Book £750 business class flights to Bangkok

News in brief:

£750 business class tickets to Bangkok

I have devoted quiet a bit of coverage recently to exceptionally cheap Qatar Airways flights to Asia from Europe, often sub £800.  There is nothing available at the moment, however.

Turkish Airlines has stepped into the breach.

For trips completed by December 15th, for departures from Copenhagen, Stockholm or Oslo, you can fly to Bangkok in business class for as little as £750 return.

Turkish Airlines is working hard at the moment to keep up with the Middle East ‘big three’.  Their lounges in Istanbul are meant to be excellent and I have heard good things about their onboard service.  Turkish is a member of Star Alliance so you would earn miles in Miles & More, MileagePlus or a similar programme.

Note that the first leg may be on a short-haul plane, albeit that it is only a three hour flight.  You should also check which planes are used on the long-haul leg and exactly what business class seating you should expect.

In my price tests, Stockholm to Bangkok was coming up as £758.  Copenhagen was £897 and Oslo £822.

The best thing to do is have a play around on the Turkish Airlines website here and see what comes up.

These fares are meant to be available for booking until June 21st.

East Coast Rewards points can now be converted to Virgin Flying Club miles

I am pleased to say that Virgin East Coast is now allowing you to redeem your remaining East Coast Rewards points for Virgin Flying Club miles.

As I wrote recently, I recently redeemed most of my points for two First Class train tickets but had 36 points left over.  I was faced with redeeming these for (36 x 6 =) 216 Nectar points, worth £1.08.

I can now transfer them to Virgin Flying Club where I can hopefully get double the value.

Obviously in my case the extra value is minimal.  If you have larger balances – or, more relevantly, don’t want a Nectar account – Virgin Flying Club now offers a decent alternative to empty out your balance.

More details are on the Virgin East Coast website here.

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)