Business class ticket buying tips
Discussion
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?
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?
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?)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.
The connection at HEL is a bit tight on the way back but that’s Finnairs problem not yours!
£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 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.
Well holy f
king 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 !
king 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 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.You won’t earn avios for flights paid for with avios.
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.
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