5-Star Business Class to Europe from $3,000 return

There are currently some super Business Class deals from Australia to Europe! Thanks to a Hainan Airlines sale, Business tickets from as little as $3,000 return are available from Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Cairns. Destinations on sale include Rome, London, Paris, Madrid and Brussels.

The flights are with Hainan Airlines, which has a 5-star Skytrax rating and is a Virgin Australia partner airline.

You can earn (and redeem) Velocity points and status credits for Hainan Airlines flights, but only for the leg from Australia to China. Flights between China to Europe are not eligible to earn Velocity points. But you can credit Hainan Airlines flights to Etihad Airways or Alaska Airlines instead. These fares book into “I” class.

Many different combinations of flights from Australia to Europe are possible. The sale covers departures from 21 August 2018 to 20 November 2018. We could not find an expiry date for this fare.

Here’s an example of a possible combination of flights found by AFF member MikaD:

When booking on the Hainan Airlines website, the price is as low as $3,006.82.

All of the Hainan Airlines sale flights route via either Shenzhen, Xi’an or Changsha in China. Beware that some of the connections require a long layover time – especially on the return trip back from Europe. But Australians can transit through China for up to several days without a visa using the Transit Without Visa (TWOV) program.

If you’d prefer an even longer stay in China, free stopovers are allowed in both directions. Open-jaws are also possible, meaning you could fly into one European city and depart from somewhere else.

We also found Melbourne to Rome available for a similar price…

And here’s an example of a possible open-jaw booking…

Google Flights and ITA Matrix are both useful online tools for finding sale fare combinations. You should be able to book anything you find on either of these tools using the Hainan Airlines website.

Our members find this to be a great fare, and Hainan Airlines is a quality airline. The flights are on a mixture of Airbus A330 and Boeing 787 aircraft.

Thats a great price. A stopover in Xi’an is an added bonus. Hainan gets no real complaints from me regarding comfort, service etc. When we last flew with them there was some talk that some a330’s were on their way towards the end of last year that featured the reverse herringbone 1-2-1 J class. That would be great if that had made its way to those legs.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Hainan J Brisbane-Brussels $3009

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.