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Business class deal: £500 Europe-China o/w
[Air Serbia]
Air Serbia has very few routes outside Europe, whereas Tianjin, a Chinese city just next to Beijing, is one of them. Air Serbia operates two weekly flights from Belgrade to Tianjin.
If you are looking for a business class flight from Europe to China, the best sweet spot is Berlin to Tianjin, which costs only £564.
Even better:
- This is Business Freedom fare, which implies free cancellation and change
- One free stopover is permitted
The ticket is issued in C class, accruing 175% miles in Etihad Guest. You can book a return ticket for around £1,200. Other cities than Berlin are available too but they are more expensive.
[Xiamen Air]
Xiamen Air, a Skyteam member, has some equally attractive fares between China and Europe as well.
- Valid for many European cities, including London, Barcelona, Rome and Athens
- You need to depart from / arrive at Xiamen in China
- Can be booked as one-way or return, valid at both directions
- XMN-AMS is operated by Xiamen Air, whereas the European leg is by KLM
As far as I know the trip must origin from or end in Xiamen, although this post on Flyertalk has a contradictory statement.
Your chances are the best for January departures, but there’s scattered availability in February too.
Remember that you can get a further £10 discount by booking on Trip.com’s app.
If you have a French, German, Italian, Spanish or Dutch passport you can now visit China visa-free for up to 15 days. Failing that you could always do transit-without-visa as long as you are flying to a third country afterwards.
Earn 250 Avios and more with Red by Dufry
We wrote about Red by Dufry before, which is a loyalty program that gives you discount at duty free stores and other perks at airports worldwide.
In the Red by Dufry app, go to My Profile, scroll down to the bottom where you have the option to add a partner account. If you link your Iberia Plus account, you will 1 Avios per £1 / €1 spent at Dufry stores, and 250 bonus Avios on your first purchase.
It seems that British Airways is also a partner and the same earning rate / promotion applies. My account was already linked to Iberia Plus. I was trying to unlink and relink but I couldn’t see either Iberia or BA in the partner dropdown list anymore.
Historically Red by Dufry had some promo codes that gave away points or even Platinum status. Give them a try but I doubt any of them work anymore:
- RED300POINTS
- HAPPYBIRTHDAY2020
- REDPLATSMART0821
- AegeanMilesPlatinum
As a Red by Dufry member you get a guaranteed discount at many duty free shops and earn Avios with every purchase, so it makes sense to create an account.
Black Friday Flight & Hotel deals roundup
Etihad
- Book by November 27th
- Travel between January 15th and June 12th
- Use promo code WHITEFRIDAY20 or BLACKFRIDAY20
- Save 20% on economy and business class fares
Note that the 20% discount applies to the base fare only, which means in reality the savings will be much less.
Aegean
- Book by November 27th
- Travel between January 15th and October 26th
- No promo code needed
- Save up to 50% on all tickets across the network
The actual discount depends on your travel date.
ITA Airways
- Book by November 27th
- Travel between December 1st and December 31st
- Use promo code BLACK
- Save 30% on all tickets except Economy Lite
The offer is available to many markets including UK, Europe and US (20% off).
Cathay Pacific
- Book by November 26th
- Travel between December 1st and June 28th
- Use promo code UKBLACKFRI for flights departing from the UK
- £100 off business class and £75 off economy / premium economy
Similar deals are available for France and Germany etc.
Air China
£100 discount on UK flights to China / Asia. Claim your voucher on Trip.com – they have other Black Friday offers as explained in this blog post.
TAP Portugal
London – Boston in business class for ~£1000 return, and the cost can be further reduced if you add a stopover (>24 hours) in Lisbon to avoid the UK APD. Example:
Use Google Flights and Skyscanner to find cheap date combinations. Book by November 28th.
Virgin Atlantic
- Book by November 27th
- Travel by September 30th
- Pay 30% fewer points for all reward flights
This is an incredible deal for flying to/from Shanghai:
Redemptions for US destinations are unfortunately bundled with outrageous fees, so they might not be a great deal even with the 30% discount.
