195. London on Points: Flights, Hotels, and Things to Do

Points Talk®: Your Travel Dreams, Made Possible by Points

This episode of Points Talk® explores how to travel to London using credit card points and miles, sharing practical strategies for booking f

Key takeaways

London is a highly accessible destination for points travelers due to numerous direct and connecting flights from U.S. cities.
UK air passenger duty significantly increases outbound flight costs, especially in premium classes, making it crucial to plan around these fees.

Main topics

Using credit card points to book flights to London
Navigating UK air passenger duty and fuel surcharges

Notable quotes

"I would fly direct from Denver to Heathrow for just $5.60 if I had unlimited United miles."

Conclusion

With strategic planning and smart use of points and miles, London is a

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) The three of us have been to London many, many times on points. It's one of those destinations that's so easy to visit on points and with so much to do, one that you can visit again and again and still not see at all. Listen in as we share how you can use points and miles to visit London. Speaker 2 (0:17) Welcome to Points Talk. Speaker 3 (0:18) We are three moms who've discovered how to Speaker 2 (0:20) leverage credit card welcome offers to Speaker 3 (0:22) get hundreds of thousands of dollars of travel expenses for nearly free. We've used credit card points and miles to take vacations to places like Hawaii, Paris, Greece, Maldives, Japan, and so much more. And the best part, we each still have 800 plus credit scores. Imagine being able to take the vacation of your dreams for nearly free. It's totally possible and we're here to show you how. Speaker 1 (0:48) Hey, I'm Alex. And I'm Pam, Alex's mom. And I'm Jess. Let's talk points. We previously recorded an episode about London, one of our most early episodes of the show. That episode is very out of date, so we figured now was a great time for a London refresher. All of us love London. In fact, I'm visiting London three times this year alone. You know I love a London trip. All right, there we go. It is a great place to visit, a great place to position if you want to continue visiting other parts of Europe, and so easy to do on points and miles. So Pam is going to kick us off with some of the best ways to get to London on points. Speaker 2 (1:31) So honestly, for 21 years since my daughter Lindsay married a guy from London or from England, London has been my second home. I go there probably two or three times every year. I feel like, you know, I know it so well. The interesting thing is she is now moving to the United States. They are moving their whole family. And so I'm kind of sad because I'm not sure. you know, how often I'll be going there now. It's kind of a sad thing because I too, I really, really love London. So many things to do. It's just so great to go somewhere and everybody, you can understand what people are saying. I find the tube very easy to get around, you know, so many reasons, you know. And the other thing that is so great about it is that there are, it's so easy to get to because there's so many flights from the United States. I don't care almost anywhere you live. If you live near a halfway. you know, major city, there is some sort of flight. It's not direct. It's going to have a connection. And there are a lot of direct flights from the U.S. to London also. Delta, American, Virgin, British Airways, United, JetBlue, Alaska, all of them fly direct, you know, from some city or other. Now, I think the one thing that's... kind of takes people back a little bit about planning trips to London or flights in particular, is that the fees flying out of London are always high. I mean, really high, especially if you're flying premium class. I am used to paying around $700 for a business class seat flying out of London. I try to book a flight. that is a lot less. I love to fly on United. It's like $5.60. But just going there. Just going there. But coming home, even on United, you're going to pay those higher amounts. Yes, yes. So there is a UK air passenger duty that you have to pay when you leave the UK, and that is what makes it a lot higher. So people will, you know, even for economy, you're going to be paying $200, $300, so it's $400, you know, for... economy or premium economy. So it's just know that going in. Some airlines also charge fuel surcharges like British Airways. So even going into London where there's a lot of times I can fly into London and not pay much. If I'm flying on British Airways, I just have to, you know, because that's all I can find or that just works better. I just have to kind of cough it up. Kind of rough. So Like I said, all of us have been to London. We've been to London. All of us have been to London recently. All of us have been to London within the last month. And so we're going to talk a little bit about how each of us has done it. Now, my last two flights out of London, like I said before, if I could, if I had. Unlimited United miles. I would fly direct from Denver to Heathrow. I would pay my $5.60 on a business class flight. It would usually cost me about 80,000 miles because I have their credit card. Perfect. But I don't have unlimited United miles. So I have to oftentimes position to another airport to get a business class flight. I do. One of my favorite ones for quite a while has been Virgin Atlantic, Boston into Heathrow. I love that. I have been able to get that for, I just had one for 48,000 points. And at the last minute, I changed it. This was coming back from London. I changed it and it was about $700 in taxes and fees. And I changed it because I just found something that got me all the way back into Denver. It wasn't direct, but it just worked better. So I... Paid a little, I paid more in points, but a little less in surcharges. I just flew AA there. I went from Denver with a layover in LAX onto... to Heathrow. That was on an AA flight, which was great. I like, you know, I like those flights. They're good. And usually it might