NEWS: BA changes RFS fees, Hilton adds 100 SLH and SAS to offer business class on short haul

BA changes RFS fees

In July of this year, BA raised taxes and fees for Club Europe RFS to £12.50 from 50p for the highest amount of Avios/lowest cash option. RFS, or Reward Flight Saver, allows you to pay a lesser cash element on Avios redemptions. Now,BA have raised the fees for the longest short haul + flights even further for both economy and Club Europe.

The cheapest fees with the most Avios appear to be £102.50 for Tbilisi, which is quite the increase. Economy fees have also increased to £40.50. Although this seems a lot, if you bought a cash ticket the taxes and fees would be around £144 so actually it is not that bad value. 

These increases apply to Amman, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Sharm El Sheikh and the latest route announced yesterday, Tbilisi. 

HT to Marek and Antonio for flagging this. You can find the cost of all BA redemptions on Marek’s redemption calculator  here. 

Hilton adds remaining 100 Small Luxury Hotels

Hilton has gradually been adding its latest partner, Small Luxury Hotels of the World into its booking and points system. Today, the final 100 hotels will be added, meaning you can book via Hilton and earn and redeem Hilton Honors points with them. That takes the total to an extra 400 hotels within the Hilton program.

Not all SLH hotels opted to join the Hilton program so make sure you check the hotel you are interested in is part of Hilton Honors. The rules for redemptions are the same as for normal Hiltons so you can use the 5 for 4 on redemptions and the maximum you will pay will be 150,000 points for a basic redemption. 

You can find the official Hilton/SLH page here.

SAS to offer business class again on short haul

I flew SAS a while ago on their “Plus” ticket which is an odd business class/not business class product which offers lounge access and fast track but nothing onboard. In this case it was literally nothing apart from some water on a one hour flight! Usually you get free drinks and snacks (ones from economy) but there is no middle seat blocked.

Now SAS has joined Skyteam they have announced that they plan to introduce a proper European business class to align with other Skyteam members like KLM. This should consist of a blocked middle seat and proper food and drink. All we know for now is that it will come in during summer 2025 but I would expect prices to rise compared to SAS Plus.