Business Class Fares & Offers

[davidge]

17 minutes ago, Trevor said:

 

I’ll be interested to see how BA works out...I’m out again with EVA this weekend which has now got expensive compared to a few years back.

From what I gather the main issue with BA is the layout...some seats face backwards and/or do not have direct aisle access. 

At that price though I’d be tempted to prebook one of the decent seats and still be ‘quids in’ 

The food and service don’t get great reviews either but at that price I’m not sure it would bother me.

Also I would add I flew with Cathay last year via Hong Kong which gave me a similar sort of saving...and the bonus of a few days in HK. 

 Eva would be my first choice but been much too expensive the last 3 trips. The seat layout does concern me on BA. I’ll have to try and work out which seat to go for - if there’s much choice left at online check-in. From reviews it sounds like the window seats have more privacy but face the ‘wrong’ way and you have to climb over someone’s outstretched legs to get out. The aisle seats have little privacy and others will clamber over you to get out. Window seats at the back look like the only ones that avoid the issues but I doubt they’ll be available by then. Would cost me about £180-£190 to choose now so not doing that. It’s taking the piss charging in Biz anyway.

I’m not so concerned about food & service as I’ve used Thai the last 2 trips and they’re poor now on both counts.

[Trevor]

1 hour ago, davidge said:

 Eva would be my first choice but been much too expensive the last 3 trips. The seat layout does concern me on BA. I’ll have to try and work out which seat to go for - if there’s much choice left at online check-in. From reviews it sounds like the window seats have more privacy but face the ‘wrong’ way and you have to climb over someone’s outstretched legs to get out. The aisle seats have little privacy and others will clamber over you to get out. Window seats at the back look like the only ones that avoid the issues but I doubt they’ll be available by then. Would cost me about £180-£190 to choose now so not doing that. It’s taking the piss charging in Biz anyway.

I’m not so concerned about food & service as I’ve used Thai the last 2 trips and they’re poor now on both counts.

Looking at seat guru suggests there may be forward facing seats in the front row avoiding the ‘clambering’ issue, but they’re on the aisle by the toilet!

As you say the cost of choosing the seats is criminal and in any event it looks like none of the seats come without some sort of drawback .

To be honest though if I can find that kind of price difference for my next trip I’ll have a go.

This trip I’m going onward to Taipei so it was easiest to stick to EVA despite the rise in price.

Edited to add the forward facing seats at the front of the 2nd section seem decent enough. No clambering and whilst they’re by the toilet it’s only a small cabin so might not be quite as busy. 

 

Edited February 8, 2019 by Trevor

[T-T-T]

etihad fares are showing as £1345 decent stopovers times  I was looking mid april to may  if that helps anybody. 

Just hoping now Gulf drop to compete and put the £1K price on :-)

Edited February 10, 2019 by T-T-T

[Just Browsing]

On 09/02/2019 at 02:24, Trevor said:

Looking at seat guru suggests there may be forward facing seats in the front row avoiding the ‘clambering’ issue, but they’re on the aisle by the toilet!

As you say the cost of choosing the seats is criminal and in any event it looks like none of the seats come without some sort of drawback .

To be honest though if I can find that kind of price difference for my next trip I’ll have a go.

This trip I’m going onward to Taipei so it was easiest to stick to EVA despite the rise in price.

Edited to add the forward facing seats at the front of the 2nd section seem decent enough. No clambering and whilst they’re by the toilet it’s only a small cabin so might not be quite as busy. 

 

BA's charge for booking seats pi$$es me off!

Booked my parents premium economy for Dad's 70th Birthday trip to Las Vegas (From Manchester so 4 legs) & mum gets all panicky if she doesn't get an aisle seat (Explaining that it's 2-3-2 and Dad doesn't mind where he sits, didn't help) so it ended up costing me an extra £360 or so just for seats.

Had 1/2 a mind to claim a refund when they got bumped to Business on the LHR-LAS leg :p  - Well I paid for those Premium Economy Seats!!!

 

[Yes, if I were a better son I would have booked them on Business in the 1st place :( - But I still would have had to pay more for the seats!!!)

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2019 by JB300

[tps]

Folks may want to keep an eye on Hong Kong Airlines- I only fly in from a relatively short distance (Beijing) but have gotten two separate biz tix at very good prices since the New Year. Another friend came from LAX (if memory serves) on Hka in December and also got a great fare.

Now the downside - rumor has it they are on the verge of bankruptcy, so perhaps hence the lower than usual biz class fares? For me it’s not a big risk since I could easily buy a ticket back to Beijing on another carrier if worse came to worse, but of course if you’re traveling from afar it’s a different story.

Another negative is there’s not much use for the accrued mileage - they aren’t aligned with the major freq flyer programs, so it’s either put the miles in their fortune wings program (featuring the mighty Hainan Airlines and nothing else), or maybe they are involved with some hotel programs if you use those.  I heard they can be used with Etihad in some way as well.

