Business Class Fares & Offers

[The Serpent]

My take on it is there's been a lot of scrutiny on that particular plane and you'd think they'd take extra care making sure it safe to fly

Would you believe it would have cost me more if I went MEL/KUL return

Same when I bought that ticket in 2022, for some reason, it was cheaper MEL/BKK return than it was MEL/SIN return

 

[davidge]

44 minutes ago, The Serpent said:

Would you believe it would have cost me more if I went MEL/KUL return

Same when I bought that ticket in 2022, for some reason, it was cheaper MEL/BKK return than it was MEL/SIN return

That’s often the case. It’s often cheaper, for example, to fly LHR-BKK via Bahrain with Gulf Air than to just fly LHR-BAH - at least when I’ve looked for Biz.

[The Serpent]

So when I saw that they using that plane for the BKK/KUL leg, I did then look at making it MEL/KUL return, but as I mentioned, that was more expensive

I've been looking for the last 4 months for flights, I have not seen Melbourne to Asia for under $3,500 AUD = BC

I would have booked with Air Asia, but they've changed their departure time from around midnight to 05.55, I can't get to the airport at that time

The only other cheaper option would have been Jetstar

I'm not going to say anything, but have a look around the forum what OZ BMs have to say about Jetstar

Also, their "BC" which is premium economy, is not fully lie flat, its like a dentist chair

 

[davidge]

2 minutes ago, The Serpent said:

So when I saw that they using that plane for the BKK/KUL leg, I did then look at making it MEL/KUL return, but as I mentioned, that was more expensive

I've been looking for the last 4 months for flights, I have not seen Melbourne to Asia for under $3,500 AUD = BC

I would have booked with Air Asia, but they've changed their departure time from around midnight to 05.55, I can't get to the airport at that time

The only other cheaper option would have been Jetstar

I'm not going to say anything, but have a look around the forum what OZ BMs have to say about Jetstar

Also, their "BC" which is premium economy, is not fully lie flat, its like a dentist chair

 

Thousands of people fly on the Max every day without a second thought.

Flying from the U.K. I have lots of options so can afford to be more choosy/paranoid*

 

* Delete as appropriate 

[gmoule]

Hopefully the air India price of 1540 from London brings other airlines down a bit. If I can get etihad for 2k I'll book it,got a bit of time on my hands anyway only just came back next trip not until june

[davidge]

8 hours ago, gmoule said:

Hopefully the air India price of 1540 from London brings other airlines down a bit. If I can get etihad for 2k I'll book it,got a bit of time on my hands anyway only just came back next trip not until june

From what I’ve seen, Etihad are edging up a bit. It has been their modus operandi recently. Sell a certain number of seats early at a reduced fare then put fares up for those dates. I’ve not seen them at the £2k mark. During last year I did see fares around £2150-2200 for a while but it seems to be £2300-2400 base fare now.

[dontpanic]

I checked dates in June and Turkish are nearly exactly the same price as January. Lots of availability. Sort of surprised me as the only full flight was from Istanbul to Bangkok. Dublin to Istanbul was about 6 or 7 people, both return legs had spare seats. This was fortunate for me as my audio wasn't working so I was able to move after take off.

[Just Browsing]

Just booked Air France/KLM BKK-MAN for 80,160B (approx £1,780), Business Class “Light” so no pre-book seats, 1 x 32kg luggage & no lounge access but the only thing I care about is the lie flat seats 😊

[davidge]

Not a fare offer but info I just became aware of. Finnair are introducing a completely new seat design in Business Class. I haven’t considered flying with them as most LHR-HEL flights don’t have ‘proper’ business class but they do have the A350 on some flights. I might have considered using them if those flights connected to BKK but the new design is absolutely not for me. 

Seats don’t recline at all. You either sit upright or you can have a fully flat bed, but nothing in between. Due to back problems I never put a seat fully flat but do need to recline and change position fairly regularly as well so this design would be no good.

They have introduced them on some planes and will refit all over time.

Review here:

https://thepointsguy.com/reviews/finnair-new-business-class/
 

[ChiFlyer]

We are planning a trip to the US from BKK in September, providing we can get a visa for the Mrs.

I travel Business Class these days. I can afford it, barely. My old bones need this at this time in my life.

Anyway, looking out at September the Qatar Business Class prices to/from ORD are comparatively very attractive. Anyone flown Business with them?

[Luv2Phuket]

1 hour ago, ChiFlyer said:

We are planning a trip to the US from BKK in September, providing we can get a visa for the Mrs.

I travel Business Class these days. I can afford it, barely. My old bones need this at this time in my life.

Anyway, looking out at September the Qatar Business Class prices to/from ORD are comparatively very attractive. Anyone flown Business with them?

Sadly, I had to cancel my planned itinerary on Qatar (through ORD, BTW) due to COVID, but their reputation is that Q-Suites are one of the top 3 business class seat products on the market (if not the best).

[Just Browsing]

8 hours ago, ChiFlyer said:

We are planning a trip to the US from BKK in September, providing we can get a visa for the Mrs.

I travel Business Class these days. I can afford it, barely. My old bones need this at this time in my life.

