Business Class Fares & Offers

[KittenKong]

On 24/04/2018 at 07:57, docbunsen said:

I jumped on the deal the other day when prices were lower  but now regretting it slightly due to poor reviews of the seat on the 777.

I flew several sectors on Etihad 777 last year and had no problems with the seat.

[davidge]

7 hours ago, KittenKong said:

The ones that seem to have dried up are the cheaper ones starting in BKK. Flights to BKK still seem to be quite reasonable, though unfortunately they dont suit me, and cheaper flights starting elsewhere are still to be had.

Last year I flew business class with decent airlines (Qatar, Etihad) from BKK to California return for £1300 (normal price three times that), and from BKK to Portugal return for £900 (normal price more than double that), but this year to go to the East coast of the US I will be flying on Qatar from Colombo for £850 as there is nothing even remotely comparable from BKK, even allowing for an expensive £600 positioning flight from BKK to Colombo. I see lots of other bargain flights starting in Colombo also.

I only look at flights out of LHR, though Qatar from CWL is an option from next month. I’m not prepared to mess around with ‘positioning’ flights etc.

One problem I have is that I can only travel when my sister comes over from Australia to carry out my caring duties. She doesn’t tend to get organised early so I then miss the cheaper fares that seem to appear about 6 months prior to travel date. A couple of years ago I could still pick one of these up 3 months out but they disappear more quickly now. Also, the £1000/1100 fares that Gulf, Turkish etc used to have appear to have gone completely. 

Qatar from CWL didn’t ever show at below about £1800 - this seems to be their base fare. Often well above £2k.

I prefer to fly direct so look at Eva first. It used to be possible to pick up a fare of about £1500, and fairly easy to find £1700 once the other fare had gone. Now it never seems to be below about £1750 and even £1900 isn’t easy to find once you get to 3/4 months out. I booked Thai for July as the best fare I could find with Eva was £2200 - which I won’t pay!

Edited April 26, 2018 by davidge

[KittenKong]

9 hours ago, davidge said:

One problem I have is that I can only travel when my sister comes over from Australia to carry out my caring duties. She doesn’t tend to get organised early so I then miss the cheaper fares that seem to appear about 6 months prior to travel date. A couple of years ago I could still pick one of these up 3 months out but they disappear more quickly now. Also, the £1000/1100 fares that Gulf, Turkish etc used to have appear to have gone completely. 

Fair enough. I'm entirely flexible in my dates and so I only buy tickets when they are cheap. All my long distance holidays over the last two years were made because of the cheap seats that I found, and prior to buying the ticket I had no firm intention of visiting those countries at all. The same applies to my next two holiday trips that are already booked.

The only exception is my yearly trip to the UK which I never miss, but there I buy anything up to a year in advance and can adjust my schedule to virtually any time from May 1 to September 30, according to when the best ticket prices are. And that usually means in a sale.

[KittenKong]

Currently seeing BKK>LHR>BKK on Malaysian for £1300 and on Turkish for £1400. Both are fairly decent airlines though Turkish may involve longer stopovers. Lots of availability all this year.

Turkish also doing many other EU destinations for £100+ less.

[dontpanic]

The long stopovers shouldn't bother anyone with Turkish airlines business as they have a world class lounge and will give you a private room if your wait is more than 8 hours or so.My stopover is actually quite tight and I probably won't get to the lounge on the outbound trip :(

 

[Shaksey]

13 hours ago, KittenKong said:

Currently seeing BKK>LHR>BKK on Malaysian for £1300 and on Turkish for £1400. Both are fairly decent airlines though Turkish may involve longer stopovers. Lots of availability all this year.

Turkish also doing many other EU destinations for £100+ less.

Good price for Malaysian. It's good flight LHR-KUL from a sleep perspective. Plenty of time to sleep well. I don't mind the seats, they go flat enough to allow you to lay down properly. They don't have the massage function like the same seats do on Qatar's 777's though. Malaysian's A380's are getting very tatty now inside, the IFE remotes on both flights I did last year were covered in grime/filth, stains and knocks on a lot of the surfaces in the cabins. They do not like serving you alcohol. Golden lounge in KLIA is getting tatty and worn now too, poor choice of drinks in the little bar and it shuts at midnight. 

Edited April 28, 2018 by Shaksey

[Just Browsing]

14 hours ago, KittenKong said:

Currently seeing BKK>LHR>BKK on Malaysian for £1300 and on Turkish for £1400. Both are fairly decent airlines though Turkish may involve longer stopovers. Lots of availability all this year.

Turkish also doing many other EU destinations for £100+ less.

