Looking for a cheaper way to fly to Europe in comfort? Thanks to a current Turkish Airlines Business class sale running in Thailand, you can fly from Bangkok to Europe for as little as $2,411 return in Business Class. By combining this with a cheap Economy ticket (or a frequent flyer reward booking) from Australia to Bangkok, you could fly to Europe and back for around $3,000 with the longest legs in Business Class.
Many European destinations are available with this Turkish Airlines Business sale from Bangkok. This includes London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels. One advantage of flying Turkish Airlines to Europe is that the airline serves almost all major airports, as well as many regional airports. So you aren’t restricted to using major international hub airports.
Airfares from Asia to Europe are consistently much cheaper than fares from Australia to Europe. So it could make sense to break up the trip to Europe with a Bangkok stopover, in order to take advantage of the cheaper fares out of Thailand.
This Turkish Airlines Business sale fare is available for departures from Bangkok until 30 June 2019. You’ll just need to book at least 7 days in advance, and there are some blackout dates over the Christmas holidays between 18 December 2018 and 11 January 2019. There is a minimum stay of 3 days or at least one Saturday night.
This Turkish Airlines sale ends on Friday, 9 November 2018. You can book on the Turkish Airlines website.
Free stopovers are permitted in Istanbul, and you can book an open-jaw. This means you’re allowed to fly into one European city and then return from somewhere else. If you’re flying to London, flying back from somewhere outside of the UK is also a good way to avoid paying the UK’s expensive Air Passenger Duty.
Here is an example of a fare that we found…
In this second example, the stopover in Istanbul on the return journey has the effect of reducing the UK Air Passenger Duty. Without the stopover, the fare would be around $200 higher due to this tax.
Most flights in 2019 are still advertised as operating via Istanbul Ataturk Airport. But Turkish Airlines is planning to move its operations to the new Istanbul Airport at the end of the year, so this may change. Turkish Airlines will contact affected customers.
Turkish Airlines is in Star Alliance. You can earn points for these flights with any Star Alliance frequent flyer program, including Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Asiana Club and United Mileage Plus. The flights will earn 100% of the miles flown in any of these programs.