Fly to Dubai for £1,699 in Emirates business class in the January sale

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• The Streets says:

  9 Jan9 January 04:24

  I’m reading reports Emirates have closed their onboard lounge and pre-departure drinks service. I really can’t see the logic

  • Benilyn says:

    9 Jan9 January 10:12

    Correct

    • Blenz101 says:

      9 Jan9 January 10:34

      Covid

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

    9 Jan9 January 10:41

    And their Manchester lounge, but not Heqthrow or Birmingham which remain open.

• BJ says:

  9 Jan9 January 05:49

  Not sure about London but AF/KLM fares given are mostly typical fares exEDI to my knowledge so hardly a sale unless they have got cheaper still from the regions.

• Ryan Gill says:

  9 Jan9 January 08:54

  Any single men entering Stockholm from Thailand, your magic powers to be attractive to the native women will have deserted you.

• David S says:

  9 Jan9 January 09:39

  Can you please tell us more about the Ex Stockholm price war. Who are the other airlines in the price war ?

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 11:14

    Lufthansa / SWISS for 2 people but needs to be booked direct. One traveller pricing should pop up on Skyscanner etc as long as you are booking for at least 7 nights away. Only snag with Expedia etc is that it won’t tell you if the previous / next day would have been far cheaper.

• Tony says:

  9 Jan9 January 09:45

  I was looking at the deep discount EK business class fares last month and they seem to not give access to the lounge and the chauffeur service is off for these, too. No advance seat selection either. Add those in and its another 300pp round trip which could be worth it for the car if you live far enough out.

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

    9 Jan9 January 10:44

    This is true but you can mix fare types outbound and inbound so the ‘special’ fare that doesn’t include seat selection/lounge access/chauffeur isn’t that unattractive for those of us who live near MAN as the lounge is shut anyway and loads seem to be low (re seats).

    • Tony says:

      9 Jan9 January 12:27

      But would you really pay £150 for lounge access in Dubai or maybe £125 if you allow a few pounds for the cab fare? That would pay for far better food & beverage in an airport restaurant assuming they don’t then try to upsell the lounge anyway.

      As is noted, loads remain low so i’d have thought if they don’t want to properly slash fares, offering add ons which have a low marginal cost – so access to any owned lounge but not a 3rd party limo in the uk – would be a far better way if adding value. This just seems tight.

      • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

        9 Jan9 January 12:45

        I would personally. DXB main concourses can be a zoo. I’d rather not be there, during normal times or covid times. There are other elements to the higher fare types, such as increased Skywards, which can then subsequently be multiplied.

• bungalow says:

  9 Jan9 January 11:00

  I’m flying Emirates to Dubai at the end of the month and noticed the free Expo pass on their website. After investigating, it’s probably worth mentioning that if you are over 60 you can currently get a free pass on the Expo website anyway, and it lasts for 3 months until Expo closure end of March. No proof of age to upload on application, just asks for name and email then tickets are emailed immediately. I assume they will just ask for ID proof on entry, I already have mine downloaded to the Expo app.
  Of more value to me is the free Emirates covid insurance cover with any ticket purchase.

• John T says:

  9 Jan9 January 11:03

  Its interesting that even with business travel still decimated, the cost of business class fares have not really reduced for 2022. Surely this whole year demand will be nothing like it was in 2019, so I’m surprised they aren’t tempting leisure travellers to spend more with enticing prices.

  I can’t see business travel ever returning to pre-pandemic levels so would expect some airlines will be reconfiguring their aircraft with less J seats and more Y+ seats as a result.

  • memesweeper says:

    9 Jan9 January 12:34

    and not much to North America… clearly holding out for a firm recovery in that market.

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

    9 Jan9 January 12:42

    Not sure I agree. The virus averse among us are for the first time ever considering paying business prices because of the space and isolation (relative) it affords. IMO the seats will still be filled, just with those who currently double mask while outside (most New York natives) rather than actual ‘flying for work’ business travellers.

    • WaynedP says:

      9 Jan9 January 21:24

      Agree 100%

  • Track says:

    9 Jan9 January 23:37

    It is the new normal.

    Dont expect super-cheap air travel as a result of COVID, push for green, new taxes and increased oil prices.

    Structurally, there are also less flights around, so more pricing power to airlines (who need cash, not just fill the seats at negative full economic cost).

    What airlines can do better is to open more seats for redemption: since they treat loyalty programs as a separate business asset. The more liability (issued points) they remove, the less will overhang in the future — to give ability to issue new points.

    • Nick says:

      10 Jan10 January 00:19

      Premium air fares will stay relatively high for a few reasons:
      – Like a lot of companies, airlines want to make some lost money back, so fares must be kept high
      – Opportunistic jumping on the ‘inflation’ bandwagon. A lot of companies – particularly in the UK – are trying to hike prices even if it’s not justified in their sectors because ‘everyone is doing it’. BA certainly is
      – Airlines believe (possibly mistakenly, possibly not) that demand will be high because people ‘need’ to go away, so fares don’t need to be competitive
      – Everyone books last minute now. Advance purchases even for leisure are way down, and the majority book max 1-2 months out, so they need to keep seats free to sell closer to the time. Prices will go down later if this doesn’t materialise but it means (for example) that sale fares don’t need to be overly attractive
      – Certain costs are high – and rising. e.g. HAL’s cost escalators need to be paid for somehow – airlines are trying to pass it on to the consumer rather than eat it themselves

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