Good Australia flight deal (£2,400) from Manchester with Cathay Pacific
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Whenever we write about travelling in business class to Australia or New Zealand, we generally suggest cash over Avios.
There are a number of reasons for this:
- cash tickets can often be bizarrely cheap on a £ per hour basis, especially out of Europe – China Eastern is usually selling £1,999 tickets out of Amsterdam for example
- Avios redemptions on British Airways are exceptionally hard to get and are only valid to Sydney
- Avios redemption on Qatar Airways are VERY good value (180,000 Avios return) and offer multiple arrival points across Australia and New Zealand, but again availability can be tight and – adding in taxes and charges – it’s not necessarily a slam dunk versus a good cash deal
This is why the current Cathay Pacific sale is worth flagging. You can check out their website here.
If you depart from Manchester (not London) you can get a return flight to Melbourne, Brisbane or Sydney for £2,400 in business class, based on two travelling.
This is valid for travel between April and June 2025.
Availability is good.
As Cathay Pacific is a member of the oneworld alliance, you can earn Avios and British Airways Executive Club tier points on your ticket. It will be 560 tier points each, return, which is only 40 short of what you need for BA Silver status. (Note, though, that you need four cash BA segments as well as 600 tier points to be promoted to Silver – it can’t be done exclusively on partner airlines.)
Here’s an example
You get the best price when two people travel and you use the code SAVE200GB on the Cathay Pacific website.
This knocks off an additional £100 per person.
Here’s an example, click to enlarge:
As you can see, it is £2,500 per person return (Manchester to Sydney) which is reduced to £2,400 per person with the SAVE200GB code.
Melbourne and Brisbane pricing is very similar.
Rhys’s November 2023 review of Cathay Pacific business class on a Boeing 777 is here.
You can search pricing and dates on the UK Cathay Pacific website here.
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How to maximise your miles when paying for flights (April 2025)
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.
SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold
Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 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
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