If you are willing to take the risk that tensions in the Gulf don’t escalate further, there are some good bargains to be had in the Qatar Flash sale on ex EU tickets. You can, of course, get BAEC tier points and Avios on Qatar. In fact, one return flight in business class to Asia on Qatar would almost get you to BAEC Silver, with 560 tier points. Add in one way of your positioning flights in Club Europe and you are Silver if you also have done 4 BA flights in total.
If you have never done an Ex EU flight you can read my guide here. In my opinion, Qatar has one of the best business class products around, especially with the new Qsuites which are available on one flight a day to and from London (QR8/9). If you have never flown Qatar the following reviews will give you an idea of the great experience you can expect:
Business class B787 and A350 Ex EU
Business class A319 regional
Business class A319 and B777 to Auckland
In this post:
The sale details
- Book by midnight on 23rd August
- Travel period: 31 March 2018. All travel must be completed by 31 March 2018.
UK sale fares
The fares in the UK sale are really not worth bothering with unless you are prepared to pay substantially more for a UK departure. Probably due to the weakness of the pound, the prices are some of the worst I have seen in a Qatar sale. However, it does mean that you don’t have to worry about positioning, especially given the ongoing BA strike. It also means you can use the rather luxurious Qatar lounge if you are travelling from Heathrow. As they don’t have a separate First class lounge, the standard is above what you would normally get in a business-class lounge.
One way to lower the cost is to try adding accommodation which I used to get extra money off during one of the previous sales. You may be able to get a lower price by including just 1 nights’ accommodation, as I discussed in this article.
The best fares are:
- Bali £2238
- Bangkok £1911
- Hong Kong £2269
- Krabi £2149
- Singapore £2326
The UK sale page is here
Ex EU sale
Although the dip in the pound against the Euro is not helping the prices in general, there are still some great bargains to be had. One thing to consider is how easy it is to position to your destination as some of the better prices may be from cities that have limited flights or require a connection to get to. This puts more risk into your ex EU trip so it may be worth paying slightly more for another starting point that is simpler to get to. Also, be careful on the aircraft types, as some of the starting points use regional aircraft rather than long haul to and from Doha.
Sarajevo is offering some great deals when the route launches on 31st October 2017 but it will take around 4 hours to get to Sarajevo as there are no direct flights. However return economy flights are around £180 to Sarajevo, so from an economic point of view, it may make sense.
| Destination | Price | From | Other cheap options |
| Bali/Denpasar (DPS) | £ 1,595.00 | Zagreb | |
| Bangkok (BKK) | £ 1,222.00 | Helsinki | Zagreb, Pisa |
| Beijing (PEK) | £ 1,402.00 | Belgrade | Zagreb |
| Cape Town (CPT) | £ 1,380.00 | Sarajevo | |
| Columbo | £ 1,228.00 | Sarajevo | |
| Delhi | £ 1,191.00 | Sarajevo | Skopje |
| Guangzhou | £ 1,022.00 | Sarajevo | |
| Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) | £ 1,599.00 | Sarajevo | |
| Hong Kong (HKG) | £ 1,400.00 | Sarajevo | Zagreb, Belgrade |
| Johannesburg (JNB) | £ 1,305.00 | Sarajevo | Belgrade |
| Krabi (KBV) | £ 1,344.00 | Helsinki | Belgium |
| Kuala Lumpur (KUL) | £ 1,440.00 | Sarajevo | Zagreb |
| Maldives (MLE) | £ 1,388.00 | Sarajevo | Zagreb |
| Melbourne (MEL) | £ 1,989.00 | Skopje | |
| Perth (PER) | £ 1,622.00 | Skopje | |
| Phuket (HKT) | £ 1,329.00 | zagreb | Brussels |
| Seychelles | £ 1,503.00 | zagreb | |
| Shanghai (PVG) | £ 1,022.00 | Sarajevo | Sofia |
| Singapore (SIN) | £ 1,351.00 | Sarajevo | Zagreb, Skopje |
| Sydney (SYD) | £ 1,999.00 | Skopje | |
| Tokyo (NRT) | £ 1,595.00 | Zagreb | Budapest |
| Zanzibar | £ 1,145.00 | Sarajevo | Bucharest |
