How to Fly to London with Points & Miles

Using points to fly to London isn’t difficult, but doing so without paying a small fortune in taxes and fees takes some strategy.

Thanks to U.K. Air Passenger Duty fees as well as airlines such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic who pass on significant carrier-imposed surcharges, using points for flying to London can make you question whether award travel is actually saving you money.

However, if you know which frequent flyer programs to leverage, you can fly on points to London at affordable rates without breaking the bank.

So whether you came for the tea or the crumpets, stay for the affordable airfares and find out the best ways to get to London on points.

Exploring Your Points Options for London Travel

When looking for the best way to fly to London on points, you’ll want to focus on booking through the following airline loyalty programs:

• American Airlines AAdvantage
• Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards
• Delta SkyMiles
• Air France-KLM Flying Blue
• United Airlines MileagePlus
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Unless you have a stash of miles with the respective airline loyalty program, you’ll need to leverage one or more of the following credit card transfer partners to travel to London on points.

There’s no single best airline with which to travel to London on points. Instead, you have multiple options to choose from.

Navigating London’s High Fees

One of the challenges of flying to London on points and miles is U.K. Air Passenger Duty (APD) fees.

APD fees are a tax levied on flights departing from the U.K. They vary depending on the distance of the flight, the class of service and the pitch of your seat (the distance from any point on your seat to the exact same point on the seat in front or behind it).

Within each distance category, you’ll either be charged the reduced rate or the standard rate. The reduced rate applies to travel in the lowest class of service available for seat pitches less than 1.016 metres (40 inches).

The standard rate applies to travel in any other class or where the seat pitch is more than 1.016 metres (40 inches).

In theory, that means that basic economy fares will fall into the reduced rate band while all other classes—premium economy, business and first—will fall into the standard rate band. However, if you happen to be flying with an airline where the seat pitch in the lowest class of travel is greater than 40 inches, you’ll be liable to pay the standard rate.

Here are the current U.K. APD rates:

Keep in mind that you’ll be liable to pay APD fees on flights departing from the U.K. only. That means you won’t have to pay APD fees on flights that end or connect in London.

For this reason, an easy way to avoid hefty long-haul APD fees on your return flight is to take a short haul flight from London to a city in Europe, and then fly back to the U.S. from there. However, you’ll need to make separate outbound and return bookings, otherwise you’ll still be hit with the APD fee on your way back.

Alternative Airports for Lower Fees

The cheapest way to fly to London is by using an open jaw itinerary. This way, you’ll fly into London and then fly out of a European city.

Let’s look at a quick example showing how adding a European city to the return leg of your journey can save you hundreds of dollars.

Let’s say that you have a stash of United miles and are looking to fly from Newark (EWR) to London-Heathrow (LHR).

You can find Saver award fares to London for 20,000 miles in economy, 50,000 miles in premium economy and 80,000 miles in business each way. The taxes and fees you’ll pay for this route are as little as $5.60, regardless of the class of service.

If you booked the return flight back to Newark from London, you could expect to pay anywhere between $210.31 and $381.31 in taxes and fees, depending on your class of service.

However, if you hopped on a cheap flight from London to Dublin, you could then fly back to Newark for almost identical mileage rates and as little as $45.21 in taxes and fees.

That’s savings between $165 and $336 per person. If you’re flying the whole family out to London, changing your return airport to a European city can offer significant savings potential.

When booking your flight to a European city, you can either use cash or points to cover your airfare. For example, you could fly with Aer Lingus or British Airways on points to Dublin, or Air France, KLM, Lufthansa or Iberia to mainland Europe.

Alternatively, you can often find incredibly cheap fares with low-cost carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet across Europe. For example, you can find flights with Ryanair from London-Gatwick (LGW) to Dublin for between £15 and £30 ($20 to $40~) each way.

The only caveat to flying with these low-cost carriers is that carry-on and checked baggage are not included in the basic airfare, but instead come at a premium.

Keep in mind that taxes and fees vary by each European country. For instance, you’ll pay more to fly out of Frankfurt back to Newark than you would from Dublin. This might also influence your choice.

If you end up pursuing this strategy, remember that the cost of the additional trans-European airfare plus any additional baggage costs, taxes and fees, and extra hotel costs should be lower than the taxes and fees you’d pay to depart directly from London back to the U.S. Otherwise, you’re not really saving any money.