As for the product, it’s a mixed bag on the PEK-HKG-BKK route; some planes are newer and nicer, some are well past it. One lounge at HKG is quite new and very good, and the new Hainan Airlines lounge in PEK is excellent if you happen to pass through there.

[hammerman]

Some Etihad flights available at £1500 on their site for later in year, £1420 through agents.

I was looking Oct/Nov, not sure what other dates available.

From London

Edited February 10, 2019 by hammerman

[bobbybgood]

Not for everybody but have just noticed Egypt Air from AMS late Mar for £790 Business class, 3 hour transfer outgoing and 5 coming back .

[T-T-T]

not sure if this helps but this  site allows you to see business class fares +/- 3days in a grid format might be easier to see the best  fares over a few days . Not sure if it will work world wide but works for europe. 

https://www.epower.amadeus.com/westeasttravel/   

[Luv2Phuket]

Blog post on decent ($2,400 USD) RT fares in business class on American Airlines:

https://onemileatatime.com/good-american-business-class-fares-from-lax-to-bangkok/

Although not a great fare, you'd get a shit ton of miles and, I assume, EQMs. 

If I was struggling to get my EQMs for status next year and/or was Exec Platinum (and could use SWU to bump to first, as noted int he post), this is definitely something that would interest me.  As it stands, I'm looking pretty good to renew my (meager) Platinum status, with 2 trips to Hawaii (1 leaves tomorrow), a 1-way back from BKK on JAL in November and an anticipated LAX-JFK trip in April.

[bullseye]

Can thoroughly recommend Oman Air. Have some good business class fares and the service on their dreamliners is excellent. Loved the food, super comfortable lay flat beds in a private little pod area. Short lay over in Oman. Good lounges.

[davidge]

50 minutes ago, bullseye said:

Can thoroughly recommend Oman Air. Have some good business class fares and the service on their dreamliners is excellent. Loved the food, super comfortable lay flat beds in a private little pod area. Short lay over in Oman. Good lounges.

I came very close to booking Oman for my July trip. Actually got as far as trying to make the booking on their website but it wouldn’t work properly on my iPad. 20 minutes on the phone with one of their staff didn’t solve the problem either.

The next day the very cheap BA fare appeared so I booked that instead. Much rather fly direct, even if a worse airline, as I really don’t like dealing with airports.

[davidge]

Just saw this. Don’t know how much will be off BKK fares? RJ was one of the cheaper Biz fares when I was looking in any case.

 

Book a flight today and fly from London to Amman and beyond to any of our RJ destinations with up to 21% discount on crown and economy class tickets for mother’s day!
- Sales validity: 21.03.2019
- Travel validity: 01.05.2019 -  15.12.2019     
- This offer excludes North America 
- Tickets are non-refundable
- Changing reservation fees apply
- Service fees may apply
- Royal Club members will earn tier miles and segment counts on their accounts
- Royal Club terms and conditions apply
- Royal Jordanian terms and conditions apply
- For more information and reservation, please visit rj.com, RJ mobile app, RJ sales offices.

[T-T-T]

on the look out for xmas flight now ... so if you see any good deals on your travels please shout out  possible might be able to go for a month    5 - december to january 6  but more likely around 15 to 6th

Thanks In advance 

[dontpanic]

Am I reading it right that BA charge for specific seat reservation even in business?? That's crazy if true, Turkish airlines have gone up quite a bit since last year. Going to look into Cathay pacific next year for Thailand as am going premium economy with them to Japan later this year, direct from Dublin to Hong Kong, nice flight times and only 3 hours to Bkk from there. Would be around a midday arrival so by the time you get to Patts your room will be ready and you are set for your first night

 

[davidge]

1 minute ago, dontpanic said:

Am I reading it right that BA charge for specific seat reservation even in business?? That's crazy if true, Turkish airlines have gone up quite a bit since last year. Going to look into Cathay pacific next year for Thailand as am going premium economy with them to Japan later this year, direct from Dublin to Hong Kong, nice flight times and only 3 hours to Bkk from there. Would be around a midday arrival so by the time you get to Patts your room will be ready and you are set for your first night

 

Yes, they do. Bloody ridiculous. I’ve booked BA for my next trip only because they had a cheap fare available for a couple of days and I much prefer to fly direct. If I want to select my seats now it would cost me almost £200. I’ll just do it at check-in when it’s free. I don’t like the strange seat layout either but it was cheap!

 

[Just Browsing]

3 hours ago, dontpanic said:

Am I reading it right that BA charge for specific seat reservation even in business?? That's crazy if true, Turkish airlines have gone up quite a bit since last year. Going to look into Cathay pacific next year for Thailand as am going premium economy with them to Japan later this year, direct from Dublin to Hong Kong, nice flight times and only 3 hours to Bkk from there. Would be around a midday arrival so by the time you get to Patts your room will be ready and you are set for your first night

 

Strange about TA, I was hoping their Flight prices would come down to get more people flying into their new airport, but they've gone up instead!!! -

Maybe they've taken been taking Business lessons from the Thais?