Enjoyed my SIN-MAN-SIN flight in Business with Turkish over Xmas, would definitely pay the extra £100 to fly with them over Malaysian.

As for costs, I have a very simple way of doing it... Get mullared (Drunk), whip out credit card, book the flight... ... ... ... Wake up next morning, realize what you've done, spend the next few weeks economizing on non-essentials until you've recouped the money you've spent.

Oh & then go into work on the Monday to ask for the time off!

 

[boxershrimp]

15 hours ago, KittenKong said:

Currently seeing BKK>LHR>BKK on Malaysian for £1300 and on Turkish for £1400. Both are fairly decent airlines though Turkish may involve longer stopovers. Lots of availability all this year.

Turkish also doing many other EU destinations for £100+ less.

I'd be pretty all right with a long layover in IST, that huge TG lounge really is very nice. Even if the toilets smell a bit.

Malaysian are usually nice too, but I was extremely disappointed that I didn't get any satay when I flew BKK-KUL-DPS and back last time (a few months ago). That used to be a highlight, flying with them. Four flights and no satay? Fucking unacceptable, I say.

[nachelitas]

1 hour ago, boxershrimp said:

that huge TG lounge

Guessing that you are talking about the TK lounge? ;)

[boxershrimp]

On 28/04/2018 at 23:27, nachelitas said:

Guessing that you are talking about the TK lounge? ;)

Indeed I am.

Possibly a freudian slip on my part, don't try to tell me you wouldn't also want all business lounges to be full of TGs (as well as booze).

[T-T-T]

prices now seem to be dropping for august 

£1500 this is a combination of Swiss and luthansa

Outbound Thu, 2 Aug  2018 19:25 LH 12h 551

stop VIE14:20+1BKK

ReturnMon, 27 Aug 2018
Lufthansa23:00BKK14h 40
1 stopFRA07:40+1LHR

 

[Just Browsing]

5 hours ago, boxershrimp said:

Indeed I am.

Possibly a freudian slip on my part, don't try to tell me you wouldn't also want all business lounges to be full of TGs (as well as booze).

As compensation, the TK lounge in IST is huge & very nice  

[T-T-T]

13 hours ago, T-T-T said:

prices now seem to be dropping for august 

£1500 this is a combination of Swiss and luthansa

Outbound Thu, 2 Aug  2018 19:25 LH 12h 551

stop VIE14:20+1BKK

ReturnMon, 27 Aug 2018
Lufthansa23:00BKK14h 40
1 stopFRA07:40+1LHR

 

Well that went quick cannot find it now Ahhhhhhhh !!!!

[davidge]

Just wondering, has anyone used one of the smaller Thai Air Lounges that are located near some of the gates at Swampy? The main one is so poor (a corridor with chairs was my impression!) I thought I might as well try using one of those when I fly back next trip. 

At least I should be able to get a nice cooked breakfast in the United lounge at LHR on the way out. I’ll be leaving home at about 5am to drive up.

Edit: just realised I can use any Star Alliance Lounge so Singapore & Eva lounges are also options. Guess it depends which gate I leave from and how far I want to walk.

Edited May 4, 2018 by davidge

[thinkingallowed]

1 hour ago, davidge said:

Just wondering, has anyone used one of the smaller Thai Air Lounges that are located near some of the gates at Swampy? The main one is so poor (a corridor with chairs was my impression!) I thought I might as well try using one of those when I fly back next trip. 

At least I should be able to get a nice cooked breakfast in the United lounge at LHR on the way out. I’ll be leaving home at about 5am to drive up.

Edit: just realised I can use any Star Alliance Lounge so Singapore & Eva lounges are also options. Guess it depends which gate I leave from and how far I want to walk.

In January I had a pass for the TG lounge in the D concourse.

My honest opinion is that it smelled of damp, looked run down and had little on offer that interested me. 

I did an immediate u turn and headed for the Cathay Pacific lounge and used my FF card. To be honest I was surprised to get a pass for TG lounges when flying a One World carrier.

[davidge]

11 minutes ago, thinkingallowed said:

In January I had a pass for the TG lounge in the D concourse.

My honest opinion is that it smelled of damp, looked run down and had little on offer that interested me. 

I did an immediate u turn and headed for the Cathay Pacific lounge and used my FF card. To be honest I was surprised to get a pass for TG lounges when flying a One World carrier.

Yes, the TG Lounge is poor - and gets bad reviews pretty much everywhere online.

I always get to the airport early for my flight so will probably go to the Singapore lounge instead - it was only opened last year and is meant to be decent. I’ve used the Eva lounge a few times and that’s OK as well.

