First Time Flying Business Sydney to Rome

[missskybird]

Hubby and I are planning to make our first business class trip later in the New Year to fly to Rome from Sydney. I have come across a company called Fly Me Business online (which has an Australian telephone number) which offers business class tickets for $4663 each compared to $6335 on the SIA website. I am just a little concerned if they are reputable. Does anyone have any advice about where to purchase business class fares? Thank you

 

[Alanslegal]

If it wasn't for breaching the rules here and on many frequent flyer programs, many people here would easily book you the same flight for $4,500 pp.

That said, if you did 'some' good research on this forum (and a few other flyer forums), you could DIY for $2,500 pretty comfortably.

 

[smit0847]

Lifemiles on Thai should be easy as pie.

Read this: Avianca LifeMiles Award Chart And Redemption Basics - One Mile at a Time

 

[missskybird]

If it wasn't for breaching the rules here and on many frequent flyer programs, many people here would easily book you the same flight for $4,500 pp.

That said, if you did 'some' good research on this forum (and a few other flyer forums), you could DIY for $2,500 pretty comfortably.

Thank you for your reply. I am not quite sure what you mean by 'some good research' as I have had a look through the forums for similar topics but nothing that jumps out at me as to DIY cheaper. I do appreciate your time though

 

[browski]

Thank you for your reply. I am not quite sure what you mean by 'some good research' as I have had a look through the forums for similar topics but nothing that jumps out at me as to DIY cheaper. I do appreciate your time though

In my experience, if you can't find the fare directly with the airline(s) then the fare probably doesn't exist - unless it is part of a holiday package.
What you tend to find from these on-line sites is that at least one of the sectors will be in Economy.

So, by all means check them out, but it is unlikely their final fare will be cheaper than the airline's own fare.

When you get more posts up, you can request a Flight Search request. See here: Flight Search Assistance

From what I can see, if you are paying cash, then the cheapest real fares booked directly with the airlines are $3685pp ex-MEL and $5153pp ex-SYD...........but certainly not on SQ.
PM for details if you like, but if you're not comfortable booking direct with the airlines, then best use a TA and pay the premium.

 

[Alanslegal]

Thank you for your reply. I am not quite sure what you mean by 'some good research' as I have had a look through the forums for similar topics but nothing that jumps out at me as to DIY cheaper. I do appreciate your time though

Sorry to be cryptic There are ways where you can fly premium cabins for not much more (or sometimes less) than economy fares if you spend some time reading & research, and are generally flexible with travel dates & carriers. What many people have including myself have done is buy airline miles and then redeem them for business/first class flights. Sometimes one can buy enough points to go anywhere in the world and back, in business or first, for like less than $2,000. As its redeeming award seats, you need to be generally flexible with travel dates and carriers.

For example, there's a promotion with American Airlines (AA) this month. You can then redeem on their One World partners eg. Qantas. Here's the thread....

http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/american-airlines-aadvantage/new-april-bonus-points-when-59063.html

You need 120,000 AA points to fly from AUS to EUR and back in business class. So what you do is;

You can effectively buy 95K (69K+26K bonus) at a cost of around AUD$2000.

You're a bit short however because you are now savvy at looking around on how to buy points know you can buy 20,000 points from the hotel group SPG (AUD$560) which then you can transfer to AA which will give you 25,000 AA points.

120,000 points heavier and $2560 less in the wallet, that's now enough points to go to Europe and back in business class. When you book, you pay a couple of hundred in taxes and off you go

I looked at the January 2015 a few days ago and I saw good availabilty to/from Europe.

The caveat is, if you are not a member of any of those programs, you probably have to be a member for x amount of days before they allow you to buy etc so unfortunately by the time you join now, this months promotion would have ended and you would have to wait for the next

Good luck in your search though.

 

[smit0847]

Thank you for your reply. I am not quite sure what you mean by 'some good research' as I have had a look through the forums for similar topics but nothing that jumps out at me as to DIY cheaper. I do appreciate your time though

Buying Lifemiles during a sale period to use for *A J will be significantly cheaper than the prices you have found. There are hundreds of posts about this.