Best Ways to Fly to London with Miles

For the sake of simplicity, we’ve focused on flights to London-Heathrow (LHR) with the return leg originating in London, too.

However, as demonstrated above, feel free to alter your return leg to avoid being hit with hefty long-haul APD fees.

Without further ado, here are the best ways to fly to London on points.

American Airlines AAdvantage

The American Airlines AAdvantage program is one of your best bets when getting to London and back on the cheap.

American Airlines operates nonstop flights to London Heathrow from the following U.S. airports:

• Boston (BOS)
• Charlotte (CLT)
• Chicago-O’Hare (ORD)
• Dallas-Forth Worth (DFW)
• Las Vegas (LAS) (seasonal/limited dates)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Miami (MIA)
• New York (JFK)
• Philadelphia (PHL)
• Phoenix (PHX)
• Raleigh-Durham (RDU)

This opens up a wide range of options for travelers across the U.S.

Theoretically, you can also book British Airways-operated flights through American Airlines AAdvantage, with an even greater range of nonstop flights from the U.S. to London. American charges the following rates for partner-operated award fares to London.

The downside to booking British Airways flights is the fact that they tack astronomical fuel surcharges onto fares—particularly premium cabin award fares.

For instance, you could fly with British Airways from New York to London for 30,000 miles in economy or 57,500 miles in business each way. However, you’d pay $308 in fuel surcharges on the economy ticket and a whopping $733 on the business ticket.

That same route booked on an American Airlines flight would cost you 27,000 miles in economy or 100,000 miles in business, and just $5.60 in taxes and fees, regardless of your class of service.

Keep in mind that you will pay more in fuel surcharges on the return leg from London to New York, even on American Airlines-operated flights, due to U.K. APD fees. Nevertheless, you’re looking at paying around $300-400 in surcharges for a business award fare on the return leg with American vs. paying more than $800 with British Airways.

So unless you’re flush with miles and don’t mind the value of your redemption being eroded by fuel surcharges, you’re better off sticking to American Airlines-operated flights.

American Airlines saver award fares start at the following one-way rates for flights between the U.S. and London:

• Economy: 25,000 miles
• Premium economy: 50,000 miles
• Business: 75,000 miles

You can easily use American’s search tool to search for award fares by the month, allowing you to find the lowest award rates.

One of the neat features of the AAdvantage program is that you can find economy- and business-class rates cheaper than the published saver award level. For example, you could fly to London from New York for 19,000 miles in economy, 39,000 miles in premium economy or 65,000 miles in business, each way.

On the flipside, you’ll often find rates higher than the saver award level. For instance, you’ll find premium-economy rates from New York going for 85,000 miles and business fares for 100,000 miles, each way.

Given American Airlines’ large domestic footprint and the number of airports it operates nonstop flights to London from, it’s easy to connect to a hub airport. And wherever you’re flying from, you can always find affordable economy fares, as long as you have flexibility with your dates. For example, you could fly nonstop from Los Angeles to London for as few as 19,000 miles each way.

Overall, American offers a wealth of routes to London combined with affordable award fares and reasonable fuel surcharges.

How to Earn AAdvantage Miles

You can earn American AAdvantage miles by flying with American Airlines and its Oneworld partners.

American Airlines has only credit card transfer partner, Citi. You can transfer Citi ThankYou points to AA at a 1 to 1 ration. You can also transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to American Airlines at a 3:1 transfer ratio.

You can also earn AAdvantage miles by spending with any of American’s co-branded personal credit cards, including the following:

• American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® Card ($0 annual fee)
• Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® ($0 annual fee in the first year, then $99 thereafter)
• Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® ($595 annual fee)

If you’re a business owner, you can earn AAdvantage miles with this card:

• Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® ($0 annual fee in the first year, then $99 thereafter)

Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards

Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards is a solid option for booking Oneworld partner flights to London. Specifically, you can leverage its distance-based partner award charts to book good flights with American Airlines.

To price one-way partner award flights from the U.S. to Europe (including the United Kingdom) Alaska uses the following chart:

You can use Alaska’s comprehensive search tool to search for saver award fares by the month, giving you maximum booking flexibility.

You could fly from New York to London for 22,500 miles in economy each way.

You can also use Alaska’s search tool to search for business award fares by the month. By doing so, you could find cheap American Airlines business-class award fares for as few as 45,000 miles each way from New York.

American Airlines operates nonstop routes to London from more than 10 U.S. airports.

