Originally Posted by
kiwibirdft
Hello everyone, newbie here trying to understand the attractiveness of this route.
Upon reading 20+ pages here, I gathered that UL could get as low as $6xx/Eur4xx (during its 40% promo period) for the AUH - CMB - CGK - CMB - AUH route back before the pandemic. I am from Singapore, so that price works out to be around SGD 8/9xx?
It's certainly below average, but I wouldn't consider it dirt cheap (compared to flights ex-SE Asia) to a point I would fly just for fun.
So I am guessing that people do it mainly for mile run. How much miles (in dollar terms) would one earn from one biz round-trip?
Or am I missing something here?
As
Lefly point out the fare was attractive primarily as a status-run for BAEC members, but it was also a good value way to get to Indonesia in (relative) comfort for anyone regularly in the wider Gulf region.
For those of us in that latter group the fare originally included most Gulf airports served by Sri Lankan and covered Jakarta as an origin for Gulf destinations. But origins became limited to Abu Dhabi and Dubai (at a somewhat higher fare than AUH), while Saudia undercut Sri Lankan's fares from Abu Dhabi and Athens, while Turkish offered comparable fares from Cairo: both carriers operating wide-body overnight services through hubs a tad more accommodating than Colombo.
For those outside the region, intent on runs, there were high supplemental costs of flights and hotels involved in positioning to Abu Dhabi. This meant multiple back-to-back trips became attractive as a means of improving the efficiency of the venture, driving down the overall cost per Tier Point generated. This perhaps explains why this pretty obscure route gained so many posts and such notoriety.
Sadly for those of us interested in getting to Indonesia cheaply, Turkish has revised its Egypt fares, while Saudia's bargain tickets (to CGK) are now limited to Tunis as origin: so it's good to see UL back in the game even though the fare is less competitive than previously and the product remains unattractive.