Business Class Query to Europe - Recommendations?

[Cutsyboy]

I have promised my wife a return Business Class trip to Europe for Christmas- with me of course. I have a $10k- $12k budget. Departing Melbourne around mid December and returning late January.

I would really appreciate any ideas about how to construct a good travel itinerary and any recommendations for airlines.

Thanks for the chance to start a discussion.
Mark

 

[tdimdad]

Welcome to AFF, Cutsyboy!

Do you have any ideas, plans or dreams whereabouts in Europe you'd be going to? Would you be based in one location and then roam around from there? That will narrow down the options from a thousand to a hundred and make it a lot easier to suggest something.

You may also find Google Flights helpful. Start by putting a destination in and then some rough dates. Once you get the results, go to the price graph and start playing around. Once you find a suitable departure date & duration at the right price, you may have found your flights.

 

[bam71]

With that budget I’m gravitating towards Oman Air fares to Europe. Historically around the 5.5K to 6K return mark. Australia to Asia on one of their partners (Thai, Malaysian), then via Oman to Europe. It’s two stops, but their product is very good apparently.

 

[747sp]

China Airlines is normally good value and the hard product on the a350 is good. The food and soft product is a bit hit and miss.
The flights are overnight from and to Australia and the flight arrives at 5am on the way up. That is the only real drawback.
Tawain is a nice stopover with really good food. Both western and Asian.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I have promised my wife a return Business Class trip to Europe for Christmas- with me of course. I have a $10k- $12k budget. Departing Melbourne around mid December and returning late January.

I would really appreciate any ideas about how to construct a good travel itinerary and any recommendations for airlines.

Thanks for the chance to start a discussion.
Mark

To keep comfortably in budget, and perhaps try some of the ‘top tier’ airlines, I would recommend you split your travel plans via Asia.

This will require two sets of tickets, but perhaps consider a few days in Bali? For example, EVA Air (a very good taiwan airline) is offering return business class from Bali to Europe, mid december to mid january, for $4700 per person.

You’d buy a separate ticket to fly to Bali, but why not have a few days there either side of europe? You might consider this in economy class, perhaps buying some perks like extra legroom on Virgin.

Otherwise, from Australia to Europe, peak time, you’re going to be looking at around 7-8k per person.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Re: QFF points and QFF SC, if its important to you:
If you want to earn QFF SC, small as it is, JQi to DPS and something in OW from there will do the trick.
JQi will have to be in a bundle, that earns QFF points and QFF SC, they charge more than the basic fare.
MH while it an be good, but there are only 2 bands of earn in QFF flying MH, basicY (discY), and flexY, so even if you fly MH J, and put in your QFF into the booking, you will only a small flexY earn of QFF SC.
Other partners are more or less the same, QF wants us to fly them, flying with partners in OW, is a smaller earn.
EK with a QF flight #, while very expensive, will be the best one to use in prem J/(F), have done them several times SYD to CHC, lounges very good, food on board very good.
If you have an inkling of an upgrade, I know you didnt mention it, but that would rely on your QFF status for success, ie, even if you have a lot of QFF points, you have to be upper grade status to succeed.
And Dec & Jan is a busy time, so even a rev booking, might be a tight one, that is why as the other colleauges have mentioned, best to split the flights, not ideal, but might be cheaper a bit.
If you can bear it, without lounges, premY can be ok too, EK with a QF flight # via DXB, lots of lounges do accept $ to enter, or PP/priority pass.

