Flying to Australia

[EvilRob]

It's been a long time dream of my wife's to go to Australia and I think we'll probably do it at the end of this year.

I can't stomach the thought of flying a journey like that in economy, but spending £6k per person for business is not something I'd like to do either. I try to level it by imagining what I'd do if someone came up to me just before I got on the flight and offered me £10k in cash for our biz class seats.

Any good tactics from the well travelled here to get cheaper business class flights to Sydney? I do travel a fair bit for work but I'm all in on Virgin Atlantic for points/status which I don't think will help.

 

[Vandle]

I’ve probably done it ten times over the last 20 years or so. It’s still a slog in business. I’ve only flown it with Emirates as they go direct to Newcastle where my family are so don’t have to mess around getting up there form London or Manchester.
I used to have a Citibank Emirates credit card that gained me points for business class upgrades and a few other perks that made it a bit more pleasant. Depending on which airline and where you are departing from you could maybe look at getting a credit card for the points as they usually have good intro offers for new customers. Obviously no good to you but Qantas have teamed up with one of the big Aussie banks and are pushing their new CC with 170k points which is almost equivalent of a free economy flight (or a biz upgrade).

It’s hard to justify the business class cost, especially considering how expensive it is here and accommodation in Sydney that time of year will cost a bomb. Maybe look at breaking it up a bit with a few days in Asia (loads of great options) or Dubai. Also try and book on a A380, it takes two hours off the Dubai Melbourne trip compared to the Boeings. Most of the airlines now have premium economy too which is more palatable price wise. Also if you book with a layover of 8 hours or more the big airlines will put you up in an airport hotel which is a strategy I’ve used before, get a few hours sleep in a proper bed, better food and a shower makes the next leg easier. Sydney airport has a 9pm curfew (edit it’s actually 11pm) though so bear that in mind, it may be a limiting factor in your flight options compared to the rest of the country.

I’ve never paid for a business class ticket then got off the plane wishing I’d saved the money. Likewise every time I fly economy I get angry with myself for being a cheapskate and vowing never to do it again, then within half an hour of landing I’m over it. It’s just a day of hardship.

 

[Shadowness]

Qantas premium economy?

Just came back from Sydney last weekend in that cabin. Much better than eco!

 

[weringo]

If you use airmiles it will costs you significantly less than cash to get into the business cabin and since the introduction of Avios Booster you can accumulate avois very quickly. Off peak to Sydney will cost you 290,000 avios plus £1,500 in business on BA for 2 tickets with a 241 voucher.

Unfortunately there's no great sign up bonuses on credit cards at the moment, but here's an idea of how you could get there:

1) Sign up to Amex Platinum card and spend £6k in 3 months to earn 6,000 avios and 40,000 bonus avios
2) Use Avios booster to add another 138,000 avois
3) Refer wife to BA Amex Premium card (around 10,000 referral bonus avios from memory). Cancel platinum card to get pro rata refund
4) Spend £10k in a year (including £3k in 3 months) to earn 15,000 avios and 25,000 bonus avios, and a 241 voucher.
5) Use avios booster to add another 56,000 avios

Total cash outlay
Amex platinum membership fee £180
Amex BA fee £250
Avios boosting at 0.92p £1,785
Flight fees and taxes £1,500

Total £3,715 or £1,856 per flight

Your challenge may be spending quickly enough if you want to go this year. Also if you plan to depart from Heathrow, getting reward flight availability this year probably isn't realistic. There is more availability from regional airports or you could defer the trip until next year and book the seats 1 year in advance when they become available.

You would also need to consider eligibility for Amex aldign up bonuses if either of you have had an Amex in the last couple of years.

 

[EvilRob]

Thanks chaps. I'm not eligible for Amex again yet but perhaps I can do it through my wife. She will be super disappointed if we can't make it happen this year so might have to just suck it up, but we are easy about which airport we fly from (London, Manchester or Birmingham)

 

[RobHu]

If you have a lot of virgin points you could:

Go the other way, i.e. via LA using virgin + delta?
Virgin to Shanghai then cash ticket or I think China Eastern are a SkyTeam member?
Virgin to Dubai then cash ticket?
KLM to Singapore then cash ticket?
Korean Air to Seoul then cash ticket?
Or maybe you could convert your points to a hotel reward scheme and then use the cash saved on business class?