You could fly from Phoenix to London for 35,000 miles in economy each way.

Similarly, you could fly from Dallas-Forth Worth and Raleigh-Durham to London for 27,500 miles in economy each way.

You could also fly business from Miami to London for 55,000 miles each way.

For the return flight from London, you can expect to pay between $200 and $400 in taxes and fees for American Airlines-operated flights, depending on the class of service.

If you want to avoid American Airlines’ dynamically priced fares during periods of peak travel and book affordable business-class fares to London, Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards is one of your best options.

How to Earn Alaska Atmos Rewards

Alaska Atmos Rewards miles aren’t the easiest to come by.

You can earn Alaska miles by flying with Alaska and its Oneworld partners. You can also transfer Bilt Rewards Points directly to Alaska miles at a 1:1 ratio. You can transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to Alaska miles at a 3:1 ratio with a boost of 5,000 miles for every 60,000 points transferred.

Alternatively, you can earn Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards miles through welcome offers and everyday spending by holding one of its three co-branded Bank of America credit cards: the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® Card, the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Card and for business owners, the Atmos™ Rewards Visa Signature® Business Card.

Delta SkyMiles

Delta SkyMiles is another solid program for booking cost-effective fares to London, particularly in economy.

Delta Air Lines operates nonstop flights to London from the following airports:

• Atlanta (ATL)
• Boston (BOS)
• Detroit (DTW)
• Minneapolis St. Paul (MSP)
• New York (JFK)
• Salt Lake City (SLC)
• Seattle (SEA)

While Delta prices its flights dynamically, you can still find good economy award fares between the U.S. and London.

Delta’s search tool enables you to search for award fares by the month, making it easy to find the lowest available award rates.

Keep in mind that when searching for international award flights with Delta, you’ll often save miles by booking a round-trip award fare instead of two one-way fares.

For example, a one-way economy award fare from Salt Lake City to London would cost you 47,000 miles.

If you booked a round-trip economy award fare from Salt Lake City to London, you could pay 52,000 miles in total, plus $217 in taxes and fees.

Therefore, you should aim to book round-trip fares to London through Delta to give yourself the biggest bang for your buck.

Similarly, a one-way economy award fare from Seattle to London could cost you 38,000 miles and a one-way Delta One award fare could cost you 260,000 miles.

Alternatively, if you booked a round-trip fare, you could find economy return fares for 36,000 miles in total and Delta One return fares for 220,000 miles altogether. These are mind-boggling savings that you can access simply by booking round-trip award fares instead of one-way fares.

You can fly from Dallas-Forth Worth to London for 50,000 miles in economy or 220,000 miles in Delta One round-trip.

Similarly, you could fly economy from Delta’s hub in Minneapolis for 48,000 miles round-trip or from its hub in Boston for 34,000 miles in economy and 210,000 miles in Delta One round-trip.

Despite Delta’s dynamic pricing, you can still find competitively priced round-trip economy fares from a variety of airports across the U.S. Likewise, you can expect to pay a reasonable $200 to $400 in taxes and fees round-trip.

How to Earn Delta SkyMiles

You can earn Delta SkyMiles by flying with Delta and its SkyTeam alliance partners.

You can also transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Delta SkyMiles at a 1:1 ratio. However, keep in mind that Amex charges an excise tax offset fee of $0.0006 per point transferred to domestic airlines.

Additionally, the following hotel programs allow you to transfer your points to Delta, albeit at suboptimal rates:

• ALL – Accor Live Limitless – 2:1
• Hilton Honors – 10:1
• IHG One Rewards – 5:1
• Marriott Bonvoy – 3:1
• Radisson Rewards – 10:1

One of your best options for earning Delta SkyMiles is through spending on a co-branded personal Delta credit card. Here are your options:

• Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card ($0 annual fee (see rates and fees))
• Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card ($0 annual fee in the first year, then $150 thereafter (see rates and fees))
• Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card ($350 annual fee (see rates and fees))
• Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card ($650 annual fee (see rates and fees))

If you’re a business owner, you can earn Delta SkyMiles with one of these business credit cards:

• Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card ($0 annual fee in the first year, then $150 thereafter (see rates and fees))
• Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card ($350 annual fee (see rates and fees))
• Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card ($650 annual fee (see rates and fees))

Depending on how often you fly with Delta, certain co-branded Delta credit cards will fit your profile better than others.