Anyway, looking out at September the Qatar Business Class prices to/from ORD are comparatively very attractive. Anyone flown Business with them?

Have flown in QSuites many times & I would say that overall it's probably the best business class experience I've had & I used to regularly (PPS member) fly Singapore Airlines in Business.

The only really bad experience I've had with them was in March 2022 when all legs were late, the Qatar lounge in Bangkok was closed, the planes were old & grubby (including the ones with QSuites) & to top it all off my bag going to the UK was delayed by 1 week (somebody must have thought I was smuggling something as they'd sawed through the inner pipes for the handles) - Oh & they'd "Cheaped Out" providing Fast Track stickers for Manchester Airport so we had a "Discussion" with the security there who didn't want to let us use the priority channel (And Manchester Airport was carnage at that time taking 2 hours to get through security)

 

In fairness this was just as travel was opening up again after Covid, last year's trip with them was flawless (as usual)  

 

 

This time I'm going AirFrance, as good as QSuites are I managed to get a good deal with AF & couldn't justify the extra 50K THB to myself. 

Edited February 19 by Just Browsing

[dontpanic]

Etihad and Air France have some good prices for the Summer. AF is handy from Ireland although the first leg would probably be economy. Thinking about Emirates too as it's full business on both legs. 

[Luv2Phuket]

Anybody ever fly Saudiaa from London to Bangkok?

I know it's "no alcohol," but I don't drink, so not an issue for me. 

Good flight times - leaves LHR around 3 p.m.; about a 2 hour layover in Jeddah; arrives at BKK 13:40.

Price is crazy ($6,000 USD), but I was able to get it for 80K Delta miles.

[roderick]

Last week, I flew Business class from BKK to MNL with Philippine Air - it's about a 3-hour flight. The business class ticket cost me about $390 USD and represented great value for money. For that, I got a fully reclining seat, really good food, unlimited booze and a portly purser who shook my hand feverishly while thanking me for flying in the pointy-end of her aero-plane.     

[penboy]

Air France and KLM appear to have started using re-fitted BC cabins. Has anyone used them recently? 

Are KLM/Schipol still to be avoided?

[davidge]

36 minutes ago, penboy said:

Air France and KLM appear to have started using re-fitted BC cabins. Has anyone used them recently? 

Are KLM/Schipol still to be avoided?

I won’t use them now as I can no longer handle the small plane from CWL but I’ve seen a lot of recent reviews online and all have been positive as regards the onboard experience now.

By all accounts, CDG is still notorious and I’ve not really seen any good comments about it. There are still some issues with AMS due to restrictions on flight numbers etc and KLM do still cancel the U.K. flights and reroute or put people on a flight with longer stopover, though it doesn’t seem as common as 12 months ago.

[chemtrail69]

Just a thought when comparison shopping an airline.

Consider the potential safety of the chosen carrier when making your decision.

There's been a lot of talk of convenient layovers, cabin comfort, and price.

Although the phrase;  'You get what you pay for' can equally apply to soft product, in my experience (pilot in US for 35 years), a prudent shopper would filter out carriers that aren't in decent financial shape, with union pilots, and with good home country regulatory oversight with respect to maintenance, pilot selection, training and working conditions. This provides, in my opinion based on experience, a higher margin of safety-but generally increases the cost per mile for the carrier, which will often be passed along to the consumer.

Good examples might include carriers from US, Canada, Europe, Aus/NZ, Singapore/HK, Gulf Coast, among others.

Several pilot forums might also give a clue as to those carriers to consider avoiding.

Safe travels!

[mattmoore1965x]

8 minutes ago, chemtrail69 said:

a prudent shopper would filter out carriers that aren't in decent financial shape, with union pilots, and with good home country regulatory oversight with respect to maintenance, pilot selection, training and working conditions

And how do we do that?  I've not spotted a 'union pilots' filter on skyscanner.

Sorry, that came over as me being a dick when I'm not trying to be one.  What you say is a good idea but I'm just not sure how we can check?  And are not all airlines travelling from the US and UK all at the same kind of standard?

As far as I know every airline I use has European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification or something simular

 

[chemtrail69]

Hi Matt,

You make an excellent point. There is no way to filter out union vs non-union. There is little transparency outside of the airline pilot world as to what constitutes a safer working environment for flight crew. 

A pilot union is by no means the only way to achieve the highest level of safety and regulatory compliance. However, in my experience of 25 years flying at a union employer and 10 years without, a robust peer to peer support structure along with legally protected sole source disclosure of events lends itself to our fellow flight crew disclosing and subsequently all of us learning from our collective mistakes, as opposed to being too concerned with possible termination/discipline to do so.

I believe that medical associations and bar and engineering professional groups act in a similar way. The fact that most countries with safe and fair medical/legal systems would no doubt be where we would want to be treated/tried is analogous to what one might seek when evaluating an airline.

Generally, the corruption endemic in the former 3rd world that is more obviously observed in the legal and law enforcement professions extends to a lesser or greater extent into aviation.

A little esoteric, I know. 