Melia
- Book by November 26th
- Stay by December 20th, 2024 (hotel dependant)
- Save up to 50%
Remember to stack the Gold 20% off and App 5% off. The discount is genuine although not necessarily at 50% at most properties, and many of the rates are flexible.
Accor
20% bonus on digital gift card purchases. Gift cards are valid for 5 years, and can be used at participating hotels in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece and Poland.
Kimpton Hotels
The following UK Kimpton hotels are offering 20% discount of gift vouchers:
- Kimpton London Fitzroy
- Kimpton Manchester Clocktower
- Kimpton Edinburgh Charlotte Square
- Kimtpon Glasgow Blythswood Square
Gift vouchers are valid for 12 months and can be used upon hotel checkout. They work well with pay-at-hotel rates, including Amex FHR and IHG Luxury & Lifestyle.
Malmaison / Hotel Du Vin
Malmaison – rate starts at £100, including £50 dinner credit
Hotel Du Vin – rate starts at £145 for two nights, including £50 dinner credit
Black Friday: buy Aeroplan points with up to 125% bonus
Air Canada has launched their campaign for Black Friday, and there’s an interesting buy points offer which is worth checking out especially if you are UK- or Europe-based.
The offer runs between November 13th and 29th, and all Aeroplan members receive a targeted mysterious offer. You can reveal the offer here after logging in.
I received only a 100% bonus, equating to C$17.5 / £10.22 per 1,000 points. If you are lucky enough to have the 125% bonus, you will pay C$15.6 / £9.1 per 1,000 points.
The highest bonus Aeroplan had offered recently was 115%, and that was targeted too, so 125% very generous. Even with 100% bonus it’s still not bad deal.
I wrote about Aeroplan recently specifically about their Europe – Middle East redemptions. Here is a guideline of how much certain itineraries cost (per way):
- Europe – Middle East (business): 45,000 points
- Europe – Middle East (first): 60,000 points
- Asia – Middle East (business): 60,000 points
- Asia – Europe (first): 100,000 points
To put it into perspective, a one-way first class ticket from Abu Dhabi to London on Etihad will cost you just around £600!
Aeroplan points can be accrued through Amex and Chase credit cards in North America, but otherwise difficult to collect. If you have plans to visit the Middle East, you should seriously consider jumping on this deal.
Virgin Atlantic – China Eastern partnership starts (sort of)
Virgin Atlantic joined Skyteam earlier this year with immediate effect. However, there was one team member, China Eastern, that was excluded from the launch and it was deferred to “a later date”. Well, that later date turned out to be November 10th.
As you can see from Virgin’s page. From now on you can earn Virgin points and tier points when flying China Eastern. However the most sought-after feature – redeeming Virgin points on MU – is still not active.
Chinese airlines are sometimes notorious for playing dirty games especially when it comes to their loyalty program. Xiamen Airlines, also a Skyteam member, rarely releases ANY reward ticket to partner airlines, and I’m not sure how they get away from it lightly.
If these problems can finally be resolved, Virgin points will open up new redemption opportunities in China and Asia. Even if you don’t want to visit China, remember that reward availability to China tends to be excellent, and you can use China Eastern etc for onward connection to another country.
My review of LATAM B787 business class
Having done loads of research and searches I ended up redeeming Avios on LATAM Santiago – Lima – London in business class for coming back. A backup plan was BA’s direct flight, but spending 14 hours in Premium Economy didn’t sound as appealing to me.
LATAM is slowly rolling out their new business class cabin, which looks amazing:
Unfortunately the refurbishment is gonna take a while, and the Boeing 787 aircraft that I’m going onboard still has the old seats. I was on their A350 in 2018 and it looks quite similar.
The seats are grey, but the red headrest on top make the cabin much less dull than Iberia. The 2-2-2 configuration is no longer a popular choice in business class nowadays, no wonder LATAM is keen on a refresh.
