Business Class Fares & Offers

[davidge]

An update after my enforced change of plans. I needed to either change or cancel my Gulf flights. As when booking, I found the website and App to pretty poor and difficult to use. Nowhere in my booking details could I find and mention of what the change or cancellation fees were for my ticket. I tried changing flights within Manage my Booking and chose the same fare category for each flight and the fees showed up as about £780. I then phoned the Gulf customer care line and got through quite quickly. I was told the cancellation fee was £200 which, considering it was a cheaper fare, I thought was ok. I cancelled the booking on the phone and was told the refund would take up to 3 weeks. In the event it was put back on my card in 7 days so pretty good.

I then needed to look for new flights for my new, shorter trip. I have to be in Pattaya the week leading up to the 20th November, I can’t really go much earlier than that week as I’ve things to do in the U.K., and I don’t think it’s worth the expense and travel to go for much less than 3-4 weeks so my dates were fairly fixed. It’s quite late to be booking flights as well - at least for me - so I wasn’t sure what I’d find.

There was very little out of Heathrow at a reasonable fare with airlines that I’m willing to use. On a very few dates there was a Gulf fare of about £2350 but with fairly long stopovers and arriving in Bangkok at 2am. Otherwise, it was Etihad at about £2700 with others more expensive. EVA direct was about £3200.

As a result I looked at flights out of Birmingham. BHX is actually slightly closer to me than LHR but I’ve never used it. It’s a less direct drive and, looking at Google Maps, the driving time varies more than the Heathrow journey. Obviously, no direct flights to BKK either. Anyway, by booking through the BA website I found flights with Qatar for £1968 so I booked those. They were more expensive if booked through Qatar. 

One thing to be aware of is that there are some cheaper fares that show up but with one of the four legs in Economy so make sure it’s booking class ‘I’ and not ‘Y’ for each of the four flights. The fare is quite restrictive with high change fees and only the taxes/fees refunded in case of cancellation.

I couldn’t find a way of choosing seats on the BA website but when I went to the Qatar website and Manage my Booking the option was there. The flights between BHX and DOH are on a Dreamliner. The cheeky buggers wanted £77.60 to choose a seat for each of these. I’ll just do it at check in. The flights between DOH and BKK are on 777s. Seat selection was free on these flights. It’s the old 2-2-2 seating on the outward leg so I chose a middle seat - at the moment there’s no one in the seat next to me. The return leg is in Q-Suites which are reverse herringbone on the 777. I chose a window one that was front facing.

[ronthebrummie]

I booked Biz with Turkish from Birmingham to BKK via Istanbul, changed my itinerary online from a 4 week trip to 6 weeks. Cancelled original flight rebooked same flights week in front and a week behind cost me £386 which even adding original cost plus rebooking charge is still cheaper than Emirate’s 

[Just Browsing]

12 hours ago, davidge said:

One thing to be aware of is that there are some cheaper fares that show up but with one of the four legs in Economy so make sure it’s booking class ‘I’ and not ‘Y’ for each of the four flights. The fare is quite restrictive with high change fees and only the taxes/fees refunded in case of cancellation.

I was looking at booking Qatar for my parents to come out to visit but couldn't find the difference between Business Class "I" & Business Class "D", do you know whether Business Class "I" is their Business "Lite" Class (e.g. No Lounge Access) or is it just a difference in number of Avios points you get?  

[davidge]

9 hours ago, Just Browsing said:

I was looking at booking Qatar for my parents to come out to visit but couldn't find the difference between Business Class "I" & Business Class "D", do you know whether Business Class "I" is their Business "Lite" Class (e.g. No Lounge Access) or is it just a difference in number of Avios points you get?  

Qatar has changed a few times! The cheapest Business Class “I” includes lounge access - they had stopped it for a while but it’s now included again. It doesn’t always include free seat selection though. As I said, there was a charge if I wanted to choose seats now for 2 of my 4 legs. There will be stricter conditions as well with higher cancellation and change fees.

[davidge]

11 hours ago, Just Browsing said:

I was looking at booking Qatar for my parents to come out to visit but couldn't find the difference between Business Class "I" & Business Class "D", do you know whether Business Class "I" is their Business "Lite" Class (e.g. No Lounge Access) or is it just a difference in number of Avios points you get?  

