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Malaysia Airlines regularly offers incredibly good value Business Class tickets (which is great!), but to get the best prices you normally need to start somewhere in Asia, usually Thailand (less great! – at least for most people reading this). Fortunately though, with a bit of flexible thinking there’s a way around this.
First of all, let’s look at some of the prices because they really are fantastic. The cheapest fares are from Phuket, with Bangkok also offering great value (1,000 Thai Baht is currently worth about £23.00):
For Return Business Class flights from Phuket then, you’re looking at roughly the following prices
- London: £937.00
- Sydney: £573.00
- Auckland: £661.00
- Delhi: £330.00
- Seoul: £430.00
- Kuala Lumpur: £112.00
These are just a few of the available options though – almost every destination I checked seems to be really cheap.
I don’t live in Thailand….?
Excellent point!
What’s brilliant about these fares is that, unlike with the vast majority of airfares, the one-way prices (from Phuket) are really good too. This means that if you can use Miles or buy a cheap one-way ticket for the outbound flight, then you can still bag a great Business Class bargain on the way back.
One-way prices seem to be a little over half the cost of a Return, so from Phuket to London it’s about £538.00.
If you have Miles then there are all sorts of great airlines and exciting ways you can fly to Thailand with, but if you’re looking for the cheapest way to get there using cash, Norwegian fly direct to Bangkok from Oslo (and Copenhagen and Stockholm) for as little as £160.00 one-way:
and Eurowings actually fly direct from Cologne to Phuket for even less:
Thinking slightly more creatively, you could use these Malaysia Airlines Business Class fares to build an incredible extended trip – for example, by using Miles to Thailand, then booking a Return between Phuket and Sydney (or Delhi, Seoul, etc) and then a one-way from Phuket back to London all for ~£1,000.
Cheap British Airways Elite Status
Malaysia Airlines is part of Oneworld and therefore you can credit these flights to British Airways Executive Club. The real ‘hardcore’ status junkies have been taking advantage of similar Malaysia Airlines fares for years to rack up vast amounts of Tier Points – check out the numbers:
A one-way Malaysia Airlines flight from Phuket to London in Business Class would earn 8,706 Avios + 200 Tier Points, which isn’t bad.
Tack on a Return to Sydney from Phuket as well and you can add 360 Tier Points + 11,310 Avios on top. Cheaper destinations like Delhi and Seoul earn the same number of Tier Points as Sydney, though less Avios.
You can hit BA Silver Status in no time!
Is Malaysia Airlines Business Class any good?
Yep. It may not reach the dizzy heights of Etihad or Qatar Airways, but looks perfectly good (and better than many) to me!
By the end of October, all the routes I’ve mentioned here (apart from the short hop to Kuala Lumpur!) should be on planes featuring lie-flat seats and the service and food is generally well regarded (particularly in-flight satay!).
If you want to head to Australia don’t forget the check out the incredible Qatar Airways fare (from £1086!) I posted about yesterday!
Remember you need to take some flights on BA metal in order to achieve status with them, even if the majority of the tier point earning is on other carriers.
Good point – yep, at least 4 BA flights required (so just 2 Returns), and short-haul or even domestic count.