ex eu reward flights. is it possible?

as we have to pay cash to fly BA from EDI to get to london for our reward flights normally, I was wondering whether its possible to book a reward flight from an EU location (via london) and simply fly there from EDI instead.

ie. AMS > LHR > JFK or DUB > LHR > JFK etc.

I wouldn't mind if the eu leg was cash or miles, but it would have to be on the one ticket with the Trans atlantic for protection and to avoid APD.

Obviously this is simple with CASH but how about miles?

Is this possible?

ex-Eu fares are about more than just avoiding the APD. The main bulk of the savings come from the difference in the base fares the airlines charge to encourage people to fly with them all be it indirectly. On my last ex-EU APD amounted to around 15% of the total savings. (£140 out of ~£1000)

I have seen people on here comment that they have done this but you have to phone VS.

What I would do is call them to ask for a price using miles but at the same time check on e.g. expedia how much a cash flight would be ex-EU plus how much the positioning flight would cost.

There should still be a savings but probably not as much as on a cash fare.

However (and it is a big one) I believe that you cannot mix a miles and cash flight on the same PNR and it is unlikely the leg to LHR from Europe would be a miles fare (happy to be proved wrong though)