London to Sydney - which business class?

[captain_cynic]

Bob_The_Builder said:

Agreed, we are just booking ours for next year. However the price does seem to have doubled over the last year on two.

To Australia?

Yep, it's Australia. Been stupidly expensive since the pandemic.

You can still get cheap flights to Singapore.

[parabolica]

numtumfutunch said:

Apologies for the thread hijack and also for the poverty question - although Im from Leeds/Yorkshire

Hoping to fly to Oz next year with the missus and would be keen to upgrade whichever of the legs of our journey would represent value

Qatar look like he best option from Manchester with a connection in the Gulf however there is a "gulf" in price between their economy and business fares and no premium economy option. And we are paying for ourselves

Im happy to pay to sit in business for 1 of the 4 legs of the journey, there is no way to book this on the website tonight and so my question is will this option become available a week or two before departure?

Thanks in advance. Economy is perfectly OK for much of the trip but it would be handy to treat ourselves for the hurty bit in terms of jetlag and comfort

Cheers

You could chance it, but Qatar BC is usually pretty full on pretty much every flight out. But depending on your dates/times you might be lucky and a few seats are available to upgrade to. Good luck on getting two seats together though.

[peter tdci]

Zolvaro said:

Qatar definitely, Q-Suite is great, I would be amazed if it's not on that route.

The lounges were very crowded last time I flew with them but that was 2022 when some were still closed\shared across classes.

Edited by Zolvaro on Thursday 11th July 08:43

If the OP decides to go with QR, the odds of being in a Qsuite are slim. They fly a mixture of aircraft from LHR to DOH: A350 (A350-1000 all have Qsuites, most A350-900 do), 777 (some do), A380 and 787 (none do). From DOH-SYD, it appears to be only the A380 - they do fly to other cities in Australia with the 777 though.

[JackReacher]

Tim330 said:

Do you have gold or silver status with BA/oneworld? Using them for the trip would get 240 tier points each way in business, you need 600 for silver.
This would then get you free meat selection and lounge access on economy short haul. Sorry if you already know this.

I hadn't even considered this, as a blue member who normally only travels economy around Europe I've not looked at the benefits. But I think 480 tier points would get me to silver. It seems like the lounge access is the main benefit and that which might be useful in European travel. However I normally leave it late and not sure I'd get much benefit, other than when flights are delayed.

It looks like you only get tier points on BA flights or codeshare. So does that mean I get tier points flying Qantas or Qater if it is a BA code?

Emirates is out as too expensive.

[djc206]

Jader1973 said:

I think Qantas from London will be code share with someone else. I think Qantas only go to/from Aus to someplace part way, and the other airline does the bit to/from Europe.

Not sure who the code share is with though.

My parents used to use Emirates business class from Glasgow to Melbourne and it was always great as far as they were concerned.

Qantas use their own metal out of Heathrow. An A380 via Singapore.

For my money the best option is Qatar although I’m not all that fussed by the Q Suite. The lounges at Doha are great and they’re much quieter now they’ve opened the new section of Hamad with the additional lounges.

Can’t really go wrong though. The ME3, Qantas and these days even BA all have good seats. The service will be better on the ME3 as a rule.

[djc206]

JackReacher said:

I hadn't even considered this, as a blue member who normally only travels economy around Europe I've not looked at the benefits. But I think 480 tier points would get me to silver. It seems like the lounge access is the main benefit and that which might be useful in European travel. However I normally leave it late and not sure I'd get much benefit, other than when flights are delayed.

It looks like you only get tier points on BA flights or codeshare. So does that mean I get tier points flying Qantas or Qater if it is a BA code?

Emirates is out as too expensive.

It’s actually 600 tier points with BA to Oz.

160 each way for Singapore and then 140 each way for the SIN to Oz leg.

[gotoPzero]

Emirates for me too.

Only -ve is recently I have found the food is not as good.

Seat is excellent esp on the 380s.

[gtidriver]

Hey OP do you have any Avios?? they can be transferred to other airlines to be used against the ticket price.