 

[CaptJCool]

Recently
QR/AY had offered around $6,000 return to Helsinki

Turkish had done some offers sub-$6,000 to Europe

There’s also the thread about flying into Asia with a LCC and booking J from there. BECAUSE they are separate tickets you would need to allow 24 hours or more layover at a hotel near the airport to avoid missing the connection OR have a backup plan in case of flight cancellations or delays

So
Manila (PR to there then EK OR EY from there) is the most talked about option.
This can also work from
Jakarta
coughet
Bangkok
Kuala Lumpur
Possibly Denpasar


Google flights is your friend

 

[Flyfrequently]

Welcome to AFF @Cutsyboy
As you can see lots of helpful and knowledgeable folk here in this forum.
Come back and let us know what you decided. Happy travels

 

[kiwitripper64]

Hi Mark
I know UK is not Europe, but be aware LHR has expensive tax in J flights. It often much cheaper to avoid flights to UK

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Recently
QR/AY had offered around $6,000 return to Helsinki

Turkish had done some offers sub-$6,000 to Europe

There’s also the thread about flying into Asia with a LCC and booking J from there. BECAUSE they are separate tickets you would need to allow 24 hours or more layover at a hotel near the airport to avoid missing the connection OR have a backup plan in case of flight cancellations or delays

So
Manila (PR to there then EK OR EY from there) is the most talked about option.
This can also work from
Jakarta
coughet
Bangkok
Kuala Lumpur
Possibly Denpasar


Google flights is your friend

I’m not seeing those fares for peak period though? Agree those are very competitive, but Dec-Jan is top dollar, at least from what I can see available now.

Agree with 24 hours plus on separate tickets… but some airports like Manila are a disaster to transfer in, especially between terminals. Hence the Bali recommendation… great place to stop for two or three days, easy to get around, etc. BKK and HKT would be good, but the economy leg is quite long to get to those.

Friends went to KL two weeks ago are were waiting over 2 hours for immigration. They didn’t see any smart gates

 

[elanshin]

Id ask whether you need the whole trip (every long haul leg) in business or only a portion for example.

Would you be ok with landing in say Frankfurt then taking (Ryanair?) for a short hop to the final destination. If you're open to the idea of intra Europe short hops with cheaper options (keeping in mind even legacy carrier intra Europe J is basically a normal economy seat with just the middle blocked) you open up a huge amount of arrival ports.

Orher things to consider, are there transit points that are off the table? For example, one of the cheaper options to fly return out of is say Manila or Clark in the Phillipines and you can probably get reasonable return to Manila as well on Phillipine Airline from Aus for example.

There are lots of ways to get cheaper ways, and it ultimately comes down to how flexible you're willing to be and how out of the way you're ok to go (treat it as a side adventure).

Edit: Rdm search. Note you won't be getting Qsuite from CRK but hey it's still QR business. Thats 6.8k AUD for 2 people from Clark to Rome return.

Although getting from MEL to Phillipines may not be thr cheapest right now around the same time period.

 

[CaptJCool]

I’m not seeing those fares for peak period though? Agree those are very competitive, but Dec-Jan is top dollar, at least from what I can see available now.

Agree with 24 hours plus on separate tickets… but some airports like Manila are a disaster to transfer in, especially between terminals. Hence the Bali recommendation… great place to stop for two or three days, easy to get around, etc. BKK and HKT would be good, but the economy leg is quite long to get to those.

Friends went to KL two weeks ago are were waiting over 2 hours for immigration. They didn’t see any smart gates

Yet Malaysia now has the Digital access card ?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yet Malaysia now has the Digital access card ?

My friends filled out the pre arrival digital card. Even with that… packed arrivals hall and two+ hours in the very slow moving queue.

I think smart gates needs registration maybe? Anyway, they didn’t even see them, or anything marked to that effect.

They won’t be going to KL again until the shocking processing times have been addressed.

 

[Becc]

Welcome to AFF, Cutsyboy!

Do you have any ideas, plans or dreams whereabouts in Europe you'd be going to? Would you be based in one location and then roam around from there? That will narrow down the options from a thousand to a hundred and make it a lot easier to suggest something.

You may also find Google Flights helpful. Start by putting a destination in and then some rough dates. Once you get the results, go to the price graph and start playing around. Once you find a suitable departure date & duration at the right price, you may have found your flights.

