Booming Chinese airlines offer bargain business flights to Europe

[RooFlyer]

Why? Can’t be worse than QF.

Cost Business fare of 14K compared to 6K would have got me thinking. Especially if cash is tight. And need for luxury is importent.

Both thinking Qantas is the alternative. Would NEVER pay QF's ludicrous pricing for the quality of their product. See post #14. SQ day flight Award, then QSuites. A$6.5K MEL-CDG.

 

[elanshin]

Not really fair to compare Award prices to fully paid, but point taken. My main routing these days is SQ award to SIN & return, then QR revenue to Europe and return to SIN. About A$6K total cash outlay on 1st tier airlines.

It's not, but it is at the same time "cash paid" fare. Just treating as a super sale. Let's just say i have earnt very little Aeroplan points, but i have used quite a bit.

 

[marki]

Locally, according to data published by Air Services Australia, the average daily service flown by China Southern and China Eastern increased by 38 per cent and 29 per cent, respectively. According to the national aviation agency, those carriers flew more daily services than Qatar Airways, Malaysia Airlines, and United Airlines in December.

 

[Gold Member]

Sorry im deliberately not spelling it out in exact detail. These are the kinds of things I don't necessarily want to end up on blogs. There should be enough information there to piece together with some basic maths involved.

Appreciate your desire to keep some things less visible, @elanshin. The less the broader market knows the better, especially the numerous American “Bloggers” seeking that extra click for the extra 0.001c to highlight their greed.

But what you’re referring to is hardly a secret among those who follow different FF programs. There are some blogs that spell this out in sufficient detail to make it relevant to Aussies.

 

[marki]

Appreciate your desire to keep some things less visible, @elanshin. The less the broader market knows the better, especially the numerous American “Bloggers” seeking that extra click for the extra 0.001c to highlight their greed.

But what you’re referring to is hardly a secret among those who follow different FF programs. There are some blogs that spell this out in sufficient detail to make it relevant to Aussies.

Maybe the visibility of AFF is higher in the market?

 

[marki]

The rival loyalty program that could spell trouble for Qantas — Herald Sun.

Does anybody care to read this on the Apple News forum ( Herald Sun Article)

The Australian addiction to earning and retaining Platinum and beyond is a wonder to other airlines worldwide. It's why it is hard for me to give it up; they know it. But several more hits, like a P1 being treated worse than a Bronze or no status flyer, and bye-bye. It might just be around the corner.

People will pay significantly more to fly on Qantas – particularly if from the corporate or taxpayer's wallet – just for the exclusivity of being in the club (and no, not the tin horn Qantas Club). Its offering is compelling.

When flying internationally, Platinum, Platinum One and Chairman's Lounge travellers get priority boarding and use of the Qantas First Class lounge, with food from a special Neil Perry menu, champagne to the brim and even complimentary LaGaia spa treatments at Sydney and Melbourne lounges.

 

[SYD]

Both thinking Qantas is the alternative. Would NEVER pay QF's ludicrous pricing for the quality of their product. See post #14. SQ day flight Award, then QSuites. A$6.5K MEL-CDG.

I’m just back from Europe for ~A$4k + pts. QF J CRs to/from Asia (plus I earned SCs as PC) and then QR J open jaw (in this case MUC/BCN, a few months ago it was MAD/AMS for about the same).

Each trip earned about 1/3 towards retaining WP.

No, I definitely wouldn’t pay QF Oz to Europe at the moment (but neither would I pay for QR, EY, EK, BA, CX, SQ etc). They’ll all gouging the Oz market at the moment.

That post Covid demand for J everywhere is still strong. As an aside, flying BA whY LGW-AGP, they had 55 CE PAX on an A321! The curtain moved all the way down to row 16. Crazy.

 

[marki]

I’m just back from Europe for ~A$4k + pts. QF J CRs to/from Asia (plus I earned SCs as PC) and then QR J open jaw (in this case MUC/BCN, a few months ago it was MAD/AMS for about the same).

Each trip earned about 1/3 towards retaining WP.

No, I definitely wouldn’t pay QF Oz to Europe at the moment (but neither would I pay for QR, EY, EK, BA, CX, SQ etc). They’ll all gouging the Oz market at the moment.

That post Covid demand for J everywhere is still strong. As an aside, flying BA whY LGW-AGP, they had 55 CE PAX on an A321! The curtain moved all the way down to row 16. Crazy.

Wow, thanks for the frank discussion. Yes, I have seen BA Business flights that shift the curtain down when flying LHR-BER and Back to accommodate the overly full business bookings that day or any other day.