 

[EvilRob]

If you use airmiles it will costs you significantly less than cash to get into the business cabin and since the introduction of Avios Booster you can accumulate avois very quickly. Off peak to Sydney will cost you 290,000 avios plus £1,500 in business on BA for 2 tickets with a 241 voucher.

Unfortunately there's no great sign up bonuses on credit cards at the moment, but here's an idea of how you could get there:

1) Sign up to Amex Platinum card and spend £6k in 3 months to earn 6,000 avios and 40,000 bonus avios
2) Use Avios booster to add another 138,000 avois
3) Refer wife to BA Amex Premium card (around 10,000 referral bonus avios from memory). Cancel platinum card to get pro rata refund
4) Spend £10k in a year (including £3k in 3 months) to earn 15,000 avios and 25,000 bonus avios, and a 241 voucher.
5) Use avios booster to add another 56,000 avios

Total cash outlay
Amex platinum membership fee £180
Amex BA fee £250
Avios boosting at 0.92p £1,785
Flight fees and taxes £1,500

Total £3,715 or £1,856 per flight

Your challenge may be spending quickly enough if you want to go this year. Also if you plan to depart from Heathrow, getting reward flight availability this year probably isn't realistic. There is more availability from regional airports or you could defer the trip until next year and book the seats 1 year in advance when they become available.

You would also need to consider eligibility for Amex aldign up bonuses if either of you have had an Amex in the last couple of years.

It looks like I still have 70k Avios from when I used to fly BA. That's something to work with :| Wife could get new amex promotion but I am a long way off from that. Thanks for the detailed work through!

 

[EvilRob]

70k - Avios already
25k - BA Amex Premium bonus
50k - Assumed business travel over next ~6 months
140k - Avios boosters

Seems quite doable if I can convince wife to do this in Oct/Nov 25 instead of 24. Wish I had started trying to figure this out earlier.

 

[jeffk]

When we went, Cathay had the cheapest business class flights. They’re also part of the same alliance at British Airways so I believe you can spend Avios points with them.

 

[weringo]

It looks like I still have 70k Avios from when I used to fly BA. That's something to work with :| Wife could get new amex promotion but I am a long way off from that. Thanks for the detailed work through!

The Platinum and BA Amexes both have special sign up rules so even if you have had an Amex in the last couple of years, you might still be eligible. But as you say, no harm putting it in the wife's name in any case.

 

[Reuben klang]

I’ve done the journey a fair few times. I’ve been about 15 times in the last 20 years or so. I always use to fly to Dubai then on to perth - have family there. More than half of them have been business. Emirates changed their rewards program during that so it was difficult to maintain gold, now I barely get onto silver with 1 round trip.

Anyway, the last time I done it (May last year), I broke the journey up and spent the night in Dubai. What a difference it made doing an 8h flight fully recharge, wonder around the city for a bit then 11h the following night. Complete game changer and you can then just do it cattle class. The money you’ll save will between BC and EC will pay for your nights stay and spending money and then some.

 

[Megahurtz400]

Did a EXTREMELY last minute trip in December 2022 due to my partners sister sadly being told that she only had a week or so left due to cancer.

Found out on the Friday morning and was taking off from Heathrow at 8am the Saturday morning, so I didn't even have time to mentally prepare myself for the flight

Went with Qatar as they were the cheapest at the time that flew into Brisbane the next day, 8hrs to Doha then 14:45hrs to Brisbane, in economy, and it was as awful as it sounds!

On the return leg I did premium economy Doha > LHR and it was MUCH more pleasant. Sadly business is well out of reach for myself, but looking for next year, premium economy on various airlines (including Qantas) works out at about an extra £1000 per person, which in my eyes is well worth it just for the extra height and width as i'm 6'3" with shoulders wider than economy seats

We may break it up next year as well, maybe even stopping somewhere "different" from the usual middle eastern/singapore hubs, looking at Seoul and maybe going East via USA but undecided yet.

If you can stretch to business, the ability to get some proper sleep on the flight will be invaluable. My advice is to get on Australian time as soon as you get on the plane, as this will help with the jet lag, which I always find worse going West than east for some reason!

