Good British Airways business class fares to Australia from Oslo

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• James says:

  26 Mar26 March 09:24

  It is if you’re buying the avios. If you are collecting them through ypur normal expenditure, whatever that may be, it’s not uneconomical at all.

  • Christian Harris says:

    26 Mar26 March 09:30

    If you have a 241 voucher and GUF2 it’s even better – we did this in October last year to SYD

  • Mike says:

    26 Mar26 March 12:27

    Completely agree James

    • RIccati says:

      27 Mar27 March 03:50

      Opportunity cost. Economic option.

      E.g., can collect hotel points instead of Avios and redeem with much better availability.

      Use saved cash (if hotel booked on points) to purchase a Business Class ticket.

  • Ralphy says:

    26 Mar26 March 13:56

    http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1735484-lounge-meet-up-2016-master-thread.html

    Hi Polly. It pays to be a member and have asked done questions our contributed. We offered CCR it when we flew to Beijing last year so reciprocation helps too. Good luck!

  • Ralphy says:

    26 Mar26 March 13:57

    Exactly, we all know the base line value but intrinsically they are worth more to certain individuals in certain circumstances

  • RIccati says:

    27 Mar27 March 03:42

    James, even if you are collecting with ‘the usual spending’ — the cost becomes opportunity cost.

    The real unpleasant surprise comes when you try to redeem — the inconvenient dates/flight times (if at all available) trigger other arrangements and costs. Then, you have to add hard cash amount of above £500 for taxes (on top of £2500 worth of Avios at 1p per point).

    With cash, you are pretty much FREE to shop around/await for sales from ME carriers.

    It makes much more economic sense to accumulate hotel points where you know there is much better availability to redeem them (Starwood guarantees it if there is room for cash). Granted you can spend Avios on hotels and get some deals at 1.33p value.

• Stuart says:

  26 Mar26 March 09:27

  Would a 241 voucher make it economical in your opinion?

  • Rob says:

    26 Mar26 March 10:06

    Better, yes – should get nearer 1p per point

    • Louie says:

      26 Mar26 March 10:25

      Working on the basis of the £2,220 fare mentioned in the article and using the actual figures for taxes in my last 2-4-1 redemption to Sydney, I make it just about 1.25p per point if travelling off peak, ignoring the cost of getting to and from Norway..

• James Ward says:

  26 Mar26 March 09:34

  Don’t forget to check other airlines’ prices too. Earlier this year, during a Qatar sale, I snagged OSL-MEL in Qatar’s biz class for £1,096. Dates were wide open. Check out Rob’s reviews of Qatar – a way better product than BA’s Club World. https://headforpoints.com/category/qatar-and-qatar-privilege-club/

  • Leo says:

    26 Mar26 March 11:14

    I know I’m on my own here but I didn’t take to Qatar at all for all sorts of reasons many of which are entirely subjective. We are having a punch-up with them regarding my O/H’s avios and TPs for the journey home. Mine went through ok. I’d rather go Finnair via Helsinki next time than this Oslo route to Asia (granted probably not Oz) because your “positioning” flight is included in the price, your luggage etc is checked through and you have the protection of them looking after you if you miss a flight or your bags go astray. As of next year you will also have the use of a refreshed Cathay Lounge and a new Qantas lounge to use from T3. I can’t argue with the price you paid though!

    • Brian says:

      26 Mar26 March 15:52

      Finnair has better flight length times, too – you can get a proper night’s sleep, which isn’t really possible on the Qatar flights. But the Qatar in-flight product is wonderful, if you can get the 787. Not so keen on the A380. I’ve only ever got to Doha at an ungodly hour, so the range of food and facilities in the lounge there is not of much use to me – I just want to sit and sleep!

      • Leo says:

        26 Mar26 March 16:34

        I agree with all of that and yes I think the 787 is the better product. The a380 bar was very quiet on the evening flight out of Doha and totally dead on the night flight DOH-LHR. I felt a bit sorry for the crew standing glumly at the bar!

• Kathy says:

  26 Mar26 March 10:00

  Ha! Yeah, ok, because we can all afford to fork out £2k on a flight.

  Some of us play the Avios game because it’s the only way we can afford to fly business. Just because it’s cheaper to fly ex-EU doesn’t mean it’s affordable.

  I priced up the ex-OSL fares during the Qatar sale, including positioning flights, extra hotel nights, and the extra time I’d need to take off work, and decided to stick to my original very long-term Avios plan.

