Aston100

Hello could anyone kindly tell me what the likelihood would be for prices to get anywhere near £1700 for a return in business class in peak summer end of July to early August.

I ask because currently I'm anticipating doing ARN to BKK and BKK (or HKT) to LHR (or BHX). This is to get what looks to be the best combo of price and convenience.
I would much rather avoid ex EU or any repositioning but am conscious that prices are around £2700 currently for summer 2020.

So, do Qatar return prices from the UK to Thailand ever get really low, or should I just press on with my original plan to reposition in Stockholm and return to the UK on a multi city open jaw?

Thanks

PxC

Return trips from London don't seem to drop (3-4 years ago £1600ish rtn seemed standard, not now), with the lack of decent QR sales in recent times I wouldn't get your hopes up. Others may offer better qualified advice though.

Try Skyscanner multi city to finish in London and skip the final leg.
ARN-BKK
BKK-LON
LON-ARN (1-2 days later)

Comes in at around the same price as returning to ARN for me.

Aston100

Thank you but wouldn't that lead to me not being able to get the miles and tier points? I was hoping to credit them to BAEC.

gav0106

Multi-city is the way to get best price. You will get BAEC points, I use multi-city a lot. Don't forget places like Edinburgh, but cheaper due to less tax. You will be hard-pressed to get anything less than £2000 though. I just got ex Arn for £1500, use miles to position to Arn. If you use multi-city, you may get something around £1700-£2000, use google flights etc to search first then book via Qatar.

Dr. HFH

With QR's recently being named Best Airline, Best Business Class, etc., I don't see much motivation for AAB to have sales or otherwise reduce prices.

Traveller999

Just being named (and that by Skytrax ;-) ) as Best Airline / Best Business Class etc. does not fill the seats ;-) .....but if or when a sale will come, nobody can predict

stu002

Dr. HFH

By itself, no, of course. But the three classic ways to compete are 1) lowest cost product, 2) highest quality product, and 3) unique product. When you have one of these locked up, it's less important to go after the other two.

Aston100

Thank you but I was specifically looking to fly Qatar on this occasion and trying to get at least one leg on a Qsuite.

EDIT: I am indeed keeping an eye on prices ex AMS; CPH; OSL; GOT thank you. Can't setup an alert via GF since the dates I want are not yet loaded into GF (22 or 23 July > 6 or 7 or 8 Aug).

Aston100

Thank you for the reply.
I'm not knowledgeable in these matters, but I had presumed that this was some sort of hidden city ticketing and therefore I would lose any miles and tier points by not showing up to the final flight.
I'm guessing there is some exception here due to the multi city aspect return than a straight return? If so, could you please clarify for a novice (me)?

Thanks.

etiene

You wouldn't get credit for the final flight - I doubt you'd lose the lot, though others round here or the BA board might know better.

£1700 from the UK is probably unlikely - but isn't impossible - for exactly the dates you want. You're more likely to get that if you can be flexible in date and/or destination - so it depends on whether it must be BKK. I would guess that there is a high likelihood of a £1700 price to somewhere in Asia from the UK with Qatar over the course of the next year - but you would need the flexibility on your own side to use it. I wouldn't think £1700 ex-EU is worth jumping at early - prices there can get down to £1200 or so [caveat on the decreasing value of the monopoly money as teh Autumn unfolds there, sadly].

PxC

Aston100

Thank you.
My proposed itinerary is
ARN > BKK - 22nd or 23rd July
BKK (or HKT) > LHR (or to BHX) - 6th or 7th or 8th August
Those dates are as flexible as I can be unfortunately.
I'm intending to do a one night stopover in DOH on the way there using the Discover Qatar (Qatar + ?) facility..
Would want to spend absolute maximum of £2k per person including positioning flights and hotels where necessary (I imagine arriving at Stockholm the previous day). Ideally no more than £1700pp though.

I did a Skyscanner search and it did indeed bring up flights for £1490pp but only with Gotogate (no other OTA for any price), who seem to have a shocking reputation and hundreds of complaints over on Tripadvisor.
Would you trust Gotogate in this slightly non-standard situation? I don't think I would

Thanks.

PxC

plunet

Gotogate... Provided that you specify the ticket correctly online and it tickets correctly then gotogate are as ok as any other OTA.

The problem with agents who chasing the rank in the comparison engines to be the cheapest is that they are shaving their commission down to the finest of margins and there is little or no money to pay for after sales customer service. So if you can't be 100% certain your dates are right and won't need to change don't go there. Also what little customer service they have is stretched and according to what you might read online is limited in their capability to do much reticketing. Remember that you are at the behest of an OTA if there is a schedule change that requires reticketing, usually airlines will not touch a third party ticket for changes until 24hrs before departure.

So think about your risk appetite. For saving a small % would you go via an organisation with little or no motivation to assist you for after sales service? If you can be 100% you won't need their service after you ticket, go ahead.

Also, read their T&C's as there will be additional charges for after sales service in addition to those that might be levied by the airline.

Have I used them? Yes - there was a 25% saving on an OSL BKK return with QR in J a few years ago. The tickets were issued as expected and I flew as ticketed. I was fortunate that I didn't need any after sales service.