let you do it , haven’t for several years , they won’t check bags to an intermediate point except possibly if you have a really long layover like 20 hours and even then it’s at check in’s discression)
For it to work you either have to be hand luggage only (BAs allowance is generous) or book a flight departing from a different London airport eg arrive into Gatwick but the connecting flight to Dublin is from Heathrow)

Of course had your friend told BA they wouldn’t be in Dublin but were going back to London for the next week on business , they’d have delivered it to their U.K. address anyway, with no need for your friend to pay for shipping.

[WhereIBelong]

It was in to Gatwick out of Heathrow, no short checking required.
She (and I) didn’t know you could have luggage redirected though... cheers.

[Kraken]

Originally Posted by duchy

That doesn’t make sense.
You can’t skip the last leg and short check baggage to just London (the airlines aren’t daft they don’t let you do it , haven’t for several years , they won’t check bags to an intermediate point except possibly if you have a really long layover like 20 hours and even then it’s at check in’s discression)
For it to work you either have to be hand luggage only (BAs allowance is generous) or book a flight departing from a different London airport eg arrive into Gatwick but the connecting flight to Dublin is from Heathrow)

See more...

The only way to short-check bags on the return leg is if you have a change of London airport (so Gatwick to Heathrow or vice-versa) or a long overnight layover (but less than 24hrs) before the last leg of your booking - so it's not unreasonable for you to want access to checked luggage for the overnight stop.

Any other reason - e.g. "attending a birthday party in London during the stopover and presents are in checked baggage" are likely to fall on deaf ears (even if said presents were to contain liquids over what you can take onboard as hand luggage). The airlines have really cracked down on short-checking of bags so you have to force their hands. As mentioned above, they only have to get you & your bags to the final ticketed destination, so if you skip the last leg your bags can end up elsewhere if there is disruption and you have a lot of hassle and cost to get them back to you in the UK.

So to summarise... should you try this "game"? Officially you can only say no, as it's against the T&C's. Do people try it? Yes. Do some get away with it? Yes (especially if done infrequently & no frequent flyer account on the booking). Is it without risk? Certainly not.

The safest option - if travelling with hand luggage only (e.g. you're lucky enough to have a Villa in Florida & clothes there) is to complete all legs of the booking and "do a Ryanair / easyJet" back from the EU airport to the UK. Problem is the budget airlines are generally less generous when it comes to size & weight of hand luggage.

[Lalilu]

Thanks for sharing this! Were based in portugal and just booked a bargain flydrive faro- Madrid- miami.
Iberia on way out and BA on return for august 22 🤩

[duchy]

Originally Posted by Kraken

The only way to short-check bags on the return leg is if you have a change of London airport (so Gatwick to Heathrow or vice-versa) or a long overnight layover (but less than 24hrs) before the last leg of your booking -
< Snipped for brevity but yes >

The safest option - if travelling with hand luggage only (e.g. you're lucky enough to have a Villa in Florida & clothes there) is to complete all legs of the booking and "do a Ryanair / easyJet" back from the EU airport to the UK. Problem is the budget airlines are generally less generous when it comes to size & weight of hand luggage.

See more...

Not really , I bought BA one way to Dublin to the summer yesterday fare was £40 one way hand baggage only and an extra £18 to upgrade the fare to include a hold bag .
Ryanair was more expensive .