British Airways Fuel Surcharge Class Action Settlement Miles are Posting

by Gary Leff

Back in June I wrote about the class action settlement over fuel surcharges imposed by British Airways on U.S. customers between November 9, 2006 and April 17, 2013.

This is a case that dates to 2012. Several readers were in touch with the lawyers as they initially pursued the claim.

If you paid BA’s surcharges the settlement provided either points or cash at your preference.

Here are the points amounts:

  • 12,500 Avios if you redeemed once
  • 20,000 Avios if redeemed 2-5 times
  • 35,000 Avios if you redeemed 6+ times

The cash amount was 16.9% of the cost of the surcharges. No action was required for the points, cash required opting in.

Here’s the offer that one of the accounts I manage received:

This account must have redeemed miles 2-5 times spending a total of ~ $630 in fuel surcharges.

Commenter Steve shares his offer,

They are offering me 35,000 Avios or $955. Not bad.

We can infer that Steve redeemed 6 or more awards during the covered period and paid out ~ $5650 in fuel surcharges. That’s amazing — over $5000 in extra charges straight to British Airways’ bottom line (not taxes) as a penalty for redeeming miles.

Well the points at least are now posting. Here are the Avios from that account which was offered 20,000:

Sadly British Airways stopped calling these member taxes ‘fuel surcharges’ (which legally have to be related to the cost of fuel) and started calling them ‘surcharges’ (money for nothing) and they can keep on penalizing Avios redemptions to their heart’s content.

Has anyone who opted for cash received theirs yet?

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  2. […] There’s clearly no relationship between the power surcharge and the cost of power incurred by the room – there can’t be since the surcharge is a percentage of the room rate, surely guests don’t keep the lights on more on nights when the hotel charges more for the room. That makes it seem ripe for a lawsuit along the lines of the class action settlement with British Airways, because fuel surcharges weren&#…. […]

Comments

  1. Thanks for the update Gary. When can I expect a letter from the settlement lawyers? I have flown BA first class 3 X in past 3 years (and to Greece this summer through LHR). Is there a way to find my name in the settlement action if I don’t receive correspondence?

  2. Is there any way to still lookup what your settlement offer was you chose? I can’t remember for the life of me…

  5. My offer was 12,500 miles or $211.38. Glad I took screenshots of offer and claim form reference code. Anyone received their cash payout yet?

  6. Just checked. My daughter, who I traveled with got an offer of 12,500 miles or $5. Go figure. Her points just posted.

  7. What a scam
    My deceased family member received 20,000 points lol who while redeemed once
    Myself who redeemed numerous times received 12,500 miles 🙁
    Called BA and after an hour and 30 minutes on hold said they cant help me and know nothing about the settlement
    However even if they could see my account they wouldn’t be authorized to assist
    They did tell me I could call London Customer service at my expense and someone might be able to help me

  9. I have had at least four trips in the time period specified, and I have not heard of this settlement until now. Is there someone to contact to find out why I was not included?

  12. No cash, no communication and no answer to my email to the administrator months ago asking about status.

  13. I’m going to try and contact the lawyers or the courts to see if they can take legal action against BA
    No excuse to refuse a conversation and not be transparent about past redemption’s and making customers whole as promised

  14. The Claims Administrator told me this morning: “Cash benefits are set to be distributed around the end of December.”

  17. As usual, you are on top of everything! I had no idea of the gold mine waiting in my account until I was catching up on old data feeds and found your heads up on the settlement postings by British Air. I went out to my Award Wallet account and wonder of wonders, I had a 20,000 kick in miles last month. I was never offered an alternative by BA but this works fine too. I need to review these RSS feeds on a more timely basis in the future. I could have missed out on something by my delay. Thanks for your notification!
    Karen

Comments are closed.