Thanks tdimdad, I just joined the group and your answer for Cutsyboy was helpful to me too. Maybe you could help me with this query.
I'm trying to take my husband on a dream trip to Europe in September as unfortunately he's been diagnosed with cancer.
I have about 660,000 Qantas points saved up and was hoping I could fly us Business for his comfort, but unfortunately I'm finding that there seems to be no seats at all in any of the OneWorld partners or Qantas flights.
I don't know what I might be doing wrong?
I've watched a heap of videos, one which explained how you could fly Business multi-city using the OneWorld affiliates under 35,000 miles for 318,000 points per person but I can't even get through step one of finding any seats.
In fact when I try to search multi-city on the Qantas site and put in the city's I'd like to go to when I click search it says 'This page is not working'???
Do you have any advice on how best to use those points and not spend a fortune?
I'd like to take him from Syd to London, then onto Rome, Athens and LA (total about five weeks away) before returning to Sydney
Thank you very much to you and to anybody who has some advice for me. Feeling a little depressed this end.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks tdimdad, I just joined the group and your answer for Cutsyboy was helpful to me too. Maybe you could help me with this query.
I'm trying to take my husband on a dream trip to Europe in September as unfortunately he's been diagnosed with cancer.
I have about 660,000 Qantas points saved up and was hoping I could fly us Business for his comfort, but unfortunately I'm finding that there seems to be no seats at all in any of the OneWorld partners or Qantas flights.
I don't know what I might be doing wrong?
I've watched a heap of videos, one which explained how you could fly Business multi-city using the OneWorld affiliates under 35,000 miles for 318,000 points per person but I can't even get through step one of finding any seats.
In fact when I try to search multi-city on the Qantas site and put in the city's I'd like to go to when I click search it says 'This page is not working'???
Do you have any advice on how best to use those points and not spend a fortune?
I'd like to take him from Syd to London, then onto Rome, Athens and LA (total about five weeks away) before returning to Sydney
Thank you very much to you and to anybody who has some advice for me. Feeling a little depressed this end.

Hi there and welcome!

There is a dedicated thread on the OWA here on AFF: "oneworld" award (132.4K/249.6K/318K/455K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

However, even for seasoned professionals, it’s really really hard to put something like that together. Availability is the key issue. It will usually take hours and hours of planning, before you can even start to book. And even when you can book, you’re unlikely to be able to get all the segments you need form the outset, so you’ll need to call the call centre.

This in itself has a range of very significant problems.

My last OWA was easy, only because qantas released a whole bunch of award space as a ‘we’re sorry’ offering… and my award was really simple… QF to London, QF home from the states… so I just needed one transatlantic to find, which was on BA.

Trying to piece together an award when there hasn’t been a huge release of seats can be hard. The starting point is to lock in the long hauls. Look via Sin, Hong Kong, Tokyo etc. Worry about the european connecting flights later.

You might also want to consider a paid service where they find the seats for you. But that can be expensive.

 

[elanshin]

Thanks tdimdad, I just joined the group and your answer for Cutsyboy was helpful to me too. Maybe you could help me with this query.
I'm trying to take my husband on a dream trip to Europe in September as unfortunately he's been diagnosed with cancer.
I have about 660,000 Qantas points saved up and was hoping I could fly us Business for his comfort, but unfortunately I'm finding that there seems to be no seats at all in any of the OneWorld partners or Qantas flights.
I don't know what I might be doing wrong?
I've watched a heap of videos, one which explained how you could fly Business multi-city using the OneWorld affiliates under 35,000 miles for 318,000 points per person but I can't even get through step one of finding any seats.
In fact when I try to search multi-city on the Qantas site and put in the city's I'd like to go to when I click search it says 'This page is not working'???
Do you have any advice on how best to use those points and not spend a fortune?
I'd like to take him from Syd to London, then onto Rome, Athens and LA (total about five weeks away) before returning to Sydney
Thank you very much to you and to anybody who has some advice for me. Feeling a little depressed this end.