Disgraceful BA charging for Premium seats, costs me £360 (4 x £90) when booking seats for my parents in Premium Economy MAN-KHR-LAS, I wouldn't bother booking them if it was for me (certainly not in Business), but mum likes to know where she going to be sat (has to be an Aisle seat)

 

 

 

[Luv2Phuket]

4 hours ago, davidge said:

Yes, they do. Bloody ridiculous. I’ve booked BA for my next trip only because they had a cheap fare available for a couple of days and I much prefer to fly direct. If I want to select my seats now it would cost me almost £200. I’ll just do it at check-in when it’s free. I don’t like the strange seat layout either but it was cheap!

 

If -- and ONLY IF -- it assures you once of the better seats on the first or last row of their upper deck business class cabin, I guess I would consider it.  Otherwise, no thanks.

I don't like BA's "head to toe" layout, so much so that I willingly took a 23+ hour layover when flying through London so I could fly AA metal from LHR to LAX instead of being on BA (although BA was at least a 14 or 15 hour layover, given the limited flight options/times from Kiev).

[The Serpent]

I recently used China Air for my return flight to OZ - Manilla/Taipei/Melbourne - business class

I thought I did alright, as the price I got was $1,780 AUD, which was 500 cheaper than any other option

If I rate just the comfort/entertainment/food each out of five, I now understand why the price was so low

Entertainment & Food I would rate 2/5, not a wide selection of movie's/TV and I'm convinced the food they served in BC was EXACTLY the same in economy 

The comfort was a solid 4/5, which is what I expected from an A350-900 plane

Overall, my rating was 8/15, so it got a bare pass

WIR = only if it was $1000 AUD cheaper than the next best option...

[davidge]

6 hours ago, Luv2Phuket said:

If -- and ONLY IF -- it assures you once of the better seats on the first or last row of their upper deck business class cabin, I guess I would consider it.  Otherwise, no thanks.

I don't like BA's "head to toe" layout, so much so that I willingly took a 23+ hour layover when flying through London so I could fly AA metal from LHR to LAX instead of being on BA (although BA was at least a 14 or 15 hour layover, given the limited flight options/times from Kiev).

They use old 777-300s between LHR and BKK so no upper deck. They are in the process of buying new aircraft and retrofitting some of their older ones so the nose to tail will be no more. Don’t know anybody who likes it.

If you’re on the second tier of their FF scheme you can choose seats for free a week before the flight. Those on a higher tier again can choose for free even earlier. This is the first time I’ve used BA for years so will have to wait until online check-in. Not sure what sears will be left by then - but the difference in fare between this and Eva has more than paid for a condo for a month.

[neilri2001]

For those based in the UK and travelling with a partner or a friend the current Swiss / Lufthansa premium sale currently has some fantastic companion fares in Business and first class. Of most interest to those on this forum would be bangkok at £1250 per person return on Swiss in business. Availability up until March 2020

[dontpanic]

Not strictly business class but Air France have a very good premium economy sale on at the moment, 10 day trip in June is coming in at 1200 Euro return. Flight times and connection times all good, just have to worry about those pesky French air traffic controllers.

[bullseye]

Avoid BA and Air France like the plague.

[bigbadbaz]

Had a look around and I'm seriously looking at this option. Dec 7 th to 28th, afternoon flight Ams to Bkk and 01.20 flight back Bizz class Qatar £1500 inc taxes. Fly Man to Ams 10am on the 7th and 4pm return to Man, £80 although only economy but 1hr 15min flight. Same dates and times Man to Bkk with Qatar £2190sh. Saving about £590

im not booking yet as offers usually come out in July but a 2 stop with  an extra few hours travelling will save decent money. Only downside from what I saw was 3 of the legs were 777 and one 350

[davidge]

2 minutes ago, bigbadbaz said:

Had a look around and I'm seriously looking at this option. Dec 7 th to 28th, afternoon flight Ams to Bkk and 01.20 flight back Bizz class Qatar £1500 inc taxes. Fly Man to Ams 10am on the 7th and 4pm return to Man, £80 although only economy but 1hr 15min flight. Same dates and times Man to Bkk with Qatar £2190sh. Saving about £590

im not booking yet as offers usually come out in July but a 2 stop with  an extra few hours travelling will save decent money. Only downside from what I saw was 3 of the legs were 777 and one 350

As always with this sort of thing, the main issue is that you will have no recompense or support if you miss the main flight due to problems with the first flight - weather delay etc.

Obviously, it means you are restricted to the baggage allowance on the first flight as well.

[rickyroo]

20 minutes ago, davidge said:

As always with this sort of thing, the main issue is that you will have no recompense or support if you miss the main flight due to problems with the first flight - weather delay etc.

Obviously, it means you are restricted to the baggage allowance on the first flight as well.

That very issue of a problem with the 1st flight is why I never take up these offers.