Air France-KLM Flying Blue

If you want to book cheap SkyTeam alliance fares to London, Air France-KLM Flying Blue is a great option.

While neither Air France nor KLM fly nonstop to London, you can easily connect to London through their respective hubs in Paris (CDG) and Amsterdam (AMS). Alternatively, you can book lucrative partner award fares with Delta and Virgin Atlantic through the Flying Blue program.

You’ll need to create a Flying Blue account to search for award fares. If you want to search by the month, simply leave the departure dates blank when initiating a search. This way, you’ll be able to see the cheapest award rates by the month.

You could fly with Delta from Minneapolis-St. Paul to London for 26,000 miles in economy each way.

You could also fly with Delta to London from East Coast hubs such as New York for 22,500 miles each way in economy.

You can book competitive business-class award fares with Air France for around 60,000 miles each way.

For instance, you could fly with Air France to London from Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth or Seattle for as few as 60,000 miles each way.

The only downside to booking through Air France is carrier-imposed surcharges. You can expect to pay around 200 to 400 Euros ($231 to $462) in taxes and fees round-trip for economy fares and up to 600 Euros ($693) for round-trip business-class fares. That said, if your outbound flight is operated by Delta, you’ll pay less in taxes and fees compared to flying with Air France, KLM or Virgin Atlantic.

On top of this, you can take advantage of monthly Flying Blue Promo Rewards to find even cheaper fares to London as well as use limited-time transfer bonuses to squeeze even more value out of your points when transferring them to Flying Blue.

How to Earn Flying Blue Miles

Flying Blue miles are some of the easiest to come by.

Aside from being able to earn them by flying with Air France, KLM and other SkyTeam alliance partners, you can transfer points 1:1 from the following credit card rewards programs to Flying Blue miles:

• American Express Membership Rewards
• Bilt Rewards
• Capital One Rewards
• Chase Ultimate Rewards
• Citi ThankYou Points

This makes Flying Blue an excellent program for booking award flights, no matter which credit card rewards currency you hold.

You can also transfer your Marriott Bonvoy points to Flying Blue miles at a 3:1 ratio, with a boost of 5,000 miles for every 60,000 points transferred.

Alternatively, you can earn Flying Blue miles directly on your spending by holding the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard issued by Bank of America, for an $89 annual fee.

United Airlines MileagePlus

United Airlines is a solid option when navigating your way to London on points. It offers a range of nonstop routes to London, including from the following U.S. airports:

• Denver (DEN)
• Chicago-O’Hare (ORD)
• Houston (IAH)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Newark (EWR)
• San Francisco (SFO)
• Washington D.C. (IAD)

While United MileagePlus may not offer the cheapest award rates, it makes up for this by charging lower taxes and fees than other airlines. Likewise, those with United Premier status as well as holders of eligible United co-branded credit cards enjoy exclusive perks when flying with United, including free first checked bags, expanded award availability and varying degrees of United Club access.

United prices its award fares dynamically, meaning you’ll pay more during periods of peak demand. However, you can use this unofficial United mileage rewards chart to find out the Saver award level for any given redemption.

You can use United’s search tool to find fares by the month, making it easy to spot saver award availability.

You could fly nonstop from Newark to London for 20,000 miles in economy, 50,000 miles in premium economy or 80,000 miles in business, each way.

For the return flight, you’ll be looking at paying between $200 and $400 in taxes and fees, depending on your class of service.

You can find similar rates from Houston to London, with economy saver award fares starting at around 31,600 miles each way.

Likewise, you can fly from Los Angeles to London nonstop for 24,600 miles each way in economy.

United’s search tool also comes in handy when looking for business-class award fares. You can filter the calendar to show business award fares only, allowing you to find saver-level business awards.

For instance, by using United’s calendar you can find a business-class award fare from Chicago to London for 80,000 miles each way.

Overall, United offers affordable fares, multiple nonstop routes, a strong search engine and exclusive perks for eligible cardholders and frequent flyers when getting to London and back.

How to Earn United MileagePlus Miles

You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points and Bilt Rewards points to United MileagePlus miles at a 1:1 transfer ratio.

You can also earn United miles through flying with United and its Star Alliance partners. If you’re flush with Marriott Bonvoy points, you can also transfer them at a 3:1 transfer ration to your United account. As a United MileagePlus member, you’ll receive a bonus of 10,000 miles for every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points you transfer.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer is a solid option for booking United flights to London.

