British Airways Class Action Settlement: Get Avios Or A Partial Cash Refund If You Paid BA Fuel Surcharges Between 2006-2013

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Josh Hallett [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
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If you live in the US and redeemed British Airways Avios for a ticket that included fuel surcharges between 11/9/06-4/17/13 you should check your email and/or spam folder to check for a unique ID number. You can then plugin that ID number here to learn how many Avios or how much cash you can receive from the settlement.

If you paid fuel surcharges in that time period and didn’t get an ID number you can send an email to info@fuelsurchargeclassaction.com to investigate a claim.

You’ll get 12.5K Avios if you made one redemption, 20K Avios for 2-5 redemptions, or 35K Avios for 6+ redemptions. You’ll also have a cash option, which will equal 16.9% of the actual fuel surcharges that you paid.

The default option will be bonus Avios, so be sure to check what the cash option is and decide if you would rather have the cash or Avios. I value Avios at about 1.25 cents each, but the value of a mile will vary based on how you use them.

Sadly, nothing will actually change for Avios because of this. BA will continue to charge massive fuel surcharges to redeem Avios for Trans-Atlantic travel.

Luckily there are lots of ways to redeem Avios without paying fuel surcharges. I won’t be getting anything from this settlement as I never redeemed Avios with fuel surcharges.

  • There are no fuel surcharges for travel on American within the Western Hemisphere. Flights start at 7,500 Avios plus $5.60.
  • Alaska flights have no fuel surcharges systemwide, these flights can only be booked over the phone.
  • LATAM flights have no fuel surcharges systemwide. Many of their flights can only be booked over the phone.
  • Flights within Australia, Europe, Japan, and many other countries and regions have little to no fuel surcharges.
  • There are no fuel surcharges for flying on Qantas within or from Australia.
  • Fuel surcharges on award-winning carrier Cathay Pacific are also very low or non-existent and you don’t even need to fly all the way to Hong Kong (though you should-great city with awesome kosher food, airport lounges with kosher food, and a business or first class flight you’ll never forget!) to get a taste of their awesome bed, seat, pajamas, and amenities. They fly a daily 777 nonstop between JFK and Vancouver which I reviewed in this trip report.
  • You can significantly cut the fuel surcharges when flying on Iberia by transferring your BA Avios into Iberia Avios
  • British Airways 5th Freedom Flights (flights that don’t depart from or arrive to the UK) have significantly lower fees. For example even though Singapore-Sydney is a longer flight than NYC-London the fees in first class on Singapore-Sydney are less than half of those from NYC-London.
  • As long as you have earned a single Avios within the past 12 months then fuel surcharges for intra-Europe and intra-Africa flights will be very low. You can transfer points from AMEX, Chase, or Starwood to activate that benefit.

Did you receive a settlement offer? How many Avios or how much cash are being offered to you and which option will you take?

HT: shmooz, via DDF

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52 Comments On "British Airways Class Action Settlement: Get Avios Or A Partial Cash Refund If You Paid BA Fuel Surcharges Between 2006-2013"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

yanky

what about on aer lingus to dublin from phl? does that have fuel surcharges?and can you avoid the 50 dollar yyz tax on ba by using iberia points instead of ba points? and is it easy t transfer between both programs?

yanky

Im having trouble transferrign between both programs how do you do it/

Robin

What about if the ticket was booked with American Airlines points but British airline was the carrier there were high fuel surcharges

DaBomb

Flew business in 2011 to Europe, offered 20K Avios or $211.75 ($.0105/com)… as I value cash these days, I will take the cash option.

Joey

Virgin Atlantic have joined BA in charging ridiculous amounts when redeeming miles

Ygift

How do u book as. The site didn’t allowing aa redemption

ybeeds

What would the subject line be? What’s the email address they sent the email from?

Thanks.

Eve

Got a choice of 20,000 Avios or 116.13. I know you valuate the points at 1.25 but i never use the points because of the surcharge and never can find the flights on air Berlin anymore – I would need a refresher course on how to use the other airlines – Alaska , Cathay pacific etc to get to Europe and Israel

Kachnik

Since Air Berlin doesn’t exist any more, it might be hard finding flights. I got two free round trip tickets SFO to TLV via Berlin in October just before they stopped flying because they rerouted the return flight through Düsseldorf. The original cost of the round trip ticket was only $448. Anyone know of any other airlines in bankruptcy selling cheap tickets?

HSS

Offered me 12.5k avios or $34.39

yanky

`12.5k any day over 34.49 thats a one way to la from nyc

Kachnik

I was offered $305 or 35K

Fayge

I was offered 35,000 avios or $583. Taking the cash!

Flying Jew

20k points or $343…think it makes sense to take the cash…now that Air Berlin is Kaput…tough to use BA miles to the Holy land…plus almost never see anything in lowest category to use with AA.

What say you Dan?

Thanks for pointing this out…would have been swallowed in SPAM.

e

How come the cash amount varies even though the points stay at 35k max ?

David

strange, I was only given an option for cash of 25.56 as per below. Any thoughts?

You are a Former Executive Club Member and must file a Valid Claim to receive a benefit under the Settlement. If you file a Valid Claim, you are eligible to receive:
Cash Option: $25.56

No Brainier.

Offered $23 or 20,000 Avios. Taking the Avios, Aviosly.

Simon

$5.69 or 12,500 Avois – taking the Avios! (my brother got the same Avios for $10 and change)

Hesh F.

I was offered $282 or 12.5 K. Took cash.
This was a simple השגחה פרטית, don’t remember the last time I checked your site… I happened to checked it today and saw your post.
Unreal….

Toda

If you redeemed for another passenger, does the passenger or the account holder get the settlement?
Toda

ybeeds

Ask your LOR.

The Doge

$292.81 or 35,000 Avios. Going with the Avios

Vorsh

35000 avios or $1400 cash. Took the avios.

miles junky

$25.80 or 12.5k miles
Hmm tough choice lol

Junkyardunz

20,000 Avios or $118. Problem is my account was closed by BA, should I just go for the cash option and hope for the best ?

YS

Thanks Dan, was offered 12,500 miles or $25.23 (I wouldn’t read the email without your post).

Eli

I have used BA Avioss for a number of flights on BAm but no email. Anyone else have the same issue? Any success with emailing info@fuelsurchargeclassaction.com?

VG

Didn’t get an email either. Reached out to info@fuelsurchargeclassaction.com

Giles

12,500 or $532.66. This seems odd (would have assumed a much higher Avios offer given the cash amount), but definitely took the cash.

ajs

I haven’t received an email! I most definitely used BA! How can I find my offer?

Moshe

Came after two days……..

Moshe

have travelled 10+ times in that period….sent them a request for ID #….how long to wait for reply…..????

Moshe

Just recieved……..

Mommy

I flew fo about 20 times to Israel over that time anyone want to help me

Boruch

Much appreciated Mr Dan! 35k miles:)

Hesh F.

Did anyone who selected the cash option actually get it?

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