Booking CDG-LHR-YYZ on BA with QFF points in J

[Ken1]

I am looking at booking to fly from CDG to YYZ via LHR in J with BA using QFF points for a date that will be released in a few weeks. Looking today at 10 Sep 2027 that BA released today there are J flights available.

If I look separately at CDG-LHR it would be 21,000 QFF points + 76 Euro (appr 123 AUD). Looking separately at LHR-YYZ it would be 73,400 points + 647 GBP (appr 1218 AUD) . So the total of taxes and carrier fees etc would be in AUD 123 + 1218 = AUD1341.

Now if I search for CDG-YYZ the QF site shows the same flights for 90,000 QFF points + 967 Euro (appr 1562 AUD). I would have thought booking as a single itinerary would have meant we wouldn't have to pay the UK APD since we are only transitting at LHR so the price should be lower or even the same if they are still charging the APD but booking as a through flight is showing as 221 AUD extra ((1562 - 1341) compared with booking separate flights (which of course I don't want to do). Looking at the same flights using multi city still brought up the same Euro amount. In past years I have transitted through LHR and not been charged the APD.

Has anyone else seen the same happening with QFF? I have looked at this over several days and it is always the same.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Can you do a dummy booking and look at the fare breakdown on the payment page? See what the taxes fees and charges are composed of?

France has a new €120 luxury departure tax for distances over 5500km, about half the APD, and BA’s TATL surcharges can be very high.

 

[Ken1]

I am looking at booking to fly from CDG to YYZ via LHR in J with BA using QFF points for a date that will be released in a few weeks. Looking today at 10 Sep 2027 that BA released today there are J flights available.

If I look separately at CDG-LHR it would be 21,000 QFF points + 76 Euro (appr 123 AUD). Looking separately at LHR-YYZ it would be 73,400 points + 647 GBP (appr 1218 AUD) . So the total of taxes and carrier fees etc would be in AUD 123 + 1218 = AUD1341.

Now if I search for CDG-YYZ the QF site shows the same flights for 90,000 QFF points + 967 Euro (appr 1562 AUD). I would have thought booking as a single itinerary would have meant we wouldn't have to pay the UK APD since we are only transitting at LHR so the price should be lower or even the same if they are still charging the APD but booking as a through flight is showing as 221 AUD extra ((1562 - 1341) compared with booking separate flights (which of course I don't want to do). Looking at the same flights using multi city still brought up the same Euro amount. In past years I have transitted through LHR and not been charged the APD.

Has anyone else seen the same happening with QFF? I have looked at this over several days and it is always the same.

Although I don't have enough Avios to book through BA I have just logged in to my BA Club Avios account and have done the same search. For separate bookings CDG-LHR is 18,000 Avios + 38 AUD. For LHR-YYZ it is 99,000 Avios + 551.30 AUD for a total of 589.40 AUD. When searching for CDG-YYZ it shows 117,000 Avios + 982.04 AUD so 393 AUD extra for booking as one ticket. Like with QF I don't know why the taxes etc would be higher for putting both flights on the same itinerary, even if we are still being charged the APD.


In case it was something to do with departures from French airports I did a BA search for ZRH-YYZ and it shows 117,000 Avios + 730.21 AUD so the difference is just that fees would be higher from France. The separate segments are 18,000 Avios + 38 AUD for ZRH-LHR and 99,000 Avios + 551.40 AUD so a total of 589.40 the same as from CDG when booking as separate flights so a difference of 140.81 AUD extra (730.21 - 589.40) to book a combined ticket with BA Avios.

 

[Ken1]

Can you do a dummy booking and look at the fare breakdown on the payment page? See what the taxes fees and charges are composed of?

France has a new €120 luxury departure tax for distances over 5500km, about half the APD, and BA’s TATL surcharges can be very high.

Looking at CDG-LHR at the bottom of the page it shows 90,000pts+€967 (€770˜+€197†)
˜Carrier charges payable to Qantas
†Taxes and third party fees (excludes any taxes or fees that may be payable at the airport). Going to the final stage before payment I see:

Air transportation charges​

Other Carrier Charges€725.00
Carrier Charges€45.00

Taxes, fees and charges​

Airport Tax (Refundable)
€13.15
Passenger Service Charge - Intl (Refundable)
€15.29
Air Passenger Solidarity Tax
€120.00
Passenger Service Charge
€38.90
Airport Tax (Refundable)
€9.37

---

Totals​

x1 adult€966.71

---

Looking at just LHR-YYZ it shows: 73,400pts+£647 (£340˜+£307†)
At the final stage it shows:

Adult​

Air transportation charges​

Other Carrier Charges£275.00
Carrier Charges£65.00

Taxes, fees and charges​

Passenger Service Charge
£54.40
Air Passenger Duty (APD)
£251.95

---

Totals​

x1 adult£646.35

---

Total

 

[Ken1]

I entered these details into ChatGPT and it explained this:
"Yes. The breakdown confirms that Qantas/BA is correctly removing UK APD from the through booking. The unexpectedly high total is caused by BA’s carrier-imposed charges, not APD.

