Flying business class

[manlyago]

Off to Australia at Christmas and I’m thinking about flying business class. As a treat for a big birthday.

Any smart ways of doing this? Using credit card/points /cash back to reduce the cost?

Thanks!

We've done split ticketing in the past - so outbound premium econ and inbound in business (or vice versa). It lowers the cost somewhat, but is still comfortable on the PE side of things. We have also bought PE both ways and upgraded on the day going one way.

Agree that ex-EU (ideally Stockholm Arlanda or Oslo Godermoen) aren't tossing out the cheap fares they used to, but keep it in mind. Definitely avoid BA because the product isn't worth it right now - a middle eastern carrier is much better value, or Singapore. We recently flew Finnair from Helsinki to Bangkok and found them quite good - they are OneWorld so would connect up to Qantas. New product on the flight to Singapore too!

Thanks all. @MardiGraze I thought that but it’s a similar price from regional airports as Emirates, Qatar, KLM all fly from Scotland direct to their hub.

Just looking at Google flights and putting a random date in Dec (Mon 21) to return in Jan (I think I used Jan 6), the cheapest Business flight was £4.8k. That was flying Finnair (so change at Helsinki) to Singapore then changing on to BA. Coming back from Brisbane it was with Singapore and then changing back on to Finnair at Singapore. So 2 stops each way but a decent price and all decent airlines with good lounges etc.

We recently flew SIA Premium economy into SYD and was offered upgrade to business 3 days prior to the flight for c.£1k each on the outbound flight, but weren't offered it on the return. It is now a first come first served type offering as opposed to auction style.

PE was definitely worth the extra to economy so if you can't stretch to business I would definitely look into it.

Flights we took in April were 50% more expensive than they were pre-covid.

We opted to drive to LHR to take SIA over flying Emirates from BHX (& all the expenses that entailed) for the PE offering. But Emirates are now selling PE as of the last month, so worth a look to see if that's another option.

I always book directly with airlines as it offers the best protections if something goes wrong.

I work in aviation and this is the best post I’ve ever read on here regarding air travel and cheap fares.

OP, you said you’ve gern looking and dares se high so you’re going to “keep looking”. That’s futile. Fares to Australia over Christmas will not come down. During “normal times” this us the busiest time of all and the best fares are sold out within days of being released. People actually set reminders for 330 days out to make sure they book as soon as humanly possible.

This year you also have two years worth of people who’ve not been able to spend Christmas with family and friends due to COVID who are determined to get there at all costs this year. Also, what we are seeing is that because people have not been able to travel much for two years they have ploughed their entire holiday budget from the last few years into this trip and are planning to “do it in style”. Ongoing crew shortages mean that not as many flights are operating as in 2019.

And, being blunt, we are not offering deep discounts this year because we don’t need to. At Christmas we are not going to need any help to fill the planes. Our demand is almost at 2019 levels already but with less inventory to sell.

Companion fares, award seats, upgrades and any other tricks used to fill low loaders are not needed at Christmas.

It is still always worth looking at ex EU
I am flying to Los Angeles and was paying £4500 in 1st , a flight was cancelled and I did a quick price check before accepting the change. £2400 ex Amsterdam on the same flights. AMS is easy for back to back which has cost £50 in economy and so £2000 saving.

@BritWifeInUSA you come across as quite patronising. I am aware of all of this as I am not stupid. The "keep looking" was more in terms of flying from different airports/dates. And there is a huge variety in that. I know that the overall trend will be prices will going up. I was also interested in people using credit cards to rack up points that could be used afterwards, thus saving overall.

I think some of the north Scotland airports don’t have air passenger duty, therefore there could be some benefit of seeing what is available from Aberdeen.

Oddly I also priced Inverness, it was the same as Newcastle which is unusual but both were cheaper than direct from Heathrow. So adding flight from Newcastle and then onto the same plane at LHR was cheaper than just getting the plane at Heathrow.

Headforpoints is a useful website for miles collecting.

@BritWifeInUSA
I didn’t think you were patronising. People are still thinking in pre covid prices and deals. I agree - book early. Why Christmas? Try another time. It will be more pleasant weather wise. Fewer fires!

Sorry OP but it’s going to be very hard to find anything reasonable for Christmas now in business. Airlines will not be having a sale due to demand and rising fuel prices. As other have suggested, maybe ex-eu. I managed to get a flight for Kuala Lumpur in business for £1,900 from Frankfurt instead of £3,300 from Heathrow in November (also a good excuse for a night away in Frankfurt). Does it have to be Christmas? I would personally look at flying from Paris, Frankfurt, Copenhagen. Lastly not all business classes are the same so research the product you’ll receive before purchasing.

@manlyago I think this is very harsh. @BritWifeInUSA wasn't in the slightest bit patronising and quite frankly, you weren't "aware of all this" or you wouldn't be asking only 6 months in advance before you want to travel on one of the most (if not THE most) highest demand routes at THE most popular time of year when Australia has been closed for the last 2 years. People are trying to help you find the best deal. At a time when any good deals are long gone and prices will only continue to rise. Or actually, they will stop rising because flights will be sold out.

I'm going to Australia in March. I was tracking flights for days before they were released and I booked as soon as they became available (with my back-up options already planned just in case). And I still didn't get both the flights I wanted and had to change my final destination and pay more than I'd hoped.

Also give Head for Points a try & Flyertalk. Really good forums.

Well good for you @HundredMilesAnHour go and lecture someone else. I asked a simple question and have said thank you lots of times to the helpful posters whose tips/comments I very much appreciate. Why I'm only looking now for Christmas is personal/family related and not your business so take your judgement off my thread thank you. I completely understand it's a busy time of year blah blah/pent up demand blah blah and I understand supply and demand (I have a degree in Economics). At no point have I complained about cost. I understand and I know how privileged I am to even be contemplating flying business class.

Thank you @Jajana I'll take a look. Yes, we're stuck with the dates as it's visiting family who we've not seen for nearly 5 years. Very exciting. Also we have school holidays to contend with. A big birthday year for me too hence the sudden urge to fly business!

@TizerorFizz it needs to be Christmas due to school holidays/exam year means no Easter trip/visiting family who have Oz school holidays off and are around. Not seen family for a long time so we are really looking forward to it.

@DirtyteaCup thank you - I had a look but it's quite pricey. Funny how I was convinced Aberdeen was further than Newcastle but they're exactly the same timewise!

@pinkpirlie £1K to upgrade that would be lovely! Last time I flew to Sydney I used all my husbands airmiles and upgraded. It was heavenly! Thanks I'll have a look at PE.

We've flown BC a lot, we've just booked flights to Dubai for March 2023 and have finally got round to using our Amex companion voucher plus we had alooooolot of points to use. Cost £1600 for 2 adults and a baby return

With BA

Premium economy is nice too though you need to budget the fee to book seats in advance as well because by the the time we checked in 24 hours before the flight we couldn't sit together

@CocktailNapkin that is very interesting, thank you. Do you just do your own separate flight to Helsinki (or wherever) and check back in again? I flew BA business a few years back and it was excellent, much better than Malaysian (other time I flew business). Qatar/Emirates is coming out as £10k each which is just too much for me. Shame as it's super quick! I see BA is doing the straight through to Sydney now (22 hours from London)

My ex is paying over £1000 economy ... it's very expensive

I'm sure your degree in economics will be a huge help with that chip on your shoulder. 😂Ignore the posters who work in aviation and/or are frequent Business/First fliers for many years. Apparently it's lecturing. 😝What would we know eh? I'll get back to Flyertalk where my advice is actually appreciated (and has been for the last 20 years).