Another thing occurred to me. I’m not sure how old or mobile your parents are, or where they’d fly from?

When I used Qatar from Cardiff we had to use steps to get off the plane in Doha and then a bus to the terminal. I see from reviews and comments on various sites that it’s the same from Birmingham and Dublin. All of these routes use Dreamliners so it might be they do this for all flights using the aircraft??

[davidge]

If anyone is looking to book well in advance then Gulf have some flights LHR-BKK return for under £2000 for late October/November. I haven’t looked for other dates as I was just thinking of going for the month of November.

 

[davidge]

I know it’s a very long way off but I took the plunge and booked Gulf. Fare was just under £1970. Flight times good and I included 2 nights in Bahrain on the way home to see a friend who lives there. I’ll book hotel later as I thought the Gulf stopover package was slightly overpriced.

[Chrisrs]

6 hours ago, davidge said:

I know it’s a very long way off but I took the plunge and booked Gulf. Fare was just under £1970. Flight times good and I included 2 nights in Bahrain on the way home to see a friend who lives there. I’ll book hotel later as I thought the Gulf stopover package was slightly overpriced.

You’ll enjoy Gulf, I flew them pre COVID and thought they were one of the best I have used. I have had to pay £2400 for Turkish ex BHX in March, I booked back in June. Oil prices dropping a bit and more airline’s reopening routes are softening prices a bit. Ethiad in March from LHR currently £2250  but too much of a penalty for me to get of the TK flights and I was happy with pricing so hey Ho you win some and lose some!

[davidge]

31 minutes ago, Chrisrs said:

You’ll enjoy Gulf, I flew them pre COVID and thought they were one of the best I have used. I have had to pay £2400 for Turkish ex BHX in March, I booked back in June. Oil prices dropping a bit and more airline’s reopening routes are softening prices a bit. Ethiad in March from LHR currently £2250  but too much of a penalty for me to get of the TK flights and I was happy with pricing so hey Ho you win some and lose some!

I’ve flown Gulf twice, once since they bought new planes, though not used the new Terminal in Bahrain yet. The flights on the new planes were good, though the layout on the Dreamliner is worse than with Qatar. Gulf have a staggered 2-2-2 whereas Qatar have 1-2-1. 

I saw Etihad had ok fares as well, though around £2400 so higher than Gulf. 

I’d rather fly Qatar or EVA but EVA fares are ridiculous now and Qatar only occasionally have really good offers from what I’ve seen. In the end I decided a ‘bird in the hand’ was better so booked this fare. I really don’t think I’ll find lower with anyone I’m willing to fly with.

I’m half looking for June/July (not sure I can go yet) but haven’t found any decent fares really.

[Eric Le Roi]

Good friend of mine flew Emirates from Manchester christmas eve.1 month stay. £3600 no lounge access or chauffeur service....ouch

[Just Browsing]

Came across a couple of Travel Hack sites that at 1st glance seem to be more US focused so have only taken a cursory glance at them.

https://roame.travel/ : allows you to search for flights based on credit card points / airmiles. 

https://faredrop.com/: Claims to be the cheapest way to find Business Class fares.

Has anybody use these or know of something similar that might be of more use to UK guys?

[Luv2Phuket]

25 minutes ago, Just Browsing said:

Came across a couple of Travel Hack sites that at 1st glance seem to be more US focused so have only taken a cursory glance at them.

https://roame.travel/ : allows you to search for flights based on credit card points / airmiles. 

https://faredrop.com/: Claims to be the cheapest way to find Business Class fares.

Has anybody use these or know of something similar that might be of more use to UK guys?

I use Roame quite a bit, but it seems that PointsYeah.com returns more options

There is also point.me, but that is a paid membership site.

As for ABSURD business class fares, I need to go to London at the end of the month from business.  RT Las Vegas to London was well over $13,000 USD (using AA to book the BA non-stop; BA was the same price)

[Chrisrs]

18 hours ago, davidge said:

I’ve flown Gulf twice, once since they bought new planes, though not used the new Terminal in Bahrain yet. The flights on the new planes were good, though the layout on the Dreamliner is worse than with Qatar. Gulf have a staggered 2-2-2 whereas Qatar have 1-2-1. 

