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Some Qatar Airways Business Class sale deals I missed – from £696

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Yesterday I wrote a long piece on the latest business class sale deals from Qatar Airways.  This was offering exceptional fares from as low as £751.

When I researched that article I only looked at the ‘usual suspects’, ie the Netherlands and Scandinavia.  As it turns out, there are also good deals to be had out of France and Belgium.

Qatar A350

Paris

Out of Paris (this page shows the headline business fares from Paris CDG) the stand-out deal seems to be Tokyo at €1,445 (£1,027).

This is cheaper than all of the other departure points for Tokyo I listed yesterday.  Given how quick and easy it is to get to CDG, this is a great deal if you’ve ever wanted to visit Japan – especially as the sale period covers the Spring ‘cherry blossom’ period.

The Maldives out of Paris is €1,520 (£1,080) which is not as good as the £816 deal from Oslo, but easier for anyone who does not have an easy connection to Oslo from a local airport.  Bali is €1,625 from Paris (£1,155).

Abu Dhabi is €1,250 (£888) which, again, is a little more than the best deal I found yesterday but may be more convenient.

Brussels

The ease of getting to Brussels on Eurostar – your ticket even includes the connection to the airport for free – means that this is another interesting option.

The best deals, summarised here, seem to be Dubai / Sharjah / Ras Al Khaimah at €980 (£696).

This is attractive as a British Airways tier point run, as you pick up 400 tier points for the return trip.

Have we ever seen business class tickets to the Middle East from Western Europe under £700 before?!

As a reminder, here are the fare rules for the current offers:

Book by November 6th

Travel between January 15th and June 30th 2016

Minimum stay 7 days, maximum stay 1 month

All of the Paris deals are summarised here.  The Brussels deals are here.  My listing of special fares from Amsterdam and Scandinavia which ran yesterday is here.


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Comments (43)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • James says:

    Good lord. If I were flying anything other than EY F for my coming redemption to Dubai I would be cancelling and booking this.

  • Scott says:

    Good thing about the Middle East fare is that minimum stay is only three nights as the flight from DOH-DXB is considered First. Booked a nice long weekend from Brussels

  • Idrive says:

    These require such a good timing, quick decision making…and it is so difficult to take decisions on the spot with no firm plans:-( and no big time! I would need at least the weekend but this is ending on Friday.. What to do?

  • oyster says:

    Do the middle east first class connections include access to the new F lounge in Doha?

    • Scott says:

      Yep should do on the outbound. Not sure about the inbound as you are connecting to Business?

    • Rob says:

      Yes, on the way out. Not on way back as it is based on the class you connect to AFAIK.

  • Pawel says:

    what about ALG-PHL om a350 its under 800GBP

    • Rob says:

      I try to focus on ones with easy positioning – you can’t complain about the price though.

  • Ian says:

    Someone noted on FT yesterday that you can book Sofia-Dubai for £580 rt. Ok, it’s not round the corner, but still…

    • Rob says:

      Need to be careful you don’t drop under 2,000 miles to Doha or you would not get long haul tier points. And, hey, Sofia ….?!

      • Ian says:

        2001 miles, apparently. *Just* squeezes in.

      • Brian says:

        What does ‘hey, Sofia’ imply? That it’s too far from London or that you wouldn’t be seen dead in the city? If the former, it’s a three-hour flight, so only an hour more than Oslo – some might feel that’s worth it if the onward flight is cheap enough. If the latter, it may not have the cultural variety of Dubai and the other Middle Eastern cities some people like to frequent, but it is an interesting city nevertheless…

        • Rob says:

          It was mainly around the fact that Sofia is not a convenient connection for most people in the UK. I accept that I have no knowledge of whether Sofia Airport is a decent place to spend a few hours.

          • Brian says:

            Okay. I was thinking in terms of Sofia being interesting for a stopover for a night – given the uncertainty, I would usually only do an ex-EU if I could stay a night in the starting-point.

  • Jason says:

    Hi James67,
    Thought I’d reply to your post, on yesterday’s sale thread, here as its not so long.
    Haven’t made a decision yet, although about to email travel agent.
    I can get decent flights for the times we want st the moment. Yes I was happy with original plans but it just means switching the holidays round and it also means I might not waste a 241 I was probably not going to be able to use.
    I was hoping for a £1k sale fare ex eu to MLE, so £700 ish is too difficult an opportunity to potentially give up. I’ll know more later today.
    If I did change it may mean BA F direct to Dubai rather than current Qatar to Dubai via doh, on a380, which is not a bad substitution.( if I can get 4 seats in F)

    • James67 says:

      Good luck with it. You could also check BA to AUH if DXB isn’t available. I think Rob posted they are now flying 787-9 to AUH. Try to establish good relatio ship with travel agent, probably best to chat to them directly than email. They and hotel too would be wise to accommodate you rather than risk losing the business.

      • Jason says:

        Thanks James,
        I’ve used agent the last 4 years to Dubai and she has said as long as I re-book 10 weeks prior, to our stay in April, we can switch the deposit.
        Have also managed to get 241’s in F every year, so hopefully it may work out better.
        Just have to try and switch a London Hilton non redeemable booking now, hopefully they’ll be forgiving as I’m going to spend 760k Hilton points by changing it…..fingers crossed.

        • James67 says:

          Sounds like you are getting resultsand everything falling into place. I don’t do much with Hilton these days, had too many disappointments. If you get no joy with regular customer care then worth a shot with head office. That worked for me when I had a hilton stay I really needed to be hilton turn into an ihg stay when the old hilton wembley changed hands.

          • Jason says:

            Hi James67,
            Hilton changed, deposit to be re-used in Dubai next October, 4 flights Oslo to MLE booked 39462 NOK….bargain …. plus 2 nights in HIA hotel in Doha. Hopefully on Qatar but can’t complain if I have to pay.
            All I need now is BA availability next October for Dubai.
            Thanks for your help.

          • James67 says:

            I’m sure you already know the date the seats should be released so just check as soon as possible that day. I have no idea how many seats BA usually release but I would imagine more on AUH than DXB.

          • Rob says:

            Not so sure. There was, a couple of weeks ago, a mass release of Dubai seats for Easter next year as I mentioned in the comments at the time. Abu Dhabi tends to see more seats open up earlier.

            Worth noting that the Abu Dhabi is often the earliest Dubai / AUH departure from Heathrow. Unless you want to arrive in Dubai near midnight, getting the Abu Dhabi flight makes more sense.

          • Polly says:

            Hi Jason, your hotel will probably covered by QR if your layover is over 8 hrs, which is a nice bonus if they pay. Your MLE trip sounds great. It’s on our bucket list.

  • Mogensen says:

    I regularly pay 200-300 pounds for a 25 min. economy class jump r/t between aar-cph flight in an old ATR72 aircraft with SAS. These QR fares are incredible! Got mine secured yesterday…

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