Affordable Business Class?

[iframedrogerrabbit]

Hello.
I have family in Australia and would like to visit them at some point next year. I have a back condition so would ideally like to fly business class. This would be 2 adults and 1 child. I am restricted to school holidays as am a teacher so would go Summer or October. Was wondering if there are any ways to get ‘cheaper’ business class flights or if there are any known deals, best times to book etc. I don’t have any loyalty points or anything with existing companies.
Thank you for any tips!

Doesn’t exist. Especially not for Australia from the UK. You can reduce the price by flying from the UK to somewhere else to start the long haul part of the trip, maybe do economy for the shorter bit and business for the longer bit - but even then it’s going to be a lot more expensive than economy all the way. Even premium economy is twice the price of economy.

I don't know whether Qatar fly where you need to go, but they have a seat class called Comfort Plus. You basically get the economy service, but you're sitting in the premium economy seats.

They do this because they sometimes fly aircraft with premium economy cabins, but as an airline they don't offer a premium economy service.

Buy 2 tickets in economy and one in business and swop from time to time?
Not ideal though.
On looking at the, seat difference I would want to have a lie flat option to spend extra money rather than a bit of extra width and leg room.

Condor via Stuttgart or Berlin? (For Sydney)

The one and only time I was upgraded to first class was when I waited until everyone else had checked in at the airport…so I was last to check in. They had obviously overbooked the flight as they upgraded me. You could try that 🤷🏻‍♀️

How much are you willing to spend, is probably the start point.

Qatar sometimes do discounts - sign up for their club. Flights can also be cheaper from less popular start destinations eg Oslo to Sydney or similar, but you’d need to get to Oslo first. This first leg could be achievable ‘for free’ via points, which depending on your spending you could achieve within a year.

It’s going to be expensive though. If you did it for less than £10k I’d be surprised.

Our summer is about the cheapest time of year to fly to Australia.

It’s worth looking into flying a short haul leg to somewhere like Stockholm or Helsinki in economy then connecting to the long haul leg from there. There can be savings to be made versus flying BC all the way from the UK, you just need to play around with dates and airlines. Turkish Airlines could be worth a look as they’ve come out a fair bit cheaper than the likes of Qatar or Singapore airlines. Of course you have to add additional time to take account of stops but if you have the time, it could make it more affordable.

DH and I are doing such a trip next spring for a fair bit less than 10k.

Thanks everyone. A lot to go on and research. Price wise, I would be happy spending around £3000pp I would think although this is flexible. I wouldn’t plan on going again for a long time!

I found it was cheaper to book Premium Economy and break up the long flight by staying 2 or 3 nights in Singapore than it was to book business class.

I was tired when I arrived in Singapore but not when I arrived in Australia.

@Femalefootyfan there is three of them though, so £10k is £3.3k each - a stretch for business class all the way to Australia on any airline nowadays.

Can't name a single airline where this is allowed. Did it happen to you recently? Swapping between economy and business with another passenger is usually against T&C's of all the airlines I've seen.

If you have the time, a much cheaper option is to fly via Dubai or Singapore and spend the night in the airport hotel to give yourself a break. We used to do this when DC were tiny (Aussies living in London). Emirates to Dubai leaving about 11am, land in Dubai, have a 14 hour stop over overnight, which was the perfect amount of time to eat dinner, go up in the elevator to the hotel that’s in the terminal, sleep for 9 hours, have breakfast, then board the plane for the flight to Sydney. That way we weren’t trying to sleep in the plane as both felt like day flights to us. You check your luggage straight through London to Sydney and don’t clear customs or immigration in Dubai or have to check in again as you never leave the terminal. Adds half a day to the travel time each way but worth it to arrive not shattered.

Definitely achievable on condor

The best way is to have a look at Sky Scanner or sites like Holiday Pirates - but always book direct with the airline tbh. I've never used Jack's Flight Club but other friends swear by it.

I know these dates aren't for you but by way of example:
https://www.holidaypirates.com/flights/return-flights-to-sydney-under-600

Can you take out a credit card with the airline you would fly with and start putting all your normal spends on there? Obviously you need to make sure you pay it off at the end of every month, but you'd quickly start amassing points that you could use to upgrade. Fuel, food shopping, commuting costs etc.