As for when you're there, while Sydney is probably where you'll most likely fly into, try and avoid booking more than a few days there. I've lived there for 12 months and always compare it to City of London. See the bridge, see the opera house and maybe the blue mountains, then either check out Melbourne (cool and hip) or Brisbane (Tropical hot and beaches galore) if you're city types, or if you can rent a car and get out into the country or along the coast that's where Australia really shines!

Have fun, it's an amazing country full of friendly, fun and generally positive people

If you want any more advice for when you're over there feel free to shoot a message, i'm not expert but have plenty of opinions that are different from your usual "Lonely Planet" books

 

[Quartz]

Any good tactics from the well travelled here to get cheaper business class flights to Sydney?

It's been over a decade but look at Royal Brunei Airlines. Their website isn't working for me right now but they used to offer deals where you stopped in Brunei for a day or two and stayed at the Empire Club - never have I wallowed in such luxury. They don't fly to Sydney but Melbourne. When I flew out the Gurkhas were on the same flight.

Went with Qatar as they were the cheapest at the time that flew into Brisbane the next day,

I flew with Qatar to Indonesia in 2016. I travelled business class and - for such a long flight - it was a wonderful experience. I think it was a bit under £2000.

 

[Megahurtz400]

It's been over a decade but look at Royal Brunei Airlines. Their website isn't working for me right now but they used to offer deals where you stopped in Brunei for a day or two and stayed at the Empire Club - never have I wallowed in such luxury. They don't fly to Sydney but Melbourne. When I flew out the Gurkhas were on the same flight.



I flew with Qatar to Indonesia in 2016. I travelled business class and - for such a long flight - it was a wonderful experience. I think it was a bit under £2000.

What I wouldn't give for pre-pandemic flight prices to return

 

[Vandle]

Booked the two of us on return flights yesterday. Going to UK / Europe for all of August. Played around for ages with the different connotations - business, economy, premium economy, points upgrade, overnight stay somewhere. Ended up going for the quickest and most direct, Melbourne Newcastle via 2 hour stopover in Dubai both ways all economy. Was still in excess of 3,000 pounds even after trading in some soon to be expiring points for flight credit but we have some pretty expensive stuff planned when there so found it very difficult to stomach upgrading the flights. I'll regret it within 30 minutes of taking off and be annoyed with myself however all will be forgotten as soon as I get there. Hopefully

I was in Hong Kong for the sevens at the weekend and flew back Monday morning with Cathay in premium Economy which was very, very good and not hugely more expensive than Emirates so that was an option however flies into LHR, then you have to get your bags and race to change terminals to get up to Newcastle. Its an absolute pain and I've hated it when doing it in the past, also missed it last time I did it and ended up getting the train up getting there half a day later than planned.

 

[Rroff]

Yeah flying that kind of duration in economy is grim, premium economy or if you can pay a little extra for a comfort or gap seat(ing) makes a huge difference (not sure if an option on flights to Australia as I've never done that route).

 

[Vandle]

Yeah flying that kind of duration in economy is grim, premium economy or if you can pay a little extra for a comfort or gap seat(ing) makes a huge difference (not sure if an option on flights to Australia as I've never done that route).

I've done it a lot of times so the discomfort wont be a shock. The price jump with Emirates to premium economy is so steep that you think you may as well go business, which I dont think is an accident on the airlines part. Then you tot it all up and it's eye watering. We have 10 days in Spanish Villa and a climb up Mount Blanc in there too so couldn't justify the extra cost.

 

[EvilRob]

Wife agreed to wait until next year. Phew! Gotta get plan into action for business class.

 

[ShivP]

The Platinum and BA Amexes both have special sign up rules so even if you have had an Amex in the last couple of years, you might still be eligible. But as you say, no harm putting it in the wife's name in any case.

Just for note, the BA Amex's only limit you from holding a BA Amex in the past 2 years, not any Amex

 

[adidan]

Just had a look on Emirates for New>Syd random end of Nov dates to a week or two into December are £3.5k a person, not £6k.

Personally, that far business is worth it. Get on, eat a bit, watch movies and have a nap.

E: I'd not personally fancy a summer there though, far too hot for me. Even winter was warm enough for me