I just hired a handyman for a little work on my condo here in Pattaya. I didn't go with the cheapest, or the dude that said he could get it done the quickest because I don't want a belt off of the neutral or a flooded crapper. I did spend a fair amount of time looking into him, online and from a couple of references.

The equivalent airline research might start with a look at pprune or airline pilot central. 

If you have the urge, there's a pdf book that might be worth a read, flying upside down, by a western pilot that flew in China for a few years.

Anecdotal, but nonetheless eye opening.

Google a 2011 BBC report on the 14 Indian commercial pilots revoked for flying with fake licenses, and 57 pilots drunk on the job over a 2 year period. Tip of the iceberg. No, we do not all operate to the same standards.

Countries do have the right to drug/alcohol test foreign flight crews, and inspect the aircraft, manifest, and crew documents. But standards for pilot and aircraft certification are up to the individual country, although failure to be found compliant with ICAO/local standards may prevent a country from being allowed access to another countries' airspace. Thai has been banned from the US for this reason. 

EASA certification or the similar requirement from any well developed, low-corruption nation is a great place to start. High training and professional standards, solid work/rest rules, good maintenance records equal an enhanced safety culture.

Hope that gives a little broader insight.

 

[hillshillshills510]

I'm by no means an expert to know the "safest" airlines but I do try to stick with the major/solid reputation carriers that originate from countries with theoretically more stringent regulations (US, Singapore, EU, etc). I think the sketchiest was one of the bigger mainland Chinese ones pre-covid and I pretty much have never strongly considered any of these almost no name airlines that pop up as the cheapest flight on google flights. But I also mostly fly out of the US so that filters out a lot of those carriers. So I guess for me it might not be an "explicit" thing I consider but it works already because I'm only flying the major carriers which would be the same order of magnitude safe lol. 

 

3 hours ago, chemtrail69 said:

Just a thought when comparison shopping an airline.

Consider the potential safety of the chosen carrier when making your decision.

There's been a lot of talk of convenient layovers, cabin comfort, and price.

Although the phrase;  'You get what you pay for' can equally apply to soft product, in my experience (pilot in US for 35 years), a prudent shopper would filter out carriers that aren't in decent financial shape, with union pilots, and with good home country regulatory oversight with respect to maintenance, pilot selection, training and working conditions. This provides, in my opinion based on experience, a higher margin of safety-but generally increases the cost per mile for the carrier, which will often be passed along to the consumer.

Good examples might include carriers from US, Canada, Europe, Aus/NZ, Singapore/HK, Gulf Coast, among others.

Several pilot forums might also give a clue as to those carriers to consider avoiding.

Safe travels!

 

[dontpanic]

Business is not just about the best price which more affects economy. Emirates are 10% more expensive than Turkish for some dates in June but for the full lie flat seat with full privacy on both legs it is probably worth it. 

I guess journey length, in cabin experience, lounge access and departure/arrival times are the most important to me. If prices are 10-20% more expensive then it is worth considering.

[Bira]

19 hours ago, roderick said:

Last week, I flew Business class from BKK to MNL with Philippine Air - it's about a 3-hour flight. The business class ticket cost me about $390 USD and represented great value for money. For that, I got a fully reclining seat, really good food, unlimited booze and a portly purser who shook my hand feverishly while thanking me for flying in the pointy-end of her aero-plane.     

Was it on an A321? I also flew on Philippine Airlines MNL BKK in Biz class. Excellent service and food. Really enjoyed that flight.

I will prefer to avoid flying on Thai when given the choice of another airline. 

[Just Browsing]

11 hours ago, davidge said:

I won’t use them now as I can no longer handle the small plane from CWL but I’ve seen a lot of recent reviews online and all have been positive as regards the onboard experience now.

By all accounts, CDG is still notorious and I’ve not really seen any good comments about it. There are still some issues with AMS due to restrictions on flight numbers etc and KLM do still cancel the U.K. flights and reroute or put people on a flight with longer stopover, though it doesn’t seem as common as 12 months ago.

Lol, maybe I should have spent the extra 50K on Qatar as I'm flying to the UK via CDG & back via AMS!!!

I'm ok with doing "Economy" flights for up to 2 or 3 hours (not much choice when flying in region) so the "Business" class <1 hour leg MAN-CDG/AMS doesn't bother me (it's not like you've got time to settle in your seat before you're getting off again). 

However, I am not looking forward to CDG, especially as this will be my 1st time transiting through an EU airport since Brexit, but I'm no rush so I'll just go with the flow... Coming back via AMS is a bit more worrying as I only have  a 1 hour transit time but if I miss the flight they'll put me on the next one.

 

Has anything changed when transiting an EU airport as a Brit? I'm assuming not as I'm not entering the EU, but it seems there are sometimes different rules when travelling from Thailand (am thinking Helsinki, when I travelled from SG I got off the plane & my next flight was at the next gate, when travelling from Bangkok I had to go through security). 

 

Edited February 21 by Just Browsing

[bangna]

@Just Browsing    A couple of years ago, I flew LHR-VIE-BKK and returned BKK-MUC-LHR, (Vienna and Munich).

For both flights, transfers were classed as non Schengen area, technically not in EU. No passport or security checks required.

Edited February 21 by bangna