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We recently flagged some of the great Qatar Business Class deals in the current Companion Sale, and have spotted another worth sharing!
First things first: The flights are from Helsinki…
We know this is a UK-focused site, but at these prices, it is well worth taking a quick flight out to Finland to benefit from the massive savings you will get as a result.
You can book flights on low cost carriers like Norwegian for less than £50.00 each way, or use Avios.
It’s important to point out that these ultra-cheap flights are based on a “Companion Offer” – so you will need to book return flights for two adults. If you are travelling solo, there are still some decent prices available, but they don’t come close to the companion fares.
You have to book by Monday (23rd May) and the travel period is from 1st September 2016 – 15th May 2017, with the lowest fares available between October – November 2016.
There seems to be quite a bit of availability at the lowest rates in November, for example:
Finding the best deals on the Qatar Airways website can be a bit of a hassle because (like many travel websites) it’s not hugely user-friendly, but it’s well worth the effort!
How to maximise value
You can get 2% from TopCashback or Quidco when booking Qatar Airways flights, and you’ll earn a big stack of frequent flyer Miles and Tier Points too!
If you credit the flights to British Airways, by my reckoning, you should end up with just under 20,000 Avios and 560 Tier Points each.
You need 600 Tier Points and at least four flights on British Airways planes to hit Silver status. Any cheap BA Economy flight to Dublin/Amsterdam/Paris etc counts, and also gets you 10 Tier Points each way, so do two short Return flights and you’re Silver!
Silver status is well worth having as it gets you Lounge Access and a 50% Avios bonus when flying BA, among other perks.
Anything else?
The prices to Tokyo are the standout deal for me, but I also saw Dubai and Abu Dhabi from £570.00, Bangkok from £875.00, and Sydney form £1,437. All Return flights from Helsinki in November, in Qatar Business Class.
Hi Joe. This is an interesting article. I am trying to get to HKG in March 2017 and have been trying to find companion flights from N Europe (AMS, CPH, OSL etc) on Qatar at the sale prices, but seem to be failing. Is it just a matter of spending many hours trawling through the Qatar site, or is there something quicker?
Hi Gerry – thanks for reading!
A combination of Skyscanner and ITA Matrix is usually how I search for stuff. It’s also worth keeping an eye on websites like fly4free and secretflying.
I can’t see anything great for Qatar Airways specifically at the moment (I only spent 30 seconds though!), but ITA Matrix is showing options on Turkish in Business from Oslo to Hong Kong Return in March for ~£1,230.00 which isn’t too bad.
Alternatively, you could mix a couple of tricks I’ve written about recently for some interesting options (https://insideflyer.co.uk/2016/04/30000-points-hong-kong-virgin-upper-class/ https://insideflyer.co.uk/2016/05/buy-spg-starpoints-biggest-ever-discount-35/)
For a return on Virgin Atlantic Upper Class using Virgin America Miles (bought via the SPG sale), you’d be looking at 60,000 Elevate Miles (50,000 Starpoints) for about £750.00 and £545.00 taxes, so about £1300-ish in total.
Another option would be to transfer bought Starpoints to Alaska Mileage Plan, which charges 42,500 Miles each way for Cathay Pacific Business between Europe and Hong Kong, with no surcharges. 70,000 Starpoints would get you 85,000 Alaska Miles for about £1,100. Taxes from Hong Kong are only a few quid, and you could dodge the £190ish UK APD on the way out by starting somewhere else Cathay fly to in Europe (from memory, I think Zurich has low airport taxes?).
It’s also possible to do Cathay using Alaska Miles on the way out (ex EU), and then use Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles on the way back for Upper Class to London if you have any (or can transfer from tesco clubcard etc). Virgin Atlantic charges 60,000 Miles one-way but there are no surcharges from HK so it’s probably the best Flying Club redemption out there.
Hope some of that helps!
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Some very good tips there from Joe both on the cash fare and points redemption fronts. I did a bit of digging on Qatar myself, and while you can spend hours looking at all the options (as you seemingly have!), I found AMS to HKG in March 2017 using the companion offer for £1220 (€1578) a head. That’s not a bad price at all.
Thanks for this. Was aware of Turkish deals & viewer of ITA Matrix. But some interesting information about Virgin that I may follow up. Thanks again.