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Some deals are worth sharing not because they’re particularly practical for most of us, but because they’re simply ridiculous.
Business and First Class fares from Cairo are often very good value, but the current Oman Air sale must be the lowest non-mistake pricing I’ve ever seen. You can fly Return from Cairo to Bangkok in Business Class for about £380 (8,659 Egyptian Pounds):
Ok, so flying to Bangkok via (a separate ticket to) Cairo and Muscat is probably at the more extreme end of travel obsession, even if the price is great – but there is a potentially useful point here too.
‘Starting’ your journey in some places can be vastly cheaper than starting in others, and understanding that can save you a lot of money in the right circumstances.
For example, say you were planning a big trip visiting quite a few different places. You might well have Egypt, Oman/Middle East and Bangkok/East Asia on your dream itinerary, and adjusting the order in which you visit them could mean you get to fly most of the flights in Business Class for less than you’d otherwise pay in Economy. The fares above seem to allow stopovers in Oman so you could easily hop around the Middle East a bit before coming back to Muscat and continuing on to Bangkok (or you could even ditch the last segment from Muscat to Cairo).
Similarly, cities like Cairo or Colombo in Sri Lanka can be fantastic places to start a Round-The-World ticket. By using Miles or buying a cheap one-way to a cheap airfare city to start your ‘main’ ticket from, you can save huge sums.
Interesting… but is there something a bit more practical?
Not with the same level of savings I’m afraid, but the same 50% Oman Air sale also has some pretty solid prices from Europe to Asia, like Frankfurt to Bangkok for ~£1150, or Paris to Colombo for ~£950.
Bottom line
These fares are genuinely ridiculous (and Oman Air, and Oman, both look great!), but they’re not going to be that useful to many readers.
What is useful though, is to know that deals like this are possible from certain cities, and that if you’re ever considering a ‘Big Trip’, you can check to see whether it is possible to work anything like this to your advantage before booking anything.
Tuck the knowledge safely away in the back of your mind, ready if you ever need it!
Would any readers actually consider starting in Cairo to get to Bangkok? I bet there’s at least a few more of us out there!
That business class cabin looks a bit pants.
Bad picture (sorry!) – Ben over at OMAAT (who basically flies around in Business/First for a living) has some chracteristically superb reviews of their new Biz product here, and the old biz class here
Suffice to say, he was pretty impressed!