Trying to find flights for a 318k OWA in business is a bit of an art and it requires a lot of patience, flexibility as well as good knowledge of what is available to construct.

For some stsrter tips, the hardest part is getting off our rock. There's quite a bit more options in Asia and Europe. So one of the things you want to familiarise yourself with is the airlines in OneWorld, their home ports and where they fly to long haul in the region your looking at. (Eg where does Cathay fly to or JAL for example).

There is a thread on the Qantas subforums for it and best to keep asking there.

Oneworld Classic Flight Reward Discussion - The Definitive Thread

Note that this is not exclusively a "Round The World" Award. While it can be so used, it can also be used for "Round Trips", "Circle" Trips or even "one-way trips" without actually going "Round The World". Also note the following from the T&C review that comes up on Qantas.com if you have...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[CaptJCool]

Thanks tdimdad, I just joined the group and your answer for Cutsyboy was helpful to me too. Maybe you could help me with this query.
I'm trying to take my husband on a dream trip to Europe in September as unfortunately he's been diagnosed with cancer.
I have about 660,000 Qantas points saved up and was hoping I could fly us Business for his comfort, but unfortunately I'm finding that there seems to be no seats at all in any of the OneWorld partners or Qantas flights.
I don't know what I might be doing wrong?
I've watched a heap of videos, one which explained how you could fly Business multi-city using the OneWorld affiliates under 35,000 miles for 318,000 points per person but I can't even get through step one of finding any seats.
In fact when I try to search multi-city on the Qantas site and put in the city's I'd like to go to when I click search it says 'This page is not working'???
Do you have any advice on how best to use those points and not spend a fortune?
I'd like to take him from Syd to London, then onto Rome, Athens and LA (total about five weeks away) before returning to Sydney
Thank you very much to you and to anybody who has some advice for me. Feeling a little depressed this end.

Firstly I’m sorry to hear your sad news. And I sense it’s quite emotionally overwhelming

So I would suggest

First
How flexible are you on dates ?
Choose your preferred dates +/- a week and search for the simplified option
If you mention the proposed timeframe here, a kind contributor may well “see what they can find”. we can point you in the right direction like others have because that’s what we do

Simplifying the process

Australia to Europe (and this is likely the hardest part to work out as has been mentioned)
Europe to USA
USA to Australia

Do the internal European flights separately - they are 10-20,000 points and availability is steady and can be booked on the QF website at your leisure.

This hopefully Declutters the path forward and lightens the emotional load because as others have mentioned it can take a lot of time (task-oriented folk love it)

Even recent looks at the where can I go tool, there’s was so little availability until Feb 2025 and then there was the carrier charges ouch

All the best

 

[Flyfrequently]

I have about 660,000 Qantas points saved up and was hoping I could fly us Business for his comfort, but unfortunately I'm finding that there seems to be no seats at all in any of the OneWorld partners or Qantas flights.

Thank you very much to you and to anybody who has some advice for me. Feeling a little depressed this end.

Welcome to AFF @Becc and sorry to hear about your husband's diagnosis.

With September only 5 months away, will be tricky from "here to there" as premium seats will have been snapped up, though some do get released randomly - may mean checking every day.
Creative planning is key, and lots of helpful information from other AFF'S here.

Agree with @elanshin , a short hop to an Asian port on JQ or similar in Y and give yourself a few days to enjoy this journey and account for any delays etc.
@CaptJCool had some excellent advice too.

How long were you planning on being away and how flexible are you with your September timings?

 

[CaptJCool]

I’m not seeing those fares for peak period though? Agree those are very competitive, but Dec-Jan is top dollar, at least from what I can see available now.

Here you go

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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Thanks! I didn’t expend my search to ADL.

Unfortunately MH is on my ‘no fly’ list, so wouldn’t be an option