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A lot of the premium class airfare deals we post on Traveling For Miles involve travel from just about any EU country other than the UK. The reason for this is that the taxes and fees levied on premium cabin travel departing the UK are horrendous compared to a lot of other EU counties.
Occasionally you’ll find some good deals for premium cabin fares departing from the UK but they’re mostly confined to sales and they’re the exception rather than the rule.
The excessive taxes and fees levied on fares from the UK aren’t just limited to cash fares – award tickets are hit hard too and, as I’m hopefully about to show you, you can not only save money by booking your awards as departures from another EU country, you can also find better availability too.
UK Departure taxes are the highest in Europe
As some of you may know (from all my grumbling on this blog), American Airlines is increasing the number of miles required to book award flights and the awards that are increasing in cost the most are the highly aspirational awards on OneWorld partner airlines. Because of this I’ve been looking around to see what awards I can book with my AAdvantage miles before the devaluation hits on 22 March.
In this post I’m going to walk you through my search for an ultra-premium cabin award and I’ll show you the steps I go though when trying to spend as little cash as possible on an award ticket.
I’ve never flown on Cathay Pacific First Class and, as I’m unlikely to ever pay for such a flight and as American is raising the number of miles needed for such an award (Europe-Hong Kong) from 70,000 miles to 90,000, I thought I’d see if I could try it out while it was still affordable (miles-wise).
Cathay Pacific First Class – Image courtesy of Cathay Pacific
Which Routes Have Cathay Pacific First Class?
The first thing I needed to figure out was which European routes Cathay Pacific serves with a First Class cabin and, thanks to a very helpful FlyerGuide Wiki page I discovered that the following cities had Cathay Pacific First Class service to Hong Kong:
- Düsseldorf
- Frankfurt
- London Heathrow
- Milan Malpensa
- Paris CDG
- Zürich
Which Departure Cities Have The Most Convenient Departure Times?
At this point I had a couple of things to keep in mind:
- I wanted to minimise the amount of taxes and fees I would have to pay
- I wanted to minimise any other costs that I would incur
If I was going to book a Cathay Pacific First Class award from anywhere other than the UK that would mean a “positioning flight” to get me to the city where the award would start…and that would mean extra cost.
While I was confident that the cost of the extra flight would still be cheaper than paying UK taxes, I didn’t want to have to stay in a hotel overnight as well…that would take the costs up even higher and the case for flying out of somewhere other than the UK would be marginal at best.
I checked the Cathay Pacific schedules from each of the European cities:
- Düsseldorf – Departs 12:35pm
- Frankfurt – Departs – 12:50pm
- Milan Malpensa – Departs – 12:10pm
- Paris CDG – Departs – 12:25pm
- Zürich – Departs – 11:50am
It was good news. None of those departure times involved an early morning start which meant that I could fly out of London Heathrow to any of those European cities on the same day as the flight to Hong Kong – so no overnight hotel would be needed.
Working Out How Much The Taxes Will Cost
Now that I knew that all of the non-UK European cities were in play (so to speak) it was time to see what taxes and fees I’d have to pay from each location.
There are two ways to find out what taxes and fees will be payable:
- Call up the airline whose miles you’ll be using and ask them what fees and taxes you’ll have to pay for each route – this can get tedious if you’re enquiring about numerous routes and you’ll have to be in a position to supply the agent with dates on which award flights are available before they’ll quote you taxes and fees.
- Use ITA Matrix.
ITA Matrix is what I use to search for good cash fares but, as it shows what taxes and fees are included in a cash ticket, it can also be used to estimate the taxes due on an award ticket.
In this case I searched for one way fares from each city and then checked to see the tax component of each ticket.
Note: It’s only the taxes on departure from the UK that are excessive so it’s fine to fly back to the UK direct from Hong Kong.
The full price of the ticket is irrelevant in this case as I’m looking to book an award flight, the only figures that matter are the taxes and fees as highlighted by the red box above.
The taxes and fees I would incur on a London – Hong Kong award would be approximately $294.70
Compared to the taxes and fees from the other European cities (found in the same way as above):
- Düsseldorf – $84.90
- Frankfurt – $104.70
- Milan Malpensa – $45.10
- Paris CDG – $117.30
- Zürich – $51.00
Compared to the most expensive non-UK city (Paris) London departures are $177.40 more expensive per person.
Compared to the cheapest non-UK city (Milan) London departures are $240.60 more expensive per person.
That is a lot of money and, if you’re traveling as a couple, can lead to some big savings.
What Are The Overall Savings?
Regardless of where in Europe I start my flight, a First Class award will cost 70,000 AAdvantage Miles – the only difference is the tax/fees figure.
For the purposes of my trip I wanted to book an award in November 2016 so I checked to see which cities had award availability using BA.com:
- London – no First Class awards on Cathay Pacific in November
- Düsseldorf – no First Class awards on Cathay Pacific in November
- Frankfurt – First Class awards readily available throughout November (2 seats on a lot of the days)
- Milan Malpensa – First Class awards readily available throughout November (mostly 1 seat)
- Paris CDG – First Class awards readily available throughout November (combination of 1 and 2 seat availability)
- Zürich – First Class awards readily available throughout November (2 seats on a lot of the days)
I selected a date I was happy with for each of the 4 cities that had award availability and checked the cost of the flight from London to those cities and added it to the taxes I would pay to depart that city:
- Frankfurt – $99 + $104.70 taxes/fees = $203.70
- Milan Malpensa – $151 + $45.10 taxes/fees = $196.10
- Paris CDG – $73 + $117.30 taxes/fees = $190.30
- Zürich – $123 + $51 taxes/fees = $174
The biggest saving is to be had by flying out of Zürich
With taxes for departures from London coming to $294.70 the savings for opting to fly to Zürich in economy class and then flying on a First Class Cathay Pacific award would be $120.70 per person.
Risks
The primary risk involved in booking an award like this is that something goes wrong with your flight from London to your connecting city.
There will be no connection between your short-haul London to Europe flight and your Europe to Hong Kong flight so, should your London flight be delayed and you miss your connection on Cathay Pacific that’s almost certainly going to be game over.
If you’re checking baggage you must make sure you allow plenty of time between landing in Europe (from London) and your onward flight to Hong Kong. You’ll need to collect your baggage and check it in to Hong Kong and that won’t be a quick turnaround.
Is It Worth It?
If this is worth it or not is really an individual decision. I love traveling, so adding an extra leg to my journey in order to save $120 is something I’m happy to do – I suspect others will differ.
The way I see it is that I get to experience another airline (to see what their economy class service is like) and I get to experience another airport (to see what their lounges are like) all while saving money and flying on one of the most sought after award tickets out there.
But there is one other reason why this is an important option for UK travelers to bear in mind – Availability.
While I was trawling through BA.com looking for award availability on Cathay Pacific, I was struck by just how few awards were available for departures from London – in any class! Contrast that to what I saw when searching for departures from Frankfurt, Milan, Paris and Zürich where I often saw 2 First Class awards and up to 8 Business Class awards available on the same flight!
Bottom Line
Not only are Cathay Pacific awards comparatively very hard to get if departing from London they’re also more expensive. Is one short-haul flight that much to ask if the net result is money saved and an award on a date that suits you?
