Where now?
 

I love flying F and J - but find I have to cleverly route tickets to enjoy the benefits without the high costs. I'm trying to do a route starting from an out station , running through to DXB and maybe onto HKG or similar. I have pretty much got a blank canvas. I used to love Doha - Lax as it was half the price of DXB- LAX... that's the sort of deal I enjoy.

Objectives are to stay in the air as long as possible and to spend as little as possible.

Now that Doha is not an option for starting fights, where would you guys recommend? I've seen a few people mention Colombo? Any other similar out stations offering great pricing for crazy routing?

ITA Matrix is what you want, enter a range of from/to airports and narrow the search for EK metal.

Ex Cpt is supposed to be decent, ex Amsterdam isn't bad, ex Cmb is ok - the issue is the stopovers have all been canned. Cai worked for me this year

Yes I noticed that stopovers in Dubai where not pricing well anymore. When did this change? Is it permanent?

I can confirm ex CPT/JNB/DUR is decent , some really nicely priced fares in F/J sometimes ! However it has been noted by other South African EK paxs that prices are going up and staying up and sales are no so much of a sale anymore.

I just booked NBO > IAD RT for only $1900 in J. That's 5hrs plus 14hrs. I felt like that was a stellar deal.

Try CAI and last time I checked stopovers in DXB on the return leg were still allowed.

Still decent fares? Any examples? I got Cai Hnd for 11k aed in F ^

BKK, CPT, JNB, NBO, DAR are good options going west that have good fares and are flexible with stopovers, in my experience.

LAD is offering excellent fares at present.

LAD-DXB-GVA (or many other European stations) return in F can be had for just over US$2000. A few years ago, US$2000 wouldn't even get you a seat in Y to Europe and F was normally over US$18,000.

CAI -CPT in J with stopover on way back in DXB for 5800aed and 18000 miles