  • Yuff says:

    26 Mar26 March 10:18

    It depends on how good the ex-eu sale is and also your own personal circumstances.
    Personally I would rather travel via Oslo, to MLE, in business and Qatar J than BA direct in economy.
    It may take a day longer to get there and the same, on the return, but I’m looking forward to the flights next Friday whereas if I was travelling in economy a) I probably wouldn’t be going and b) I wouldn’t be looking forward to it 😉

    • Tina says:

      27 Mar27 March 09:42

      Flying via a European hub has the added bonus of additional avios and TPs. 🙂

      • Kathy says:

        27 Mar27 March 12:38

        The additional Avios are nice, but TPs are only useful if you are a frequent flyer. Leisure-only fliers don’t build up enough of them, and are not flying frequently enough to make use of status perks.

        That said I am doing an ex-CPH to New York this week, so maybe I’ll be charmed enough by the experience that I’ll be a convert.

  • RIccati says:

    27 Mar27 March 03:57

    There were literally £600 fares on Qatar from OSL to SIN, in Business. Wide availability and were there for couple weeks.

    Make yourself a stopover and continue to SYD/MEL in Economy.

    Under £1,000 in total, all published fares.

    • Polly says:

      27 Mar27 March 06:24

      Absolutely Ricatti, wide availability. And as paul said fly from the UK to Bergen or STV as it’s only 4.5k avios… No brainer. You can fly out am, leave your bags in their lockers, head into the city on the metro or bus, so save on hotels. A long day, but the QR flights leave that night so plenty of time to sleep. It’s hassle, but def we found it worth it, and enjoyed the extra day either end. Think we got KUL for around £700. A no brainer,mand saved the F avios for another trip later on to HKG >Bali.

  • RIccati says:

    27 Mar27 March 04:02

    — Some of us play the Avios game because it’s the only way we can afford to fly business. Just because it’s cheaper to fly ex-EU doesn’t mean it’s affordable.

    In this way, BA caught you. You are spending the same value £2500+ worth of Avios plus £500+ for taxes for the seat that no one else wants 🙂

    I can compare it to purchasing an expensive handset on ‘subsidised’ plan — over 24-36 months you spend more in total (compared to purchasing the handset for cash + optimal calling plan for 10-15 quid).

    • Kathy says:

      27 Mar27 March 12:40

      Yes, but this is why being rich is less expensive than being poor!

• vlcnc says:

  26 Mar26 March 11:19

  Agree with James above. No way I would pay hard cash to travel on BA business to Australia when infinitely superior yet cheaper product when on sale and can be found on QR which also earns you BA miles and tier points. They are also now flying to Sydney as well as Melbourne, with Adelaide soon to be launching (Perth has been flown for a while). I experienced QRs excellent service in February to Melbourne from Copenhagen (stayed in Malmö for the weekend before flying) and it really is THAT good!

  • James Ward says:

    26 Mar26 March 11:55

    Indeed. If you see the European connection as an opportunity rather than a hassle, it can work out great. I flew ARN-PER, MEL-ARN last month (again, QR biz class, for £1,450). I was able to schedule the flights so that partner and I could have a weekend break in Stockholm together before I headed off to Aus.

    • Leo says:

      26 Mar26 March 12:55

      Is it an “opportunity” though? For a start you have to have a partner who is willing to see it as such (well unless you’re single)!!! When flying back from Oz the last thing I’d want after a schlep through Doha in the middle of the night is a mini-break in Oslo….or some other Scandi destination!

      • James Ward says:

        26 Mar26 March 13:07

        Doha’s a great place to break the journey. Fantastic lounge and good departure times for a morning arrival back to Scandinavia. Must admit the extra leg back to the UK (without a stopover) was a drag, but living in the north of England I’d have to make a connecting flight from LHR anyway, if travelling BA.

        • Leo says:

          26 Mar26 March 14:03

          I wasn’t that excited to be in Al Mourjan lounge bleary eyed in the middle of the night last week!

        • Yuff says:

          26 Mar26 March 17:39

          Neither would I, that’s why we’re booked into the HIA hotel opposite the lounge 😉

• vlcnc says:

  26 Mar26 March 11:23

  Also should add if you have RFS or paid connecting positioning flight with any oneworld carrier they will be happy to check through your luggage to your final destination if you ask at check-in. I did this on the way back from Melbourne and had a connecting BA flight to London and the QR check-in staff were happy to oblige and said they were used to this request. Also thanks to Rob for the sale tip off – was a fantastic experience and now I am BA Silver! 😀

  • JamesLHR says:

    26 Mar26 March 12:27

    Correct, oneworld has an internal policy that any oneworld/oneworld connection, even on separate tickets is treated and a single through ticket, including for mis-connections. This means that your bag is through checked your final destination. The only requirement is that it has to be a legal connection and therefore abide by the minimum connection time (MCT) for the transit airport.