[AndyAudi]

I Def used to get BA tier points in Qatar

https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/02/01/can-i-ear...

One of the perks I like beside the lounge access (you & another travelling with you). Is the ability to book you & anyone on your booking’s seats free at point of booking - handy for family holidays. (I was always able to do that on my corporate bookings though)

[Legacywr]

Sorry, just stumbled into this thread, now I’m intrigued to know what sort of costs are involved when flying business class to Aus?

[djc206]

Legacywr said:

Sorry, just stumbled into this thread, now I’m intrigued to know what sort of costs are involved when flying business class to Aus?

At the moment booking far enough in advance ~£4-5.5k. I’ve done it for under £2k in the past!

[Baldchap]

Emirates Business Class is great when you're on the aircraft, but the lounge in Dubai is pretty poor. Even their FC lounges at Heathrow and Dubai aren't much to shout about. I think I once used the Quatar lounge at Heathrow and seem to remember that was actually quite nice.

[peter tdci]

Legacywr said:

Sorry, just stumbled into this thread, now I’m intrigued to know what sort of costs are involved when flying business class to Aus?

If you know what your your dates are (or roughly), then plug them into Google Flights. It searches across all airlines (I think) and there are lots of filters you can add (inc arline/alliance) to get you going. If you have any routing preferences, you can specify them as a 'multi city' route and include stopovers if you desire. It's very flexible.

[SlackBladder]

Baldchap said:

Emirates Business Class is great when you're on the aircraft, but the lounge in Dubai is pretty poor. Even their FC lounges at Heathrow and Dubai aren't much to shout about. I think I once used the Quatar lounge at Heathrow and seem to remember that was actually quite nice.

REALLY????

Firstly, unless they've added one within the last 2 years, there is no FC lounge at LHR, but the lounge there is good IMO and you board directly from the lounge.
FC lounge in Dubai is probably one of the best I've ever been in.

[PlywoodPascal]

Tim330 said:

This would then get you free meat selection.

Chicken or beef?

[S366]

TBH, I never usually fly East, so out of them I’ve only flown BA. The new business cabin on BA is pretty decent IMO, much better than the old one. Virgins new business cabin is supposedly pretty good as well if they fly that route, I’ve only flown in their old cabin which I didn’t like as you faced into the isle.

[mark seeker]

My order of preference would be (irrespective of if you're chasing Oneworld status)

> Qatar
> Singapore Airlines (although they tend to be expensive)
> BA / Qantas


Its a shame that Qatar don't offer the Q Suite all the way down to to Sydney but I've never been disappointed with them, SQ I find are ok, hit and miss.

BA / Qantas are consistent enough, I just think their hard product is behind Qatar (BA also don't have BA Suites on all planes).

Probably worth pointing out, whilst the Qantas lounge in Singapore is very good (better than BA), the Qatar lounge in Doha is pretty amazing and a definite step up.

[Alickadoo]

Baldchap said:

Emirates Business Class is great when you're on the aircraft, but the lounge in Dubai is pretty poor. Even their FC lounges at Heathrow and Dubai aren't much to shout about. I think I once used the Quatar lounge at Heathrow and seem to remember that was actually quite nice.

And the bacon sandwiches seem to go very quickly.

[Baldchap]

SlackBladder said:

Baldchap said:

Emirates Business Class is great when you're on the aircraft, but the lounge in Dubai is pretty poor. Even their FC lounges at Heathrow and Dubai aren't much to shout about. I think I once used the Quatar lounge at Heathrow and seem to remember that was actually quite nice.

REALLY????

Firstly, unless they've added one within the last 2 years, there is no FC lounge at LHR, but the lounge there is good IMO and you board directly from the lounge.
FC lounge in Dubai is probably one of the best I've ever been in.

I'm clearly thinking of somewhere other than Heathrow then.

I stand by my comments re:Dubai.

They all blend into one after a while.

[Baroque attacks]

cliffords said:

Emirates every time .

This, every time.