Business class ticket buying tips

[Griffith4ever]

Might well apply to all classes but who knows? Any experts out there? I am doing a slightly awkward flight this year (open jaw),

Mid Nov (flexible on specific dates) LHR - Delhi

We will be in India for a month then travel in SE Asia - that's easy. We'll do a short flight from Delhi to BKK etc. Don't mind slumming 4 hour flights.

End of Jan (again, flexible dates) - BKK to LHR

Doesn't have to be LHR but I assume that's a given (Somerset based so 3 hours away).

Point is, we are flexible. Best I'm getting on the usual search engines is £1000-£1200 each out to Delhi (which seems expensive for a 7 hour flight - more like 11 with a stop - ITA Airways), then £1129 each back (finnair), so around £2200 each return. All in we are around £4400 each. For comparison, BKK return comes in at around £5k for both of us. Which stacks up with the BKK-Delhi flight cost.

Any uber-tips on bagging bargains based on the fact we are very flexible on dates AND airports ?(we can do MAN or Birmingham if need be).

I also have around 193,000 Avios but I've never worked out how to spend them efficiently. I'll also shortly be elegible for a cabin upgrade voucher so I could book one of us with avios and then upgrade the other PE cash-bought seat.

Any expert tips out there? or, are the prices I see on skyscanner and kayak the best I can expect?

[WyrleyD]

You could also consider using a Continental Europe start point. I just looked up STO-DEL on 15th November and it comes out to £772 using Qatar Airways. I only looked at STO as that's always my goto start point when pricing long haul business class, you can then look at others like CDG, BRU, VIE, MAD, OSL, VCE and compare the results.

[Shiv_P]

BA are starting flights to BKK at some point in November.
Do you have any avios points to use?

[djc206]

WyrleyD said:

You could also consider using a Continental Europe start point. I just looked up STO-DEL on 15th November and it comes out to £772 using Qatar Airways. I only looked at STO as that's always my goto start point when pricing long haul business class, you can then look at others like CDG, BRU, VIE, MAD, OSL, VCE and compare the results.

ARN?

OP I just picked some random dates in those months and found an open jaw ticket on Finnair out of Heathrow for £2k each. Seems pretty reasonable.

Starting in Oslo/Stockholm and finishing at Heathrow £1700, probably not worth the faff once you’ve added the one way to your ex EU starting point.

[gotoPzero]

Virgin flying club has always been very helpful for me.
I generally get a companion voucher each year, plus a good haul of points.

So what I normally do is save my points for one big trip a year. This year we are doing LHR>PVG for £2900 for 2 people in upper return. Pretty good IMO.

Thats 1 x CV and I think I used about 30k points too.

I don't faff about online, I just ring the flying club up and say I can fly any day between these dates just give me the cheapest.

I appreciate you are not a member though, but maybe something for the future. I assume BA has something similar?

For everyone else I don't look at cost too much, I defo look at facilities and things like luggage and connection times, arrival times etc.

I have nearly booked Finnair several times but the layovers always put me off and on top of that their baggage allowance and lounge access is generally less than Emirates/Virgin etc. (or it has been when I have looked)

[WyrleyD]

Yes, of course it's ARN( I was using ITA Matrix and you can enter STO for all Stockholm airports).

[Griffith4ever]

djc206 said:

ARN?

OP I just picked some random dates in those months and found an open jaw ticket on Finnair out of Heathrow for £2k each. Seems pretty reasonable.

I'll take a look! (LHR-DEL, then BKK to LHR?)

[Griffith4ever]

Thanks all. Yes, I'm with BA (A lowly blue member) and have 190,000 Avios. I looked last night and we can get LHR-DEL for 180,000 Avios + £450

[djc206]

Griffith4ever said:

djc206 said:

ARN?

OP I just picked some random dates in those months and found an open jaw ticket on Finnair out of Heathrow for £2k each. Seems pretty reasonable.