    • Lady London says:

      26 Mar26 March 13:11

      Well just don’t ask LAN to do this then.

      They just flatly refused to do this for me even when asked politely and referring to this OneWorld policy 2 weeks ago today. While they flatly refused to check my luggage through on the connecting flight I showed to them, they then decided they would check in great detail that I had adhered to every other rule. such as a 3K handbag, 8K hand luggage, 23K checked luggage. This required quite some rearrangement of my luggage and extra fees. which were quite substantial.

      BA also refused to check my luggage at LHR to CPH checkin when I showed them my separate QR ticket connecting to Oz same day.

      so OneWorld airlines are not cooperating with each other, whatever the OneWorld rules say, however politely the passenger asks.

      Only means I’ll try to fly more on QR in future, and dump BA wherever possible. I won’t take that chance agai. Unfortunately my trips to South American won’t be on LAN now either.. I’m very sad about that as other than their contract ground staff LAN were a nice flight and I would otherwise have really wanted to fly with them again..

      Perhaps at the end the contracted ground staff got some comfort from the fact that I asked them to sign a note confirming they had denied me lounge access on a flight connecting to a business flight (albeit) on a separate ticket) and declined to check my luggage through on a same day flight on another OneWorld carrier. I said I planned to take this up with OneWorld. I suspect however that OneWorld will be toothless in sorting this and I will get nowhere.

      • Brian says:

        26 Mar26 March 15:55

        But it sounds as if they did check through your luggage and simply charged you for the excess. Which may not be very nice, but is perfectly legitimate – after all, you ought to expect to be charged for taking more luggage than the free allowance…

      • Polly says:

        26 Mar26 March 17:18

        What a shame you had those bad experiences. Word of mouth can affect sales, but then BA don’t seem to care, nor now do LAN. We have found QRstaff to be very helpful every time. We didn’t let them check our bags straight back to LHR as we wanted to try to get en earlier flight back to LHR, which we did in the end. BA check in staff very flexible at CPH. Well, they are Danish and very friendly. So all went well. But it’s a good way to travel if you can bear the DOH layover. Our last trip was cut short, had to come home earlier, so we ended up on an 8hr plus layover, so were brought to and from their nice hotel downtown, Oryx, in a limo, which really helped. I know we discuss this at length about these long layovers, but if you have the time, that and the city visits do mix it up a bit. Def would head to OZ via that routing.

    • Callum says:

      26 Mar26 March 17:28

      More specifically, an unenforced internal policy. Airlines are free to ignore it without penalty, as they often do.

    • Ed says:

      26 Mar26 March 18:23

      Interview interesting comment re missed connections. Is this written down somewhere?

    • Ed says:

      26 Mar26 March 18:23

      Very interesting comment re missed connections. Is this written down somewhere?

    • Alan says:

      27 Mar27 March 08:13

      Have you seen that published anywhere? It was only AA that I’d seen in writing re Oneworld connections. I know people that even BA to BA on different tickets had a bit of a struggle…

• Ali says:

  26 Mar26 March 11:44

  I have just booked the misses and our one year old via this route to Melbourne, total cost £6200 for the little one to have his own seat all the way. Flights to Oslo £120 and we can get a free hotel for a night, have a look around then fly back the next day for the long haul. Sounds like a nightmare but when you treat it like a little break and then know you are getting the luxury of business all the way onward I think it’s worth the hassle.
  Also, to book us in premium economy flying direct from LHR was coming in at over £6500, so totally worth it!

• Adrian Bennett says:

  26 Mar26 March 14:16

  Rob, you say
  “A travel agent, or possibly even Expedia if it is playing ball, should be able to book you Oslo – Heathrow – Singapore – Sydney – Perth – Brisbane for example at no extra cost apart from any taxes, with the extra segments being on Qantas”, is this the kind of thing that Dan can do at Propeller? thanks Adrian

  • Rob says:

    26 Mar26 March 20:08

    Yes, Propeller can do this – not 100% sure if they have BA ticketing ability back yet but worth checking.

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