Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Book Christmas in Australia and New Zealand for £1,480 with Air China business class

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

It’s Chinese New Year, and Air China has rolled out its Business Class deals again.  Many European destinations are included, but from Germany there are always some especially aggressive deals.

I’m not sure why Germany always gets the best offers but, year in and year out, it does.  I can’t see any deals from London yet, looking at the UK Air China site.

How cheap is cheap?

How about £1,480 in Australasia in Business Class – including over Christmas?

Here is the full list of prices, departing Frankfurt, Munich or Dusseldorf in Business Class:

Around the €1,318 level (£1,150):

  • Bangkok
  • Hong Kong
  • Taipei
  • Phuket
  • Tokyo
  • Osaka
  • Seoul
  • Singapore
  • Ho Chi Minh City
  • Jakarta
  • Manila
  • Kuala Lumpur
  • Hanoi
  • Yangon
  • Busan
  • Fukuoka
  • Nagoya
  • Sendai
  • Hiroshima
  • Okinawa

Around the €1,717 level (£1,500):

  • Beijing
  • Shanghai
  • Wenzhou
  • Fuzhou
  • Hangzhou
  • Guangzhou
  • Xiamen
  • Chengdu
  • Shenzhen
  • Nanjing
  • Xi’an
  • Shenyang

Around the €1,687 level (£1,480):

  • Sydney
  • Melbourne
  • Auckland

You must book by Sunday 10th February although availability tends to disappear more quickly than that.

Outbound travel dates for the Business Class sale are:

  • 2nd April to 21st April
  • 28th May to 24th June
  • 28th June to 23rd August
  • 14th December to 31st December

You cannot return

  • during September (€1318 and €1687 list)
  • 1st July to 15th August and 25th September to 2nd October (€1717 list)

Air China is part of Star Alliance so you could (depending on which booking class the ticket books into) earn miles and status credit with Lufthansa Miles & More or one of the other Star programmes.  Use wheretocredit.com to find the most generous programme – you are probably looking for ‘R’ class earning which is typically 125% of miles flown.  

I know very little about Air China, so do some research on what planes are flying which route and what kind of seating if will offer.  A typical Air China business class is pictured below.

Air China business class

Some flights use brand new A350-900 aircraft with this impressive 1-2-1 layout:

Air China A350 business class

Last year reader Joel reviewed the Air China Boeing 777 business class service from Heathrow to Beijing for us – see here.

If you don’t have a credit card with 0% foreign exchange fees, your best option for paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers triple points – 3 per £1 – when you book flight tickets in a foreign currency.  This is because the transaction triggers the ‘double points for airline spend’ and the ‘double points for foreign spend’ bonuses.  Our review of Amex Gold is here.

These deals end on Sunday 10th February.

best credit card to use when buying flights

How to maximise your miles when paying for flights (September 2024)

Some UK credit cards offer special bonuses when used for buying flights. If you spend a lot on airline tickets, using one of these cards could sharply increase the credit card points you earn.

Booking flights on any airline?

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold earns double points (2 Membership Rewards points per £1) when used to buy flights directly from an airline website.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points. These would convert to 20,000 Avios or various other airline or hotel programmes. The standard earning rate is 1 point per £1.

You can apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

Buying flights on British Airways?

The British Airways Premium Plus American Express card earns double Avios (3 Avios per £1) when used at ba.com.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 30,000 Avios. The standard earning rate is 1.5 Avios per £1.

You do not earn bonus Avios if you pay for BA flights on the free British Airways American Express card or either of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards.

You can apply here.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

Buying flights on Virgin Atlantic?

Both the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard and the annual fee Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard earn double Virgin Points when used at fly.virgin.com.

This means 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 on the free card and 3 Virgin Points per £1 on the paid card.

There is a sign-up bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points on the free card and 18,000 Virgin Points on the paid card.

You can apply for either of the cards here.