I'll take a look! (LHR-DEL, then BKK to LHR?)

Yep using google flights multi city option.

The connection at HEL is a bit tight on the way back but that’s Finnairs problem not yours!

[djc206]

gotoPzero said:

Virgin flying club has always been very helpful for me.
I generally get a companion voucher each year, plus a good haul of points.

So what I normally do is save my points for one big trip a year. This year we are doing LHR>PVG for £2900 for 2 people in upper return. Pretty good IMO.

Thats 1 x CV and I think I used about 30k points too.

I don't faff about online, I just ring the flying club up and say I can fly any day between these dates just give me the cheapest.

I appreciate you are not a member though, but maybe something for the future. I assume BA has something similar?

For everyone else I don't look at cost too much, I defo look at facilities and things like luggage and connection times, arrival times etc.

I have nearly booked Finnair several times but the layovers always put me off and on top of that their baggage allowance and lounge access is generally less than Emirates/Virgin etc. (or it has been when I have looked)

Finnair do a business light fare that’s very stingey on the perks. If you desire lounge access or luggage allowance you really need to opt for their normal business fare or have status with OneWorld. The lounge at Helsinki is very good and the airport itself is really quite nice, far better than the busy Middle Eastern connection hubs (or any other major airports for that matter).

Virgin are great but sadly their route network is extremely limited.

[gotoPzero]

Yep you definitely have to pick your moments on Virgin unless you are going to the US its pretty limited.

Emirates are my next default as there are 2 daily services out of MAN to DXB which means I can basically go anywhere within reason with 1 connection.

You just have to suffer MAN for a few hours LOL.

[Griffith4ever]

djc206 said:

Griffith4ever said:

djc206 said:

ARN?

OP I just picked some random dates in those months and found an open jaw ticket on Finnair out of Heathrow for £2k each. Seems pretty reasonable.

I'll take a look! (LHR-DEL, then BKK to LHR?)

Yep using google flights multi city option.

The connection at HEL is a bit tight on the way back but that’s Finnairs problem not yours!

Click through and you ALWAYS get "Unfortunately, the price you saw on the previous page has changed"

£4630

Which isn't terrible, but its not great either. HOWEVER, direct on Finnair if you select their basicac business class offering it drops back to £4032 . We travel with no hold luggage, so £600 seems a lot for lounge access. Hmm.... Just got some serious reservations about paying business and being treated like cattle till you sit down.

Will keep researching - thanks for the tip.

Edited by Griffith4ever on Sunday 7th April 19:13

[djc206]

Griffith4ever said:

Click through and you ALWAYS get "Unfortunately, the price you saw on the previous page has changed"

£4630

Which isn't terrible, but its not great either. HOWEVER, direct on Finnair if you select their basicac business class offering it drops back to £4032 . We travel with no hold luggage, so £600 seems a lot for lounge access. Hmm.... Just got some serious reservations about paying business and being treated like cattle till you sit down.

Will keep researching - thanks for the tip.

Edited by Griffith4ever on Sunday 7th April 19:13

Yeah it’s not great. I have lounge access through various means so it doesn’t matter to me but I understand.

[Griffith4ever]

djc206 said:

Yeah it’s not great. I have lounge access through various means so it doesn’t matter to me but I understand.

It's not the lounges that bother me, £60 puts us both in lounges (admitedly not as good) it's paying £4k when Eco is £1200 and they punish you by taking all the perks bar the seat and in flight service away. Even BC Basic is a very premium product, but they are making it "cheap". Taking the piss. But then, they area clear £400 cheaper than competitors with a "normal" BC offerring. I don't "care" that much about £400, but, I still don't like burning money for no return :-)

We'll see.

