NEWS: APD rises again, new easy way to identify Club Suite flights and TAP Black Friday

Air Passenger Duty set to rise, and how to avoid it?

Even if you mainly fly using miles and points, the APD changes will affect you. That’s because APD makes up part of the taxes and charges fee that you have to pay. Unsurprisingly, the Chancellor announced in her budget that these fees would rise. The UK is one of the only countries in the world that has these fees. Originally a way to tax aviation fuel, APD has been muted as a green tax, but really, it is just a way to raise money for the government.

There are ways to avoid it if you are clever. The first is to start your trip from an airport that is either exempt from APD, such as Inverness, or outside the UK, such as Dublin. You will need separate tickets if you are starting outside the UK to avoid APD charges. This does create some connection risks, as the airline is no longer liable if you miss the second flight. However, adding an overnight stay helps but increases overall costs. The other option is to include a 24-hour or longer stopover after your first flight. This means you will only pay APD on the first flight. If flying long haul via Europe, this could represent a decent saving since indirect flights are usually cheaper and you’d only pay the short-haul APD. 

After the rise for April 2026, APD rates will now increase by RPI every year from 1 April 2027.

Current Rates 

Premium cabins are anything other than economy and include premium economy.

Domestic flights :

• • £7 economy
  • £14 premium cabins
• Band A (0-2,000 miles – short haul):
  • £13 economy,
  • £28 premium cabins
• Band B (2,001-5,500 miles – USA, Central America, Middle East, India):
  • £90 economy
  • £216 premium cabins
• Band C (over 5,500 miles – Australia, Far East, South America):
  • £94 economy
  • £224 premium cabins

New Rates from 1 April 2026

From April 2027 

New way to find British Airways Club Suite flights easily

Even 6 years after the new Club Suite was first introduced, there are still old seats on the older B787s and A380s. Most of the Heathrow-based B777s have now been completed, with the B787s next on the list.

Currently, if you want to find a Club Suite flight, you can either do a Google flights search, as it will show anything with a door as “Individual Suite”. You could also make a dummy booking on ba.com and look at the seat map. 

Now Reward Flight Finder, the app for easily finding BA Avios flights, has introduced a new way to identify Club Suites. This could be very handy for somewhere like the US, where you may have a choice of destinations you could fly into and aren’t sure which to choose.

Rather than having to look at each flight individually as I described, RFF’s Club Suite Filter, allows you to target flights offering the new Business Class. The filter automatically distinguishes Club Suite-equipped routes, aircraft, and exact flights.

Earlier in the year, RFF  launched the ability for Gold members to Search and set Alerts on a Flight-by-Flight basis, so you don’t get unwanted alerts for a flight you don’t want. 

You can find out more about Reward Flight Finder here.

TAP Black Friday deals go live

Tomorrow I’ll be doing a round-up of all the major deals plus any new ones that arrive (AA’s sale is due to go live tomorrow). In the meantime, you can find all this year’s Black Friday articles here.

TAP Air Portugal is launching a mega Black FLYday campaign with promotional fares for all of the airline’s destinations. Promotional tickets included in the Black FLYday campaign can be purchased until 2 December 2025, for travel between 13 January and 15 May 2026, on flights operated by TAP.

Here are the starting prices for the sale, which are pretty decent in my opinion:

• Portugal – Business class £329
• Africa –  Business class £459
• USA and Canada – Business class  £1,499
• Brazil – Business class £1,799
• Mexico – Business class £1,899

More information can be found at https://www.flytap.com/black-friday

TAP is also joining forces with Revolut in a special promotion in the Portuguese and UK markets that rewards customers who use the Revolut Pay payment method. Until 6 December 2025, Revolut users with an active registration and membership in the RevPoints program can earn 10 times more points for every £1 spent on TAP reservations paid for with Revolut Pay.

This campaign is valid for purchases made on the official TAP website and in the TAP app, subject to the Revolut customer’s subscription plan.