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Category

General

Comments (32)

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

  • Grace says:
    6 Feb6 February 18:19

    I flew this route at Xmas 2 years ago. Flight itself was ok with comfy seat, loads of room. Entertainment system was awful, food terrible, in fact I got food poisoning. Poor choice of wines & spirit.
    However, cheapest business class prices and seats / room worth it.

    • Irrilius says:
      6 Feb6 February 19:22

      I flew the route about a year ago. I didn’t mind the food or drink onboard but the food in the lounge at Beijing was truly awful as was the entertainment system. I’d definitely recommend bringing a tablet/laptop loaded with movies. It’s totally worth it for the price though. I’m flying to AKL next month and have been holding out for a deal like this. Absolutely gutted that the sale dates don’t start until April!

    • Jamie says:
      7 Feb7 February 13:11

      Interesting comments. I flew LHR-PEK-SIN on a promo fare and was very disappointed with the IFE and food. The vegetarian meal on both legs was distinctly poor.
      I tried them again two days ago (landed in SIN yesterday). I was very surprised the food from Heathrow was exactly the same – I had thought they would have at least have changed the menu.
      This time though, the crew seemingly didn’t know how to heat it; I suspect they rushed it as we departed late and wanted to make up for it.
      The garlic bread came shortly after the starter. It had been defrosted but not cooked – soggy white stuff.
      The main meal came out later but was also cold…The crew were nice and friendly but couldn’t understand what I was saying.
      I decided to sent it back in the end and slept.

      A few hours later I noticed on the menu they actually have a “dine on demand” option – the crew got me the regular vegetarian option which was cooked right, but it was plain pasta with blue cheese melted on top. No other ingredients, e.g. vegetables to compliment. Quite poor.

      I noticed the PEK-SIN flight does not have any vegetarian option on the menu, so you must book a special meal in advance (which in my case looked like a gluten-free vegan meal). No vegetarian options in the lounge.

  • Grace says:
    6 Feb6 February 18:20

    I flew this route at Xmas 2 years ago. The flight itself was ok with comfy seat, loads of room. Entertainment system was awful, food terrible, in fact I got food poisoning. Poor choice of wines & spirit.
    However, cheapest business class prices and seats / room worth it.

  • William says:
    6 Feb6 February 18:26

    OT – Amex Plat Shangri-la Jade still pending for over a month?

    • roger says:
      6 Feb6 February 20:07

      mine pending for 3 weeks now

      • APPL says:
        6 Feb6 February 23:39

        I was in the same situation recently. Not much help from Amex, but emailed Shangri -La, and had it sorted, and upgraded to Jade within 12 hours. Was quite impressed.
        I think the issue might be on Amex side, as it is still showing as pending there.

  • Harry Hv says:
    6 Feb6 February 20:38

    OT – are you going to report on BA’s new enhancement, to skip cabin-cleaning at outstations?

    • Rob says:
      6 Feb6 February 23:20

      No, because it isn’t true. It was a one week test to see how much time it saved if it was done during periods of disruption in any attempt to get back on schedule.

  • spoza says:
    7 Feb7 February 10:05

    Thanks for heads up. Just booked, on German site, 2 business class tickets, FRA – SYD outbound Dec 15th return Jan 12th. Total cost £3005 half of what UK site offered for the same flights.

    • ChrisW says:
      8 Feb8 February 10:28

      Same here, my wife and I are off to Melbourne for Xmas and New Year from FRA. Really good price and with added extra of sightseeing in Beijing during the wait. Has anyone got any recommendation on the best company to book a tour with during the 12 hour stop over at the airport?

      • Horatio says:
        8 Feb8 February 14:37

        Yup – Munich to Auckland over Xmas and New Year for £1,450pp. Great price. We did a Beijing layover to SYD in December 2017 and used Tour-Beijing.com who were great

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

SPECIAL OFFER: Get 10,000 Avios with the free Barclaycard until 26th September 2024!

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET POINTS WORTH 10,500 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points (converts to 20,000 Avios) with 'first year free' American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!