[djc206]

Griffith4ever said:

It's not the lounges that bother me, £60 puts us both in lounges (admitedly not as good) it's paying £4k when Eco is £1200 and they punish you by taking all the perks bar the seat and in flight service away. Even BC Basic is a very premium product, but they are making it "cheap". Taking the piss. But then, they area clear £400 cheaper than competitors with a "normal" BC offerring. I don't "care" that much about £400, but, I still don't like burning money for no return :-)

Well see.

I can actually see how it’s quite a useful fare bucket for people with status or those going on short trips so I can understand why they offer it. I’ve certainly been grateful to save the cash. What I don’t get is that a suitcase and lounge access can ever amount to that much money though, the gulf seems too great to me.

You are taking up ~3x as much real estate as an economy passenger so the seat really is the main expense in fairness to them.

You’d get a fair number of tier points for that itinerary as a Brucey bonus.

[Griffith4ever]

Well holy fking moley! :-)

I WAS looking at LHR-DEL in Nov, then back from BKK - LHR end of Jan, BC, Finnair £4400, of which half of that journey was Business light (which ticks me off, as per above). I loved Finnair otherwise - their modern BC offering is the best I've tried. What irked me a little is it costs almost as much to fly to DEL on a relatively short flight, 8.3 hours, as it does to fly to BKK, and the 14 hour BKK flight is where BC really shows its value.

So I logged onto BA exec site and got flights with Avois, Premium Economy to DEL for £330 (90k odd avios too).

Then I though I'd stump up the £2200 to fly back to LHR from BKK with Finnair, but before I was about to pay I wondered if BA did something.

Turns out Finnair are now an Avios co and a BA partner. I've booked Finnair BC home from BKK for £80k Avios and £1250 - and its the full fat BC offering with luggage and lounges etc :-)

So I've gone from £4400 to £1500, both of us, PE out on teh shorter hop, BC back on the long haul, and, I got to spend some Avios! :-) (plus I'll earn more on all flights, plus I've used Barclaycard Wordl Elite Avios card) - gettign the hang of this now !

[djc206]

Nice. It’s fairly avios intensive, you need a companion voucher to bring that down next time but you only get them with a paid for card these days so only you can decide whether it’s worth it or not.

You won’t earn avios for flights paid for with avios.

[Griffith4ever]

djc206 said:

Nice. It’s fairly avios intensive, you need a companion voucher to bring that down next time but you only get them with a paid for card these days so only you can decide whether it’s worth it or not.

You won’t earn avios for flights paid for with avios.

Ahh - didn't know you can't "double earn" - though I paid a good chunk towards the flights.

Yeah my paid for Barclay card Avios plus card gets me an upgrade voucher at some stage soon. Not a companion voucher. I had a companion voucher previously from my BA Amex but its eco only so useless. So I switched to Amex gold rewards for a year, then to the Barclaycard. Most of my points earnt are not from flying.

[djc206]

Griffith4ever said:

Ahh - didn't know you can't "double earn" - though I paid a good chunk towards the flights.

Yeah my paid for Barclay card Avios plus card gets me an upgrade voucher at some stage soon. Not a companion voucher. I had a companion voucher previously from my BA Amex but its eco only so useless. So I switched to Amex gold rewards for a year, then to the Barclaycard. Most of my points earnt are not from flying.

A lot of people got caught with that switch, it made the standard BA Amex effectively pointless. The paid for one still allows business and first redemptions so can be worthwhile if you want to fly an expensive route. We use it for Cape Town redemptions these days, 125k avios, ~£1400 and the companion voucher for 2 of us in club, cash cost would be around £6-7k.

[The G Kid]

djc206 said:

A lot of people got caught with that switch, it made the standard BA Amex effectively pointless. The paid for one still allows business and first redemptions so can be worthwhile if you want to fly an expensive route. We use it for Cape Town redemptions these days, 125k avios, ~£1400 and the companion voucher for 2 of us in club, cash cost would be around £6-7k.

I'm not sure I have ever seen First redemptions available?

I just got 4 seats for LAX in Club for 380K points and £1800.