As the window seats have no direct aisle access, I recommend solo travellers to go for a middle seat to avoid any hassle.
Storage space is limited besides the one under the footrest.
Control panel for seat adjustment is located on the armrest.
I forgot to take a photo of the lie-flat bed. It is on the shorter side but largely comfortable. I had a good seven or eight hours of sleep on the plane and then slept through the night after landing in Madrid. No jet lag this time at all!
On the SCL-LIM flight they handed out a small flamboyant amenity bag:
And a larger one along with slippers for the LIM-MAD leg:
For the short-haul fight, the menu is just one-pager:
My steak is so-so:
Both dinner and breakfast are served on the long-haul leg, with a bigger menu:
As I have just had the steak I ordered the grilled fish this time, which is quite decent. I skipped the breakfast.
IFE is decent, but screen is positioned quite low, which isn’t very friendly to my neck.
There’s no wi-fi onboard, which is unusual. Otherwise it’s a reasonable yet not outstanding business class product. Given how difficult it is to find reward availability between Europe and South America though, I don’t have much to complain.
Flight delayed? €100 payout and commission-free claim with AirHelp Plus
Fortunately in Europe, we have the EU261 regulation which forces the airlines to cough out certain amount of compensation when the flight is delayed or cancelled for reasons in their control. It’s not always straightforward though, as it’s not rare airlines play games to avoid the pay-out even if your claim is legit.
There are certain agencies that can help you with your claim, amongst whom AirHelp is probably the most famous with a pretty decent 4.6 TrustPilot rating. Their service comes with a cost though:
- No win no fee
- 35% if the claim wins outright
- 50% if legal action is required
It is very pricey, although if you don’t have the expertise and patience to fight yourself it’s better to get something than nothing.
Interestingly, they also provide a subscription service AirHelp Plus, and simply by being a member you won’t need to pay any fee on your claims, so they’ll help you for free. It also comes with an insurance benefit called AirPayout, such that €100 compensation is paid to you as long as your flight is delayed by more than 3 hours or cancelled within 28 days of departure.
All you need to do is register your flight at least 24 hours before departure, and AirHelp will monitor the flight status automatically. If you are on the Essential plan (€24.99 ayear) then you can only register 3 flights per year; the Complete plan (€49.99 a year) on the other hand, has no limit imposed.
Note that it is an independent pay-out issued by AirHelp, no matter what the delay / cancellation reason is. It shouldn’t affect your eligibility for compensation from the airline or insurance companies.
Complete subscribers enjoy two additional perks:
- AirLuggage – €150 for each delayed / lost luggage, up to two, as long as you’ve obtained a Property Irregularity Report (PIR)
- A Lounge Key pass to use within the next three months if your flight is delayed by one hour or more – this is quite similar to O2’s Smart Delay program
As long as I can tell, the AirHelp Plus cover is pretty good. I myself is very happy to pay €49.99 a year for the subscription, knowing that I will more than get my money back if flight delay strikes just once. Although there are many (credit card) travel insurances in the UK, some are quite good (e.g. from Amex Platinum), they only pay for reasonable expenses rather true cash.
AirHelp Plus serves customers from all over the world, and you can add your UK bank account details online for any future payout. Should you be interested, I think the Complete plan has much better value.
If you want to sign up, the following promo codes will give you 8% discount:
- Essential: AHPLSE8
- Complete: AHPLSC8
5,000 bonus Avios for new Qatar Airways members
Qatar Airways’ sign-on offer is back, which is worth taking advantage of if you have an upcoming flight with them.
- Join as a new Qatar Airways Privilege Club member by December 31
- Use promo code PCAUNA23
- Travel by June 30
- Earn bonus after first eligible flight: 2,500 Avios if in economy or 5,000 Avios in business / first
The flight must be operated by Qatar Airways, and reward flights are exluded.
Qatar Airways tends to run such promotions frequently, so hold back from creating an account until you actually plan to fly with them.