Business Class Great offers

[nestor81]

any great sites offering good business deals for asia sectors.

 

[Pvcmenace]

bestflights.com.au seems to be good!

 

[Dalescott]

Got a price from Bestflights, went to my TA and asked if they could match or better it. Was told that they could not and would not match it. TA told me the prices on bestflight are bulls...t, and they will add all sorts of extra costs on to the website pricing.
Can anybody advise me of this cost extras.

 

[rechoboam]

Just run the booking through and see what it comes to when it's time to pay. What can they add after that?
My TA is happy to take my screen cap from bestflights and book it for me, he gets the commission instead of them but otherwise it's the best price. Perhaps there was a code or routing your TA wasn't aware of yet?

My 2c is that I would be reluctant to use these sites. I once made a booking and decided to cancel it immediately after in favour of a different upgradable fare (it hadn't been ticketed yet). It took an hour to get through on the phone then got cut off, another hour,and web chat wouldn't work. I use my TA or often book on the QF website (for points plus pay etc). Even with my 'status' I get through to QF by phone straight away if needed. In a pinch I would not want QF making me contact bestflights or webjet to sort stuff out.

 

[yohy?!]

Malaysia has some decent J fares to Asia at present

Five-star Value on Flights from Australia with Deals of the Day | Malaysia Airlines

 

[Cruiser Elite]

FWIW - I have used Best Flights a dozen times for both J flights for myself and Y flights for some of our Chinese staff - never a hiccup.

Most of the flights have been to and from China - but have used them for Manila and Jakarta flights also.

I printed out a Best Flights quote to Shanghai recently with MU return in J for $2300 - I gave it to Flight Centre and after 2 days they also were able to secure same flights at same price.

Funny thing is the Flight Centre chick I use regularly also made disparaging comments about BF - maybe they are just being a little too sucessful.

But here is the 4 step process I employ with BF:
1. Search your flights and choose the intenerary and price online that suits you best.
2 Call BF and confirm with a rep that the flight you selected is indeed available at the time and price your online search indicates.
3. Book either via their online engine or book with the rep over phone.
4. Day after booking call the airline DIRECTLY and confirm ALL details with them.

Step 4 the most important here - if there appears to be a problem it can be nailed quickly.

Best of luck.

 

[rechoboam]

FWIW - I have used Best Flights a dozen times for both J flights for myself and Y flights for some of our Chinese staff - never a hiccup.

Most of the flights have been to and from China - but have used them for Manila and Jakarta flights also.

I printed out a Best Flights quote to Shanghai recently with MU return in J for $2300 - I gave it to Flight Centre and after 2 days they also were able to secure same flights at same price.

Funny thing is the Flight Centre chick I use regularly also made disparaging comments about BF - maybe they are just being a little too sucessful.

But here is the 4 step process I employ with BF:
1. Search your flights and choose the intenerary and price online that suits you best.
2 Call BF and confirm with a rep that the flight you selected is indeed available at the time and price your online search indicates.
3. Book either via their online engine or book with the rep over phone.
4. Day after booking call the airline DIRECTLY and confirm ALL details with them.

Step 4 the most important here - if there appears to be a problem it can be nailed quickly.

Best of luck.

I'll be honest with you- I hate call centres. I work in an environment where I literally can't use the telephone (other than a quick SMS) potentially for hours on end and I end up waiting days or longer to get anything done that requires being on hold. So I do everything I can to avoid them. I go to best flights, get flight numbers, dates and codes, and email them to our corporate agent - whose usual leisure travel bookings are zillion-dollar cruises for millionaires, but who doesn't seem to have an issue booking a special cheap J fare if asked to.

 

[Vinny]

I use BF as a guide. I once booked a J flight to Europe with them months before departure and paid for it. I received an email from the agent giving some bull story about my flight about QF shifting me to a CX flight. I rang QF who told me there was no problem, just that BF found a cheaper fare and was moving me to it. BF had cancelled the flight and put me on CX as it was cheaper. BF would then pocket the difference between what was paid and the cheaper fare they found.

A call to BF resulted in talking to a backpacker who was only there for a few weeks and knew nothing. A call to the person in charge who also sounded like a backpacker just spun me bull.

Use their site, print up and shop around but I would never deal with them ever again.

EDIT The savings were passed directly to BF and not to myself. No refund of $$$ to me, just bull offered. Sheesh I was angry!

 

[rechoboam]

How was it resolved?

 

[markis10]

any great sites offering good business deals for asia sectors.

Do you go to Asia often, if so its worth looking at CX if you intend to return in under 6 months, their J return deals from some Asian cities are very good, of course you need to get there in the first place, but its worth it!

 

[DJ 1D]

I use a few sites to check for good biz deals.

This one is probably my favourite as it lists the latest deals as they come up daily: Business Class Flights & First Class Flights

This one is also pretty good: Business Class Travel – Singapore Airlines, Etihad Airways, Emirates, Qantas, British Airways, Cathay Pacific

And finally this one gives a lot of info on first/business deals on flights, cruises, etc: First and Business Class Airfares - Island Resorts and Luxury travel


All that being said, I still use a TA or go direct to the airline's website to do the actual booking! But the above sites give me some info and indication of the current deals on offer.

 

[serfty]

ITA is very useful to check for special and searches in general:

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/

 

[rechoboam]

ITAs "on the fly" app is fantastic! Just looking at it now on the iPhone. The most annoying thing about the QF, SQ websites as well as bestflights is clicking through those annoying calendars, this allows you to just scroll to your preferred dates. I suspect I'll be using this a lot from now on. To get J or F fares you need to go to "more settings" and enable these.

 

[Taezar]

ITAs "on the fly" app is fantastic! Just looking at it now on the iPhone. The most annoying thing about the QF, SQ websites as well as bestflights is clicking through those annoying calendars, this allows you to just scroll to your preferred dates. I suspect I'll be using this a lot from now on. To get J or F fares you need to go to "more settings" and enable these.

Awesomes - I just DLed it. Very nice find - thanks.
Taez

 

[rechoboam]

If I get the other half to put it on her phone we will spend half the year travelling, must do..

 

[mannej]

If you are looking at Bestflights, do take the time to do a search on here, as there have been problems that have popped up from time to time.

These mainly occur if there is a change or cancellation to the booking.

 

[Imaster]

I found byojet.com to offer the best prices. When I was looking for my business class flights the price I found was cheaper than the airline direct.

 

[goldy]

Even with my 'status' I get through to QF by phone straight away if needed. In a pinch I would not want QF making me contact bestflights or webjet to sort stuff out.

Thats strange....with my gold "status" it still takes forever to get through, and then they want to charge me $190 to change to a later AA F flight (QF ticketed) that AA would charge $0 for, assuming same class availability (which was available 4 hours later, and basically what i wanted). damn you QF!!!