 

[pauly7]

No, I definitely wouldn’t pay QF Oz to Europe at the moment (but neither would I pay for QR, EY, EK, BA, CX, SQ etc). They’ll all gouging the Oz market at the moment.

That post Covid demand for J everywhere is still strong.

It’s definitely an interesting market still (J to
EU).

Our corporate policies (thankfully in some people’s opinions) rule out most of the mainland Chinese carriers from being booked unless no reasonable alternative.

We also have the ability for the traveller to ethically decline to travel on a carrier for reasonable grounds (e.g Qatar is declined somewhat regularly, Turkish etc).

We get very good discounts & rebates with QF which apply to the EK agreement which drops the price significantly to what is charged to retail customers, but the best I usually see when I’m booking is AY who are very sharp - around high $7s low $8s and BA are usually not that far behind surprisingly….

QF for us are normally about 3rd (least expensive), but because the flight times are much better than AY & BA we get a tolerance and most people fly QF code (EK ops) to EU and QF to London, Paris, Rome. QR and SQ are usually over priced.

Just some points of interest/prices from a corporate perspective.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Joe Aston’s book said the corporate discount was 75% of the fare… so the $12k would come down to $9k, which is closer to the ballpark of the $6.3 or $7k, without a transit in china. The $550 MEL-SYDs for J, with a 75% discount makes it pretty attractive.

 

[RooFlyer]

but the best I usually see when I’m booking is AY who are very sharp - around high $7s low $8s

Yes. You can do (I just did) AY RTW in J for abt A$10.5K, incl QF to Asia (AY wetlease ) and back from the USA. So pay just for the trans-pacific bit, and get to Europe (and 2 flights within Europe), free. Top quality hard and soft product too.

 

[SYD]

Joe Aston’s book said the corporate discount was 75% of the fare… so the $12k would come down to $9k, which is closer to the ballpark of the $6.3 or $7k, without a transit in china. The $550 MEL-SYDs for J, with a 75% discount makes it pretty attractive.

The discount will vary depending on the size of the organisation and annual spend (analogous to QBR tiers and discounts but can be a whole other level).

The last multi-national I worked for had very keen discounts on EY and QR J from Oz to Europe (circa $5k to $6k pre-Covid).

OT, but domestic travel on VA in whY was also significantly cheaper than public pricing. There may not be similar discounts on domestic J because a lot of company policies don’t allow domestic J.

 

[pauly7]

Joe Aston’s book said the corporate discount was 75% of the fare… so the $12k would come down to $9k, which is closer to the ballpark of the $6.3 or $7k, without a transit in china. The $550 MEL-SYDs for J, with a 75% discount makes it pretty attractive.

That’s not entirely accurate but he is entitled to his opinion, his whole book is full of opinions some are closer to truth than others but that’s for the other thread

 

[p--and--t]

Maybe I am willing to downgrade to less than half-price of a Qantas ticket and, therefore, would expect some differences unless you're sleeping over on the flight and don't care about food. Then, Lounges can be supplemented via priority pass offers or AMEX lounges.

Just recently I bought revenue BKK to ZUR rtn in QR suites for $3.5k

Why would I pay $6.5 to fly on a Chinese airline?

 

[marki]

Just recently I bought revenue BKK to ZUR rtn in QR suites for $3.5k

Why would I pay $6.5 to fly on a Chinese airline?

Well done

 

[SYD]

Why would I pay $6.5 to fly on a Chinese airline?

The argument would be that you have to get to/from BKK (or CGK, MNL, SIN, HKG etc). But with decent award seats to some of those, as above - it’s my current preferred approach to reposition to Asia and take QR (or any other OW carrier that’s competitive). Although I’m totally over CGK….

 

[MEL_Traveller]

That’s not entirely accurate but he is entitled to his opinion, his whole book is full of opinions some are closer to truth than others but that’s for the other thread

Leaving aside JA’s opinion vs fact… what is the accurate corporate discount at the top end? (the telstra’s, BHP’s etc).

 

[markis10]

70% off published fare (ie in hotel parlance rack) was the discount a corporate got that I worked for, was a giant US company that did fish and chips without the fish

 

[RooFlyer]

Although I’m totally over CGK….

Was that fare you quoted up thread ex-CGK?
I was thinking about following you there for my next step off, but what’s the problem?

 

[Austman]

The argument would be that you have to get to/from BKK (or CGK, MNL, SIN, HKG etc).

You might also have to double transit as well. Certainly with QR, EK and many other airlines that don't fly non-stop from those cities to Europe.