For you, only the best…
Business class transforms travel. Goodbye shared armrests, aching knees and quote un quote “meals”. Hello, flat beds, champagne and priority treatment at every turn from curbside to passport stamp.
Business class is more luxurious than ever and thanks to a really shrewd move with Star Alliance airline Aegean, you can enjoy it on some of the longest flights throughout Asia, on the best airlines in the world, for about $400 all in.That’s pretty great savings, and it’s not nearly as hard as you think. Well, at least in points and miles terms…
Running With Miles highlights an awesome points opportunity. Aegean, the Greek airline offers amazing rates using points for flights within Asia on their formidable Star Alliance partners. If you’ve looked at a map recently, Asia is huge and comfort can be really nice for seeing the best of it.
These rates aren’t for Aegean flights, since they don’t actually fly in Asia, but rather for travel on partner airlines like Singapore, ANA, Thai, Asiana and other world class options like EVA. For flights within Asia, even the longest ones over 7 hours, you’ll need just 21,000 Aegean points one way.
If you are now saying “well, I don’t have any Aegean points” – that’s the other good part, they’re on sale through August 8th.
According to the Aegean points table, the 21,000 point business class offers include travel between any of the following countries: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.
If you have zero Aegean miles today, you can buy the 21,000 needed for a one way flight for €350 which is about $390. On long flights such as Singapore to North Asia, you’re looking at over 7 hours in the air, and prices over $1800 on most airlines. Locking this in for $400 is a steal.
The key to making this a success is to only buy points if you find something you can use, or if you have flexibility. Find a flight that works for you, buy the points, and then lock it in immediately.
United.com is the easiest way to look up seats using points for the airlines you can book. Simply go to United.com, enter your ideal cities and dates and search for business class using points, which you’ll see as “MileagePlus award ticket”.
You can even press the button for a full calendar month of availability. Any business class seats offered at the “saver” level will be bookable using Aegean, though it’s important to know that you can’t search on Aegean to actually book the flights you’ve found until you’ve purchased or transferred the miles you need.
Crucial point: ignore the points rates offered on United. They operate a different loyalty program entirely, so even though you’ll end up booking the same flights you’ll pay far fewer points by booking through Aegean. You’re just using United to find the seats that are available, because they have the easiest tool for doing that.
Best Business Class Options
There are some amazing seats up for grabs, and for about $400 all in, or $30 if you already have the points, the deals are superb. You can try Singapore’s 787-10, or EVA Air’s 777, Asiana or Thai A350 and more. Maybe even an A380?
Basically, these airlines offer great flat beds and state of the art planes and for $400 one way, there’s a lot to love. Create an Aegean account here, search for seats on United.com here, buy miles here, and then go here to book. You can only search on Aegean once you have points. Cheers!
SIA never offer business or first availability to any partners.
Within Asia, you’d be surprised. In fact, there’s quite a lot.
Indeed,
I have already redeemed SIN-BOM in 77W business class
And last month SIN-AKL in A380 first class 😛
Everytime I read one of your blogs, you have me contemplating flights on the other side of the world.
Can u share some sample routes? Any too or from the Middle East. Just so I know what distance we can get up to
Thanks for the post…. I paid about 1,000 USD for a round trip ticket that should’ve cost over $6,000. I used your links… Not sure if you get anything back but thanks for helping me save so much money.
Wonderful to hear! Glad someone was able to make use. Enjoy!
Maybe this is an extremely dumb question but I’m new to all of this so I may need it spoonfed to me but….after I create an account with Aegean and start searching for flights on United.com, how am I supposed to know whether this deal can be applied to my desired route if I am supposed to ignore United’s point system and cannot search Aegean until I have purchased points? Does it apply to ANY route from the countries listed above? For example, if I want to fly from PEK to CKG and United’s site is saying it will cost me 45k Business Saver Award points…how do I know what that will translate into on Aegean’s end? Sorry in advance if I’m missing the obvious…
Welcome! No such thing as a dumb question.
If it’s showing up as business saver on United at 45k, it will show up on Aegean at 21k. The availability is correlated.
Of course, there’s always an inherent risk that in the time you purchase points the seats could be taken, but it’s very small. I get nothing out of this deal, but it’s an amazing way to save, and availability is generally excellent within Asia.
Hope that helps.
Got 2x Sin-Osaka returns over Xmas on SQ 787 with this last time, an absolute steal!!
One route that always seems to have good availability to partners is Sin- Fukuoka so worth checking out . Also it seems to take them a day or 2 to get things settled once the flights are released, availability seems to be better then
I’m now on the trip that I booked last year when this was active, and it’s not quite the steal that you portray, because: 1. availability is not always the best (you might end up on an overnight flight where sleeping is the main activity rather than enjoying the biz class experience)
2. surcharges can be a lot more than you think, especially with Singapore.
All in all, may be a decent deal, but do your homework before you buy those Aegean points.