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Ex EU – US West Coast from £1278, Honolulu from £1623 business class return
Star Alliance has some great deals to the US but they are very, very limited availability on dates that you can use them. The week starting 6 April 2020 had the best choice I found.
The fares start in Paris which is always a handy starting point for regular flights and regional departures on an ex EU. You can fly on any Star Alliance airline including Swiss, Lufthansa and United.
A selection of US destinations are available:
- New York £1103
- Boston £1283
- Miami £1194
- Las Vegas £1450
- Phoenix £1450
- Honolulu £1623
- New Orleans £1278
- Chicago £1283
- San Francisco £1278
The rules of the fare are:
- Book by: 4 November 2019
- Travel:
- From France – permitted 21 Nov 19 through 29 Nov 19 or 10 Dec 19 through 30 Dec 19 or 6 Apr 20 through 18 Apr 20 for each transatlantic sector.
- To France – permitted 26 Nov 19 through 04 Dec 19 or 23 Dec 19 through 9 Jan 20 or 6 Apr 20 through 18 Apr 20 for each transatlantic sector.
- Minimum stay: Saturday night
- Maximum stay: 3 months
- Transfers: 5 transfers permitted in each direction free
- Stopovers: No
- Refundable: No
- Changeable: No
You can book direct with Lufthansa, Swiss or find the cheapest online travel agent price with Skyscanner.
Sydney from £1678 business class return
There are a couple of very low fares to Australia from Stockholm currently. If you want to know more about starting your journey from Stockholm you can read our guide here.
Air China
The cheapest one is on Air China. However, I would suggest making sure you know what you are getting for your money. I recommend doing some research first by reading a few reviews online. Skytrax only awards Air China 3 out of 5 for their business class compared with Qatar’s score of 5. They are part of Star Alliance, however, if you wanted to earn some miles.
They do have some decent flat seats but they are in a 2-2-2 configuration on the B777 which you can see in the video.
The slight staggering of the B777 seats does make it slightly easier for aisle access as I found out when I flew in these seats on AA transcontinental business class this year. The route uses their B777s and A330s.
The rules of the fare are:
- Book by: 31 December 2019
- Travel: Valid for travel commencing departure of first international sector on/before 31 Aug 20.
- Minimum stay: 6 nights
- Maximum stay: 3 months
- Transfers: Unlimited
- Stopovers: Unlimited stopovers permitted on the pricing unit limited to 2 free and unlimited at €70.00 each. 1 free in China in each direction unlimited at €70.00 each. A stopover may not exceed 144 hours.
- Refundable: No
- Changeable: For a fee
You can book direct with Air China here or find the cheapest online travel agent price with Skyscanner.
Etihad from £1851
The second offer is with Etihad which starts from £1851. The fares is from Stockholm to Sydney. As usual, there is a drawback in why they are so cheap – you have two stops on the way to Australia. However, given the length of the journey, this is not a bad thing. Remember you can always break your journey by up to 24 hours at a transfer airport on any ticket no matter what the stopover restrictions. The flights are with Etihad. Whilst they have had cutbacks recently to business class, I would still regard them as a good airline to fly with.
There are various routeing options including via Heathrow which has The Home lounge that is pretty good. I would advise whichever you choose to try and get the A380 or the B787 as these have Etihad’s best seats – the Business Class Studio – which I think are excellent. You can read my review here.
The rules of the fare are:
- Book by: 24 November 2019
- Travel: Until 31 January 2020
- Minimum stay: 3 nights
- Maximum stay: 4 months
- Transfers: Unlimited
- Stopovers: Unlimited stopovers permitted – limited to 2 free and unlimited at €150.00 each. 1 free in each direction.
- Refundable: No
- Changeable: Yes
You can book direct with Etihad here or find the cheapest online travel agent price with Skyscanner.