Alternatively, when my DH was young he flew to Aus via NZ (i think something like London > LA > Auckland > Melburne). At the time it was because he was a broke student but now, Air New Zealand do something called the sky couch, and basically you book 3 x economy seats which they convert into a sofa / bed for you. It's much cheaper than business class but you get the benefit of being able to stretch out. Im not sure how much longer it adds to the journey though so you'd have to trade it off with your back.

A)get a BA Amex and get companion vouchers for 15k spend in a year. If you and DH have one each you’ve a decent shout. B) start in Europe -Barcelona, Rome, even Dublin. Can reduce costs of tickets by hundreds each way which adds up. C) collect avios (Ba Amex, Avios barclaycard) and use them for price reduction.

Amazing comments. I will check them out. Thank you to everyone who has commented.

We got a really good deal on business class in Cathay Pacific - DS found them on a seat sale. Made the journey each way a doddle. I'll see if I can find out which site he used.

We paid over 6k for two of us ten years ago to fly Bus Class with Etihad to Melbourne and back from Sydney. April. If you can find tickets for 3k each now I’d be very interested to see who it was with and would consider using them in future.

Emirates sometimes offer upgrades close to departure date at very reasonable fees, we’ve been offered them twice before but only on the Manchester to Dubai leg @ an extra £300 PP and you can’t use the lounges. The Manchester to Dubai leg is IMO the easiest part of the journey going out when you’re all excited anyway, so not really much of an incentive.

We fly to Australia regularly (my DS1 married an Aussie and lives there) and flights are EXPENSIVE... sadly I highly doubt you'd get business class for 3k unless you can work some magic that other posters have suggested.
How long are you going for? October half term would not be long enough (unless your school has very long half terms!).. we usually go for 3 weeks, 2 at an absolute minimum if my other adult kids can't get more time off.

I have severe arthritis in my back and hips and I won't lie... cattle class is a killer. If you can, I'd save money on the actual flight and book a night stop in Singapore, breaking the journey up and take lots of painkillers.

We found Qatar comfier than Qantas, Emirates are ok and next year (we go in February as I want sunshine!) we are flying Singapore airlines , but they are all pretty similar tbh.

Just don't do what we did the first time... flew straight from Heathrow to Perth (then on to Adelaide) I thought I'd never be able to stand up straight again!!!

I am in Scotland. We get 2 weeks at October but would also consider a week’s unpaid leave so could go for longer.

Have a look at China Southern via China.

Have a look at the Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/business.class.deals/

That's where DS found our seat sale - cost us around £7.5k for 3, but I know we got a really good deal. You just need to keep a close eye on things and be ready to book. We live in Edinburgh - drove to Manchester, stayed overnight at one of the airport hotels, then flew Manchester to HK, HK to Melbourne. Business class with Cathay is amazing - 1-2-1 seat configuration, flat beds, and the service and food/drinks are excellent both in the air and in the lounges.

I’ve been looking for ways to bring down the cost of business class myself and one option that worked for me was booking through a specialist site rather than the airline directly. For example, on a US-Europe trip I booked via business-class.com and ended up paying noticeably less than the fare I was seeing on the airline’s own site.
It’s not a magic half-price button, but a few things stood out:

• They sometimes surface consolidator or special fares that don’t appear on airline or big-OTA searches.
• As with most discounted tickets, you need to read the fare rules carefully, changes and refunds can be limited.
• My ticket showed up in the airline’s system as normal (I could choose seats and collect miles), but if something goes wrong you deal with their support team first.

For me the process was straightforward and the savings were worth the extra step of checking the conditions, so if you’re flexible on dates it’s an option worth considering.

Do not book Scoot's business class. Their seat doesn't become a flat bed, there are no screens and no access to lounge. DH's work booked us with them and now we specifically ask to not fly with them for our flight home paid by them.

Prices for business to Australia have become insane, even prices in economy on certain dates make no sense. BA wanted AUD 8000 for Economy this July.
You can totally swap seat with someone in Business-economy, done it a few times with Lufthansa, Singapore, ... and also bring snacks to those in economy. I have done it when flying back with friends or family members.

DH had to fly a few times to Europe for works alone and he flew Thai+Turkish so check those as well.

For the flights we pay for and when we have already used miles, I prefer economy bulkhead to premium