Air Passenger Duty- Save money go through Amersdam

Magic_Moments

I have heard if you are taking a long distance flight and time is not issue then if you fly through Amsterdam you can save a consider amount of money on the Air Passenger Duty. You only pay the Air Passenger Duty to fly to Amsterdam then the Dutch duty which is a lot less than the British. Has anyone done this.

malkie76

Yes, people do it all the time, and it's not limited to AMS either - any major european hub works. Makes a lot of sense on a very long haul (eg Australia).

The other interesting one is to book into a premium cabin with a UK carrier, but start in AMS (or any other), fly to London and then onto your destination. You'll find massive savings to the point of being able to book business tickets for premium economy prices.

Leaves you the difficulty of getting to AMS etc to start, but you can get cheap LCC tickets with ease (don't think you can turn up at London and miss the initial feeder flight - they'll cancel your ticket).

Caz3121

Magic_Moments wrote: »

I have heard if you are taking a long distance flight and time is not issue then if you fly through Amsterdam you can save a consider amount of money on the Air Passenger Duty. You only pay the Air Passenger Duty to fly to Amsterdam then the Dutch duty which is a lot less than the British. Has anyone done this.

It does need to be on separate tickets (doing it on one ticket will incur the same taxes as UK-destination)
you also need to allow sufficient time for the connection as you will not be protected if your inbound flight is late and you miss the other flight
We are doing similar next month, flying out to ZRH one night, staying over and then longhaul flight the next day.
You need to add up all the components to see if it is worth the saving.

vixarooni

It happens loads. I was quite surprised by the amount of americans who travel from amsterdam to london!

dickydonkin

Caz3121 wrote: »

It does need to be on separate tickets (doing it on one ticket will incur the same taxes as UK-destination)
you also need to allow sufficient time for the connection as you will not be protected if your inbound flight is late and you miss the other flight
We are doing similar next month, flying out to ZRH one night, staying over and then longhaul flight the next day.
You need to add up all the components to see if it is worth the saving.

Not just the cost of extra components - but the time, effort and hassle.

I have looked at this many times, and I have never seen a difference in price where it would be worth the time and effort of doing it.

In fact my upcoming flights to Asia worked out cheaper booking on a through ticket from the UK via Amsterdam as opposed to booking the same flights separately - and not just a few quid difference either!

I'm sure there are many examples of where there is a significant saving, and even though there are potential snags and risks that many will find worth taking, the price difference would need to be significant for me to even consider it.

Alan_Bowen

Please be very careful especially during winter when early morning flights from the UK to Paris Amsterdam and similar airports are frequently late. If you arrive too late to check in at the intermediate airport you have to buy a new ticket which will be very very expensive. This only works if you want to spend a night or two in Paris or Amsterdam and although you may save on the taxes, £13 to Europe as opposed to £80 plus for long haul flights, the fares themselves are often higher.

alanrowell

vixarooni wrote: »

It happens loads. I was quite surprised by the amount of americans who travel from amsterdam to london!

Why? APD is only paid by people departing the UK. More likely that KLM is cheaper to fly US-UK via AMS than US-UK direct with BA, VS or the various US airlines.

Tojo_Ralph

Funnily enough, this is a subject I have been looking at recently having just transfered years of BMI credit card spend to Avios miles.

http://news.cheapflights.co.uk/air-passenger-duty-how-to-avoid-the-flight-tax/

I am long on Flying Blue miles and Marriott/Hilton/SPG points and I am looking at how best to use FB miles for Business long haul somewhere for a week or so with possibly a 2 night break in Amsterdam on the way out.

On the subject of air miles, Having not used BA Avios miles before I was impressed to find that if i am using miles to fly Down to Dublin I am permitted to break my journey in London at no additional cost So a two city break for the price of one..... All I need now is time off