I saw Etihad had ok fares as well, though around £2400 so higher than Gulf. 

I’d rather fly Qatar or EVA but EVA fares are ridiculous now and Qatar only occasionally have really good offers from what I’ve seen. In the end I decided a ‘bird in the hand’ was better so booked this fare. I really don’t think I’ll find lower with anyone I’m willing to fly with.

I’m half looking for June/July (not sure I can go yet) but haven’t found any decent fares really.

I quite like the Turkish 4 hours/9 hour split as I get more sleep on the longer haul section; seats out of BHX aren’t lie flat but very generous 2-2. The longer haul section is on older A330-300s with 2-2-2 configuration so not very private but food is great.

qatar and emirates from BHX also much more expensive than Turkish 

[davidge]

58 minutes ago, Chrisrs said:

I quite like the Turkish 4 hours/9 hour split as I get more sleep on the longer haul section; seats out of BHX aren’t lie flat but very generous 2-2. The longer haul section is on older A330-300s with 2-2-2 configuration so not very private but food is great.

qatar and emirates from BHX also much more expensive than Turkish 

I was very lucky last November and got Qatar out of Birmingham for £1970. I didn’t book until 5 weeks before travel and did it through BA as it was much cheaper than through Qatar. Qatar were excellent (apart from BKK-DOH) but thought BHX was a shitty airport - first time I’d used it - and staff were dreadful. At least you don’t have to walk very far in the Terminal but had to use steps a lot as it’s badly designed and what escalators they had weren’t working!

[Chrisrs]

2 hours ago, davidge said:

I was very lucky last November and got Qatar out of Birmingham for £1970. I didn’t book until 5 weeks before travel and did it through BA as it was much cheaper than through Qatar. Qatar were excellent (apart from BKK-DOH) but thought BHX was a shitty airport - first time I’d used it - and staff were dreadful. At least you don’t have to walk very far in the Terminal but had to use steps a lot as it’s badly designed and what escalators they had weren’t working!

Agreed with your views on BHX, apart from the Emirates one lounges are also awful. For me it’s still best as I am only 40 minutes away whereas Manchester and Heathrow are both 2 hours, also I have 3 adult kids one of whom can usually give me a lift to the airport

 

[davidge]

8 minutes ago, Chrisrs said:

Agreed with your views on BHX, apart from the Emirates one lounges are also awful. For me it’s still best as I am only 40 minutes away whereas Manchester and Heathrow are both 2 hours, also I have 3 adult kids one of whom can usually give me a lift to the airport

 

BHX and LHR are both 3 hours from me but I’ve always used LHR until the last trip. Direct flights when possible.
I’m now using a taxi to/from airport and the cost is the same for both so it’s all down to the fare.

[The Serpent]

I read in another thread a BM mention Etihad currently have a 20% sale between Jan 13 to 18

I took advantage of this and bought the following Etihad BC ticket for $3,932 AUD for travel in May

• Bangkok to Manchester/Amsterdam to Bangkok

I'm not entirely happy with the return time to Bangkok (arrive 20.00)

I like to do my shopping early when I'm in Bangkok (Tulips, Snow White, Cherry etc)

Once I check in, I'll get across to Duangporn for a BJ, then swing by Thermae for a night cap

 

[davidge]

Hoping to get some recent experiences from BMs about Air India Business Class. I’ve always filtered them out of my searches and not considered flying with them BUT I’m hoping to get a trip organised for June/July and fares are high at the moment with most of my favoured carriers. Probably looking at £3400 for EVA, £2800 for Qatar etc etc. Etihad are available for about £2400 so that’s a possibility but Air India are £1548 for dates that suit me. The downside is I’d lose about half that if I had to cancel.

I’ve looked up reviews online and since the Tata takeover things seem to have improved, though new aircraft and Business Class layouts aren’t likely to be in place by this summer. It would be a 787 on the LHR leg, 2-2-2 lie-flat, and A320 Neo on the BKK leg, 2-2-2 recliner.

It sounds as if lounges will be quite reasonable, service ok, food probably not to my taste but I’d survive, amenity etc pretty decent, IFE poor. 

I’ve read some dreadful reviews of DEL airport so am concerned about the transfer process. I’d have about 3 hours there in each direction.

