JoshuaL1997
Junior Member
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2024
- Posts
- 19
I'll start of with a bit of background for this trip and segments I'm hopefully going to cover, before launching into trip reports from each segment. This is really more for me to document my trip but if anyone gets anything from it event better.
I'm originally swiss and have been meaning to return home for a holiday to see extended family since the borders opened post covid. However being 6'2 and not liking the idea of forking out 3k to fly in Economy (yes thats how much Qatar and Emirates both wanted when I was searching, for reference we paid less for two people in July 2019), I decided to try out a hack which I kept reading about to get cheaper business class fares to europe by flying out of an asian gateway.
What most people who rave about this hack seem to do is book a cash business fare from cities including: Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and sometimes even Singapore and then either use their reward points or a cheap cash fare to get to that city from Australia
In my case I live in Brisbane and as we don't have direct flights to KL, Jakarta or Bangkok (until next year) my only real straight forward options were Manila and Singapore. Using google flights I found a really cheap deal out of Manila with Etihad allowing me to fly into Munich and out of Geneva all in business class for $2600 AUD in December. As I was finding this deal, Qantas also announced they were restarting direct flights between Brisbane and Manila so you can say this felt like fate and I booked the flights and a trip started to take shape.
Trip breakdown:
30/11 BNE-MNL, QF97, A330-200 Business Class
30/11-02/12 Savoy Hotel Manila, Runaway Suite
02/12, MNL-AUH, EY440, B777 Business Class
03/12, AUH-MUC EY125, B787 Business Class
03/12-05/12 Boutique Hotel Germania, Munich, Standard Single room
05/12 Munich to Salzburg, RJX65, 2nd class
05/12-06/12 arte Hotel Salzburg, Double room medium level
06/12 Salzburg to Zurich, RJX 368, 1st class
06/12-13/12 Staying with family in Winterthur, Switzerland
13/12-15/12 the Freddie Mercury Hotel, Montreux Switzerland
15/12-16/12 Nash Pratik Hotel Geneva, Standard Double room
16/12 GVA-AUH, EY146, B787 Business Class
17/12 AUH-MNL, EY440, B777 Business Class
17/12 MNL-SYD, QF20, A330-200 Business Class
18/12-22/12 Staying with family in Sydney
22/12, SYD-BNE VA989 737 Economy
Thats what I have planned and booked, lets see how this goes. Stay tuned for rolling coverage.
I'm originally swiss and have been meaning to return home for a holiday to see extended family since the borders opened post covid. However being 6'2 and not liking the idea of forking out 3k to fly in Economy (yes thats how much Qatar and Emirates both wanted when I was searching, for reference we paid less for two people in July 2019), I decided to try out a hack which I kept reading about to get cheaper business class fares to europe by flying out of an asian gateway.
What most people who rave about this hack seem to do is book a cash business fare from cities including: Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and sometimes even Singapore and then either use their reward points or a cheap cash fare to get to that city from Australia
In my case I live in Brisbane and as we don't have direct flights to KL, Jakarta or Bangkok (until next year) my only real straight forward options were Manila and Singapore. Using google flights I found a really cheap deal out of Manila with Etihad allowing me to fly into Munich and out of Geneva all in business class for $2600 AUD in December. As I was finding this deal, Qantas also announced they were restarting direct flights between Brisbane and Manila so you can say this felt like fate and I booked the flights and a trip started to take shape.
Trip breakdown:
30/11 BNE-MNL, QF97, A330-200 Business Class
30/11-02/12 Savoy Hotel Manila, Runaway Suite
02/12, MNL-AUH, EY440, B777 Business Class
03/12, AUH-MUC EY125, B787 Business Class
03/12-05/12 Boutique Hotel Germania, Munich, Standard Single room
05/12 Munich to Salzburg, RJX65, 2nd class
05/12-06/12 arte Hotel Salzburg, Double room medium level
06/12 Salzburg to Zurich, RJX 368, 1st class
06/12-13/12 Staying with family in Winterthur, Switzerland
13/12-15/12 the Freddie Mercury Hotel, Montreux Switzerland
15/12-16/12 Nash Pratik Hotel Geneva, Standard Double room
16/12 GVA-AUH, EY146, B787 Business Class
17/12 AUH-MNL, EY440, B777 Business Class
17/12 MNL-SYD, QF20, A330-200 Business Class
18/12-22/12 Staying with family in Sydney
22/12, SYD-BNE VA989 737 Economy
Thats what I have planned and booked, lets see how this goes. Stay tuned for rolling coverage.
