Business Class Flights UK to Auckland
Mar 7, 2019, 3:17 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 517
Business Class Flights UK to Auckland
Just looking for return flights next Feb to AKL stopping at either HKG or SIN or SYD from whatever UK airport is cheaper, tickets for business class seem to be around £4000 each PAX for BA or Cathay. The carrier is not imnportant so long as the hard product is good enough. Is there a reasonable chance that tickets could end up at much less in the sale and if so any tips on when the best time may be to search? I have tried the past 10 days to get some companion voucher flights via Sydney on BA but nothing at all has appeared at 12.00 midnight. Thanks for any help/advice in advance 
Last edited by Richardc77; Mar 7, 2019 at 3:30 am
Mar 7, 2019, 3:19 am
#2
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold / OW Emerald
Posts: 753
The price sounds about right, if you ask me.
You may have better luck starting anywhere else in Europe, where tickets to Auckland could be had for 2000-2500 when a sale comes up.
Getting a redemption to Sydney is going to be hard indeed, but you can probably call on the time and day the seats are available (a year before) and try your luck.
You may have better luck starting anywhere else in Europe, where tickets to Auckland could be had for 2000-2500 when a sale comes up.
Getting a redemption to Sydney is going to be hard indeed, but you can probably call on the time and day the seats are available (a year before) and try your luck.
Mar 7, 2019, 3:26 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 517
Mar 7, 2019, 3:27 am
#5
Join Date: Jun 2016
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 1,157
Does the stopover have to be in SIN/HKG/SYD?
Qatar often have very competitive fares to AKL, routing through Doha - some good deals to be had from many European departure points; and even tickets departing from LHR sometimes come up in business around the 2,000 mark...
Plus by February next year I think AKL should be the new Q-Suites product in business on Qatar, which is probably the best way to spend a 17 hour flight...
Qatar often have very competitive fares to AKL, routing through Doha - some good deals to be had from many European departure points; and even tickets departing from LHR sometimes come up in business around the 2,000 mark...
Plus by February next year I think AKL should be the new Q-Suites product in business on Qatar, which is probably the best way to spend a 17 hour flight...
Mar 7, 2019, 3:28 am
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 517
The price sounds about right, if you ask me.
You may have better luck starting anywhere else in Europe, where tickets to Auckland could be had for 2000-2500 when a sale comes up.
Getting a redemption to Sydney is going to be hard indeed, but you can probably call on the time and day the seats are available (a year before) and try your luck.
You may have better luck starting anywhere else in Europe, where tickets to Auckland could be had for 2000-2500 when a sale comes up.
Getting a redemption to Sydney is going to be hard indeed, but you can probably call on the time and day the seats are available (a year before) and try your luck.
Thanks, so it is better to call Executive Club "blue' customer service line at midnight rather than log onto the Executive Club website to find this particular redemption?
Mar 7, 2019, 3:31 am
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 517
Does the stopover have to be in SIN/HKG/SYD?
Qatar often have very competitive fares to AKL, routing through Doha - some good deals to be had from many European departure points; and even tickets departing from LHR sometimes come up in business around the 2,000 mark...
Plus by February next year I think AKL should be the new Q-Suites product in business on Qatar, which is probably the best way to spend a 17 hour flight...
Qatar often have very competitive fares to AKL, routing through Doha - some good deals to be had from many European departure points; and even tickets departing from LHR sometimes come up in business around the 2,000 mark...
Plus by February next year I think AKL should be the new Q-Suites product in business on Qatar, which is probably the best way to spend a 17 hour flight...
No it doesn't need to be at all, so long as the product is good, I'll have a look at Qatar, £2000 each would be great, Q suites sound good, although have no idea what they look like (off to Google I go
)
Mar 7, 2019, 3:36 am
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
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Your best bet is to be online so that you're ready to book at precisely midnight (GMT) on the correct day. The seats to SYD can sometimes be taken within about 15 seconds, so you have to be the fastest person - ideally, you should learn in advance how to complete a booking within 15 seconds.
Mar 7, 2019, 3:42 am
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 517
Your best bet is to be online so that you're ready to book at precisely midnight (GMT) on the correct day. The seats to SYD can sometimes be taken within about 15 seconds, so you have to be the fastest person - ideally, you should learn in advance how to complete a booking within 15 seconds.