Singapore KrisFlyer uses a zone-based partner award chart to price Star Alliance award fares. For routes between North America and Europe, you’ll pay the following one-way rates:

• Economy: 30,500 miles
• Business: 81,000 miles

You can find a full breakdown of KrisFlyer’s award pricing here: Singapore Airlines redemption chart.

United currently operates nonstop routes from seven U.S. cities to London, making it easy to catch a flight from an airport near you.

For example, you could fly from Newark for 30,500 miles in economy or 81,000 miles in business, each way.

Similarly, you could fly from cities such as Houston, Los Angeles, Denver and more at the same rates.

Business-class award availability can be scarce through KrisFlyer, although it varies from one route to the next. However, if you can find business-class availability, you can save thousands of miles by booking your fare through KrisFlyer instead of United MileagePlus.

Taxes and fees are also reasonable through KrisFlyer. On the outbound flight, you’ll pay the standard $5.60 fee. For the return flight, you’ll pay between £150 ($203) and £280 ($379) depending on the class of service.

How to Earn Singapore KrisFlyer Miles

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles are easy to earn thanks to its wide range of transfer partners.

Aside from flying with Singapore Airlines and its partners, you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points, Chase Ultimate Rewards points, Capital One Miles and Citi ThankYou points to KrisFlyer. All of these transfer partners use a 1:1 ratio.

Also, you can transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to KrisFlyer at a 3:1 ratio with a bonus of 5,000 miles for every 60,000 points transferred.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Virgin Atlantic offers two things when it comes to getting to London and back: incredibly low economy award rates and a long list of nonstop routes.

You can fly nonstop to London with Virgin Atlantic from the following U.S. airports:

• Atlanta (ATL)
• Boston (BOS)
• Las Vegas (LAS)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Miami (MIA)
• New York (JFK)
• Orlando (MCO)
• San Francisco (SFO)
• Seattle (SEA)
• Tampa (TPA)
• Washington D.C. (IAD)

This wide range of airports makes getting to London from your hometown relatively easy.

On top of this, Virgin Atlantic offers an abundance of economy saver award fares that you can find easily using its Reward Seat Checker tool. Simply input your origin and destination airports as well as the month you’re looking to fly.

Click the “Find reward seats” button and you’ll see a calendar overview of the month you selected with the lowest priced fares in each class for every given day. Fares with a red marker tag next to them are saver award fares.

At the top of the page, you can easily search for saver award fares for your return journey by clicking the reversal arrows.

Once you’ve found dates that suit you with competitive saver award fares, you’ll need to click “Find my reward seats,” where you’ll be redirected to Virgin’s search engine. From here, enter your dates and initiate your search.

For example, you could fly from Boston to London for as few as 12,000 points round-trip in economy.

Similarly, you could fly from Tampa to London for 15,000 points in economy round-trip.

Likewise, a round-trip economy fare from Las Vegas could cost you as few as 24,000 points.

If you’re based on the West Coast, you could pay 18,000 points round-trip in economy to fly to London from Los Angeles.

Keep in mind that Virgin tacks hefty taxes and fees onto its award fares. You can expect to pay around $350~ in taxes and fees for a round-trip economy award fare and well over $1,000 for a business-class return fare.

That said, Virgin compensates for these fees by offering incredibly low saver award rates to London, particularly in economy class.

How to Earn Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Points

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points are easy to earn because they have such a wide range of credit card transfer partners.

Virgin is a transfer partner of American Express, Bilt, Capital One, Citi and Chase. You can transfer your points between these programs at 1:1 ratios. For a Capital One transfer, you’ll need to transfer your points to your Virgin Red account and link it with your Flying Club account.

You can also transfer your Marriott Bonvoy points to Virgin at a 3:1 ratio with a bonus of 5,000 points for every 60,000 points transferred.

Turning Points into a London Experience

There’s no shortage of ways to get to London using points and miles, but not all routes are created equal.

Between hefty U.K. APD fees and significant carrier surcharges, a “free” ticket to London can end up costing more than a cash fare if you’re not careful.

However, with the right strategy—whether it’s flying American-operated routes to avoid fuel surcharges, leveraging Flying Blue Promo Rewards or pulling the open-jaw trick with a cheap hop to Europe—you can stretch your points further and keep thousands in your pocket.

To learn how to earn thousands of transferable points on your everyday spending and leverage them for award travel, sign up to the free 10xTravel course today.