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

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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.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

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There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

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American Express Business Gold

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Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

General

Comments (32)

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

  • Lumma says:
    6 Feb6 February 11:48

    Do they use the 747 8 on any of these routes?

  • marcw says:
    6 Feb6 February 12:04

    You can get it cheaper, on some dates, particularly summer, from ZRH or GVA.

  • Bill says:
    6 Feb6 February 12:18

    Great story Rob

  • David says:
    6 Feb6 February 12:23

    Cheaper to fly to Sydney than Beijing – incredible!

    • marcw says:
      6 Feb6 February 12:35

      Makes sense! (fortunately or unfortunately). On EU-China, Air China doesn’t (need) to compete on price (they compete based on product). For other destinations, they need to compete on price.

    • Russ says:
      6 Feb6 February 18:04

      PEK is Air China’s hub and that’s what raises the price. Same with all airlines. Try and get flights which go a bit further than where you want to end up rather than finish at their main hub (two centre break???) . You can usually take a cheap feeder flight back to where you want to be. Same flying out. If you want to fly from an airlines hub without paying their premium start looking for flights with connections i.e. positioning flights to get you to the airlines hub rather than start at their hub. Can knock thousands off the price so worth the effort.

  • Dillo says:
    6 Feb6 February 13:30

    O/T but I guess Christmas-travel related?

    Called Virgin to use the 2-4-1 voucher on flights to Miami at Christmas along with three reward redemption seats. They said I can only use the voucher if I buy a cash ticket, not with a rewards redemption.

    Confused as it clearly says “companion reward ticket in Economy. Spend your miles for a reward booking in Economy and take one companion with you in the same cabin for no additional miles.”

    Anyone have any insight?

    • Gulz says:
      6 Feb6 February 13:46

      MBNA VA 2-4-1 can be used for cash bookings only. Virgin Money 2-4-1 can be used for cash as well as miles bookings.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:
      6 Feb6 February 13:46

      Looks like a classic case where simply hanging up and redialing to talk to a different agent who understands the products better is probably the best course of action.

    • Alan says:
      6 Feb6 February 14:26

      Unfortunately, there seems to be a significant number of employees at the Virgin Call centre who don’t know an awful lot about their products. I have found that the online live chat staff seem to be more knowledgeable – YMMV.

    • Dillo says:
      6 Feb6 February 15:47

      Thanks all, will try again tonight.

  • New Card says:
    6 Feb6 February 13:56

    I heard the other day that I won a “stylish suitcase” in the Live Your Dream promo from Air China which I read about on here a few months ago, so thanks to whoever posted it. Let’s see how stylish it is!

  • TripRep says:
    6 Feb6 February 14:19

    Awesome price for Auckland for Xmas/NY travel

    Would have pulled the trigger on this, one to remember for future reference.

  • KxM says:
    6 Feb6 February 15:15

    Beware. I was booked on a similar fare from FRA to MEL via PVG. They cancelled the PVG MEL route and changed my flight to depart PEK rather than PVG. The trouble is that flight is now the day before my departure from Frankfurt. They have been really unhelpful. I’ve been very polite and asked if they could fly me from London (500 mile rule) as then I can still keep my plans intact. They have refused. They won’t let me have any alternative. Good fare, but awful service. Really, really poor service.

    • Skacel says:
      6 Feb6 February 16:26

      Are you saying the moved the second leg of your ticketed connecting flight to depart prior to the first leg? How is that possible?

    • Nick says:
      6 Feb6 February 23:14

      Who/what/where/why said there’s a ‘500-mile rule’? It’s their rules, their policy, if they don’t have one then you can’t make them. Particularly if by departing the UK you will make them liable to pay £160 tax on your behalf, that’s not really fair.

      BA has a voluntary ‘300km rule’. They choose to do this to be nice, not because they need to.

    • Lady London says:
      9 Feb9 February 20:20

      What is the 500 mile rule and when/where does it apply?

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

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