Thanks Globaliser, I have tried this a fair few times to no avail for next Feb, days running out now, but will give it another go and practice before hand...
Mar 7, 2019, 3:45 am
#10
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: London, ARN, HEL, ..... or MAN
Programs: BA GGL / GFL, Mucci Diamond!, HH Diamond, Radisson Premium, IHG Gold, Hertz Gold
Posts: 5,872
I'm off to AKL next week, on QR from CPH. It's about £2400, including QR suites outbound from DOH and the A380 on the return for the long sections.
It's costing me about £100 to get to CPH from LHR. If you can go indirect, you'll get a much better fare and the same number of TPs. (fewer Avios though)
It's costing me about £100 to get to CPH from LHR. If you can go indirect, you'll get a much better fare and the same number of TPs. (fewer Avios though)
Mar 7, 2019, 3:48 am
#11
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: BAEC Gold, EK Skywards (enhanced Blue !), Oman Air Sindbad Gold
Posts: 6,394
Even this far out you could very easily find good availability for, say around late January 2020, and using quality carriers - IF you’re happy to trade a certain amount of convenience for serious cash savings, as others have indicated above.
Even a very cursory check throws up a combination of SAS + Singapore Airlines for just a shade over £2000 in J class throughout. For that, you would need to route yourself via ARN, CPH and SIN before touching down in AKL ..... but the connections / transits are all fairly quick ones.
I best restrict myself to that, given this is the BAEC forum, where the primary focus should be on BA (or certainly OW carriers).
Even a very cursory check throws up a combination of SAS + Singapore Airlines for just a shade over £2000 in J class throughout. For that, you would need to route yourself via ARN, CPH and SIN before touching down in AKL ..... but the connections / transits are all fairly quick ones.
I best restrict myself to that, given this is the BAEC forum, where the primary focus should be on BA (or certainly OW carriers).
Mar 7, 2019, 3:49 am
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 517
I'm off to AKL next week, on QR from CPH. It's about £2400, including QR suites outbound from DOH and the A380 on the return for the long sections.
It's costing me about £100 to get to CPH from LHR. If you can go indirect, you'll get a much better fare and the same number of TPs. (fewer Avios though)
It's costing me about £100 to get to CPH from LHR. If you can go indirect, you'll get a much better fare and the same number of TPs. (fewer Avios though)
To be fair getting more Avios is not an issue as have a barrel load so the cheaper fare is more important
Mar 7, 2019, 3:50 am
#13
Join Date: May 2007
Programs: BA Blue, EI Silver, Honours Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,207
Just remember that the SYD-AKL connection wont be available for a further 48 hours, at least, as you arrive +2 in SYD. This might be why you are not seeing availability. I would just book the LON-SYD first, deal with onward connections later.
In order to book our MAN-LON-SYD I had to book MAN-LON-SYD as one trip, then call to do SYD-LHR and then add the LON-MAN 24 hours later The agent tried to book SYD-MAN when the seats were released and couldn't. It was a stressful few minutes trying to convince them just to book SYD-LHR!
In order to book our MAN-LON-SYD I had to book MAN-LON-SYD as one trip, then call to do SYD-LHR and then add the LON-MAN 24 hours later The agent tried to book SYD-MAN when the seats were released and couldn't. It was a stressful few minutes trying to convince them just to book SYD-LHR!
Mar 7, 2019, 3:52 am
#14
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Flatland
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold 1MM, BA Gold, UA Peon
Posts: 6,103
Even the current QR 777-200LR seat to Auckland is quite acceptable to me. Certainly it's better than the current QR 787 seat if you're tall. So even if QR doesn't have Q-suites on the AKL flight at the time you travel, it should be OK.
General consensus on "Best route from LHR to AKL on oneworld" seems to be "via HKG connecting to CX".
Cheapest route on OW is probably ex-AMS, ex-OSL or ex-ARN.
General consensus on "Best route from LHR to AKL on oneworld" seems to be "via HKG connecting to CX".
Cheapest route on OW is probably ex-AMS, ex-OSL or ex-ARN.
Mar 7, 2019, 3:57 am
#15
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
This is a good point. I had read the original post as suggesting that OP was looking for 2-4-1 flights to SYD. On a 2-4-1, SYD is as far as you can go, leaving aside questions of onward availability, because it must be on BA-operated flights. The onward trans-Tasman has to be on a separate ticket.