For the through CDG–LHR–YYZ booking:

Component	Amount
BA/Qantas carrier charges	€770.00
French Air Passenger Solidarity Tax	€120.00
Other airport/passenger charges	€76.71
UK APD	€0
Total	€966.71

The £251.95 APD appearing on the separate LHR–YYZ booking is exactly the UK’s published 2027 Business Class Band B APD rate. It disappears completely when CDG–LHR–YYZ is ticketed as one connected journey. HMRC confirms that international flights connecting within 24 hours and appearing on the same ticket are treated as one journey; because that journey begins outside the UK, no APD applies. HMRC connected-flight rules and 2027 APD rates.

What replaces it is partly the new French tax:

• France treats Toronto as the final destination of the through journey.
• CDG–YYZ is over 5,500 km.
• The premium-cabin French solidarity tax is therefore €120.
• On a separate CDG–LHR ticket, the destination is London, so the much lower European rate applies.

But that still does not explain why the through ticket costs more overall. The decisive difference is this:

• Separate LHR–YYZ: BA carrier charges are £340, approximately €390.
• Through CDG–YYZ: carrier charges are €770.

BA is therefore imposing roughly €380 more in carrier surcharges when the award originates in Paris and continues to Toronto. Carrier charges are not genuine government taxes and are not calculated simply by adding the charges for each flight. BA prices them according to the complete itinerary, origin, destination and market in which the ticket begins. Qantas is apparently passing through BA’s higher CDG-origin surcharge and labelling it “Carrier Charges payable to Qantas.”


So the result is approximately:

• Saving by avoiding UK APD: about €290
• New French long-haul premium tax: €120
• Net government-tax saving: about €170
• Extra BA carrier surcharge on the through itinerary: about €380
• Result: through booking approximately €210–€220 dearer

That matches almost exactly the AUD221 discrepancy you calculated.

There does not appear to be a Qantas error in applying APD. It is an unattractive but internally consistent BA surcharge calculation. Your through booking also costs 90,000 points rather than 94,400 points separately, so you save 4,400 Qantas Points, but unfortunately pay about AUD220 more.

The major advantage of booking it through remains important: protected connections, through-checked luggage, and no risk of losing the Toronto flight if CDG–LHR is delayed. I would not book these as separate tickets merely to save approximately AUD220 per person."

I had not expected that booking a through itinerary would cost more than two separate segments but I can see why now. Thanks Mel_Traveller for suggesting I look at the fare breakdown.

 

[I love to travel]

Try going out of AMS to BRU - you might be pleasantly surprised

 

[MELso]

I was looking this up on BA Club. It's 117K Avios and $A982 PP through them. Not cheap, but still a lot less than through Qantas.

Anyway, if you're prepared to endure PE (on a daytime flight), you can book DE out of FRA (or CDG with an overnight layover) for 70.8K points with only 132 euros of carrier charges.

 

[Ken1]

I was looking this up on BA Club. It's 117K Avios and $A982 PP through them. Not cheap, but still a lot less than through Qantas.

Anyway, if you're prepared to endure PE (on a daytime flight), you can book DE out of FRA (or CDG with an overnight layover) for 70.8K points with only 132 euros of carrier charges.

Thanks I love to travel and MELso for your replies.

I just booked a QR Avios J flight from SYD to CDG a few days ago and have enough Avios left to book a return J flight back to SYD but not enough to also book to fly to YYZ as well so will have to use QFF points. We are visiting our Son who lives at Nimes in Southern France and will go there by train from CDG, a 3.5 trip. Nimes is just over an hour by train from Marseille so MRS is the closest airport served by BA. When I was searching for BA flights from MRS through QFF that would connect to the LHR-YYZ flight I wasn't seeing many released so I looked at flights from CDG, which seemed to show more availability. BA don't release all flights to QFF although they do usually release at least 4 J seats per flight for BA Club Avios members.

Since we will need to travel from MRS to other suggested cities like AMS, BRU or FRA I would think that the cost to get there would be more than we would save.

We are now thinking of flying from MRS to LHR and staying in London for a day or two and then flying LHR-YYZ on a separate ticket. We have stayed at Premier Inn T4, which is joined to the terminal by a walkway so no shuttle is needed, several times before and the prices are usually under £100 so that may be a good option.

 

[MELso]

If you're down the south of France, MAD to YYZ on IB might be another option.

(And TAP sells business from MAD to YYZ for just over $2k cash.)

 

[AIRwin]

If you're down the south of France, MAD to YYZ on IB might be another option.

IB also has direct MRS-MAD flights although it looks like MAD-YYZ is on a narrowbody (A321XLR)