I’d say I’m currently reluctant to book with them and the fare might have gone up by the time I’m able to book (probably in a couple of months).

Has anybody flown with them recently that can share their experiences?

Thanks

[dontpanic]

For that price difference they're probably offering a premium economy service on the 320 legs. Turkish use 330's on the Dublin-Istanbul leg and it is pretty much Premium economy with the bonus being it is usually quiet.  2400 for Etihad sounds ok. 

[davidge]

3 minutes ago, dontpanic said:

For that price difference they're probably offering a premium economy service on the 320 legs. Turkish use 330's on the Dublin-Istanbul leg and it is pretty much Premium economy with the bonus being it is usually quiet.  2400 for Etihad sounds ok. 

It’s definitely Business class. They have a sale on at the moment. Usual fares are around £2000.

[article22]

I just flew Prem Ecom on Air France LHR - CDG - BKK and was very impressed.

Cost me £1100 return.

Only Econ on leg to CDG, but the plane was new and was an ok experience. CDG was pretty good for a couple of hours too.

The 777ER on the main leg was also very new and the Prem Econ seats were excellent with big screens and wide comfortable near lie flat seats but the best thing was the food and drink...outstanding imo. The service was also top notch so a very pleasant experience all in all especially at that price.

Business Class is just silly money currently.

[davidge]

On 02/02/2024 at 09:14, davidge said:

Hoping to get some recent experiences from BMs about Air India Business Class. I’ve always filtered them out of my searches and not considered flying with them BUT I’m hoping to get a trip organised for June/July and fares are high at the moment with most of my favoured carriers. Probably looking at £3400 for EVA, £2800 for Qatar etc etc. Etihad are available for about £2400 so that’s a possibility but Air India are £1548 for dates that suit me. The downside is I’d lose about half that if I had to cancel.

I’ve looked up reviews online and since the Tata takeover things seem to have improved, though new aircraft and Business Class layouts aren’t likely to be in place by this summer. It would be a 787 on the LHR leg, 2-2-2 lie-flat, and A320 Neo on the BKK leg, 2-2-2 recliner.

It sounds as if lounges will be quite reasonable, service ok, food probably not to my taste but I’d survive, amenity etc pretty decent, IFE poor. 

I’ve read some dreadful reviews of DEL airport so am concerned about the transfer process. I’d have about 3 hours there in each direction.

I’d say I’m currently reluctant to book with them and the fare might have gone up by the time I’m able to book (probably in a couple of months).

Has anybody flown with them recently that can share their experiences?

Thanks

Just in case anyone might be interested, Air India have a sale this weekend (2nd-5th) for flights up to (I think) the end of September.

On the LHR-BKK route the fare in Biz is £1548.09 return. I looked at various dates in June/July and the fare is available on any date and any flight. 

Free seat selection and lounge access included.

[The Serpent]

I've just completed the 2nd leg of my BC ticket purchases

Melbourne to Bangkok return with Malaysian airlines for $3,257 AUD

Last time I took this flight, I paid $2,874 AUD with Singapore airlines in July 2022

The MEL/KUL leg is with the A330 - 300 & KUL/MEL leg is with A350  

Should I be worried the BKK to KUL leg is with a 737 8 Max 

 

[Bonkabit]

9 minutes ago, The Serpent said:

Should I be worried the BKK to KUL leg is with a 737 8 Max?

You could take the train instead. Believe it runs direct KL to Bangkok.

Or there are other airlines on the route. e.g. AirAsia, it's less than 2 hours flight time (to Don Muang??)

Edited February 4 by Bonkabit

[davidge]

2 hours ago, The Serpent said:

I've just completed the 2nd leg of my BC ticket purchases

Melbourne to Bangkok return with Malaysian airlines for $3,257 AUD

Last time I took this flight, I paid $2,874 AUD with Singapore airlines in July 2022

The MEL/KUL leg is with the A330 - 300 & KUL/MEL leg is with A350  

Should I be worried the BKK to KUL leg is with a 737 8 Max 

 

There are lots of options between KUL and BKK but you’d have to collect luggage and clear immigration in KUL then check in again for your next flight.

If I was looking to book and saw it was a Max then I wouldn’t book, but I’m sure I’m in the minority.