[dontpanic]

Is that the Louis Cip tavern? That was terrible, didn't even have toilets, you had to leave the lounge and go across the corridor. Allright not much to ask but when you're paying a business fare premium I'd expect to have a decent bathroom in the lounge. The other Thai one Etihad used to use wasn't great either but that one is a lot worse.

[davidge]

11 minutes ago, dontpanic said:

Is that the Louis Cip tavern? That was terrible, didn't even have toilets, you had to leave the lounge and go across the corridor. Allright not much to ask but when you're paying a business fare premium I'd expect to have a decent bathroom in the lounge. The other Thai one Etihad used to use wasn't great either but that one is a lot worse.

No. The Louis lounges are used by airlines that don’t have their own, or partner airlines with one. You can also pay to use them. It was a Louis lounge I used when I flew with Gulf.

The old Singapore lounge didn’t have toilets but the new one does.

Thai have their own lounge but considering it’s their home airport it’s a really poor lounge.

 

Edited May 4, 2018 by davidge

[Just Browsing]

8 hours ago, davidge said:

No. The Louis lounges are used by airlines that don’t have their own, or partner airlines with one. You can also pay to use them. It was a Louis lounge I used when I flew with Gulf.

The old Singapore lounge didn’t have toilets but the new one does.

Thai have their own lounge but considering it’s their home airport it’s a really poor lounge.

 

I sometimes use the Louis lounges with my Priority pass (Free with my Citi credit card) when I'm travelling with my mates (Otherwise I'm in the Thai Business Class lounge)

To be honest I'm yet to find a 1/2 decent lounge at BKK, but next trip returning home with Cathay (who normally have awesome lounges) so let's see what they have to offer

Any recommendations/thoughts/comments about Cathay's lounge in Swampy or should I just head to the Louis lounge & use my PP?

 

[smiler]

I really liked the Cathay lounge, much better than the Louis lounge in every respect.

[Shaksey]

Yeah I got a pass for some "First Class" lounge at BKK a month or so ago when flying Biz on Finnair. 

It was shit.

Left and went to Cathay Lounge.

[thinkingallowed]

5 hours ago, Shaksey said:

Yeah I got a pass for some "First Class" lounge at BKK a month or so ago when flying Biz on Finnair. 

It was shit.

Left and went to Cathay Lounge.

The "new" First class Miracle lounges are a rebranding of the Louis Tavern CIP lounges.

Any One World passengers that can should just head for the Cathay lounge.

[T-T-T]

well finally booked for August and went with Gulf Air. £1400. 2nd to the 27th and what a nice surprise the London to Bahrain leg there and back will be the new 787 by all accounts and looks pretty shit hot 

https://thepointsguy.com/news/gulf-airs-new-787-business-class-is-amazing/ so very happy about that and hopefully will allow me to be fully rested when I land in London at 6:30 am on my return and hopefully straight to work.  

Lufthansa was coming up at approx £1490 and really fancied this one as the times where perfect and you get the a good 10 hour flight from Frankfurt so a good interrupted sleep. 

  but could not get it booked for the life of me . tried to book it 4 times over sunday from momondo.com and sent me through to "world airfares" I think it was.. you thought you had the price, put all the personal details in so they captured that and then got told ahhh the price is no longer available. Then they had all my details and seriously they have not stopped phoning me since . I have had to block the number and block there email.  So bit of a scam going on there so beware. did accept the call after the last attempt and as usual was all about an up sell. they actually tried to sell me the gulf air flight at £1600 instead of Lufthansa which they said was no longer available.  so just so you know. 

Still on the lookout as well for a Xmas deal but think the best we will see this year will be around the £1600 if we are very very lucky or more probably around £1800. but you never know ..  

Cheers

TTT

Edited May 8, 2018 by T-T-T

[docbunsen]

On 08/05/2018 at 22:02, T-T-T said:

 

  but could not get it booked for the life of me . tried to book it 4 times over sunday from momondo.com and sent me through to "world airfares" I think it was.. you thought you had the price, put all the personal details in so they captured that and then got told ahhh the price is no longer available. 

I've had the same several times with world air fares via cheapflights.co.uk. I no longer even bother trying with world air now.  I got under 1600 with etihad for xmas (man/bkk).  I thought that was right enough despite a few negative reviews of the 777 , air france were £1400 at one point but i couldn't book at the time ,in hindsight i'm glad given their situation now. Not too many biz bargains on the horizon at the min but as you say it may change.

[T-T-T]

4 hours ago, docbunsen said:

  I got under 1600 with etihad for xmas (man/bkk). 

DO you mind me asking what dates you booked to get that price ?