be sometimes more in points. You're going to pay one or the other. You're either going to pay like 57.5K in points on one of those flights. It could be then flying, booked on AA, but flying on a BA flight, but then you're going to be paying about close to a thousand dollars, or you can pay a hundred and $12,000 or $70,000 and just get by with that cheaper $5.60 in and about. I think we paid coming back, we paid $400 coming back on business class this last time. And so that's kind of what we do. I just wrote a post all about, would you rather pay more for points or more in taxes and fees? Because on my last trips, this was my quandary. And I had found flights that were less in points and more in taxes and fees. And then I didn't like them. And I decided I need to find something better. And that is the magic of points and miles, is that you can look at the last minute and see if there's something better that you like. My flight going there, my flight coming back to London, which was this last month. Both times, I switched that very last week. And so it just depends what matters to you most. I mean, for me, because I am the only person really that's using all my miles, I'm fine with paying a little bit more in taxes and fees. If I had a family, I wouldn't be. So that's how I usually have done it. All right. So I have coming home. I Speaker 3 (7:32) have flown Delta, booked via Virgin Atlantic. I have also... done KLM to Amsterdam. And then once I arrive in Amsterdam, because Salt Lake City doesn't have very many direct flights to Europe. I think we've got Amsterdam, London and Paris. And the London flight is on Delta. And if I can't find it on Virgin Atlantic, sometimes it's really expensive to book on directly with Delta. And so the last time I went, I flew into Amsterdam. I flew premium economy for 40,000 miles. It was a great flight. It was actually at the time I booked, the regular economy was also 40,000 miles. I'm like, well, who's, of course I'm going to do premium for the same price. So that was a really great flight. And then we stayed one night in Amsterdam, but you could just hop on another plane and go like get a cheap flight and then fly right to London. But we stayed one night, explored Amsterdam for 24 hours and then took the Eurostar to London. That was just $76. You can get it sometimes even cheaper than that. And Amsterdam Central Station is a great location in central Amsterdam. And then we went right to Pankrus, London. Super easy to do. The train stopped in like Rotterdam, Netherlands, Belgium and France. But they were just quick stops like we didn't get off the train. So that was a really great option. And yeah, that's I've also flown American. I did that one time too. I went from Salt Lake City to Chicago to London Heathrow. And that was really nice. The thing I like about American is if you can find the AA operated flights, you don't usually have to position. As long as American flies from your airport to the hub, they will connect your whole itinerary. So that is really nice with AA. And like my mom said, I just, for mine, I only paid $5.60. And then... Yeah. Oh, I did want to share another one. So Tracy, our copy editor, was actually in London the same time as I did, or I was. And so we were texting a little bit about how she was flying there. She actually took the same flight home that I did, but was one day after me. It would have been fun if we were on the same flight. But anyway, she has been booking. So she's in Seattle and Alaska has a flight to London direct on Alaska Airlines from Seattle. If you book it through Alaska. It's going to cost you more. But she has found if you book it through AA, you can get it for $57.50 and just $5.60 in taxes and fees. And she has been finding pretty good availability that just keeps popping up. So I was like, Tracy, are you okay if I share this on the podcast? Because this is your way to get to Europe now, to get to London on a great price in business class. She's like, no, I'd be honored if people start flying this route. Anyways, Tracy's the best. So shout out to Tracy for sharing that tip with us. For those of you on the West Coast, super great way to get to London. I think she usually sees Speaker 2 (10:32) two, but she has seen availability for four as well. You know, I forgot that I have done that several times where I've booked an A, I've actually booked an AA flight through Atmos. In fact. Coming back, I forgot that's how we did it. I was thinking we flew American Airlines. We did fly American Airlines, but I booked it on Atmos. It was for $70,000 each, so it was a little bit more. But it got me all the way from London, stop in Miami, all the way to Denver, and taxes and fees on that were more expensive. Yeah, because you were leaving London. Yeah, so it was $400, but still a great deal. Speaker 1 (11:14) Yeah. All right. Well, I have quite a bit of experience flying to London this year. I'll share a few different ways I've done it. So I'm in Houston, as you know, and the only two nonstop options I have from Houston are United and British Airways. If I were flying economy, United would 100 % be my choice because like they said, with those US-based airlines, you're just going to pay $5.60. usually really good availability on United Economy to London. And so that would be my choice. Unfortunately, I have gone to this, I've experienced business class and now it's hard for me to give that up. And so I've, for my recent trips, I've been looking for business class. Like Pam was saying, if United Polaris availability was there, that would be my number one choice, 80,000. and $5.60. Unfortunately, it's not and I'm not paying upwards of 200,000 or more United Miles to fly business class. And so then I go to British Airways because I am someone like if I can fly nonstop, that is 100 % my priority. I would rather pay more points and fly nonstop than have to position because to me, it's just like every time you position, there's a cost involved in that, even if it's not points or cash. It's time and it's energy. But there also Speaker 3 (12:33) is points and cash too.