How Did I Fly Etihad Business Class From Cairo to Bangkok Return For 650 USD

Flying business had been on my bucket list for a while. Paying top dollars for it was not on that list. I get a kick out of booking extreme cheap fares to be able to travel more each year with the same budget. So instead of paying thousands of dollars, I did a 13h Business class trip (return!) for 650 USD. Read on and leave your questions in the comments 🙂

But I finally managed to do it: I booked a business class flight from Cairo to Bangkok return (stop in Abu Dhabi) for only 650 USD. That’s a pretty good deal for 13 hours of luxury, a full flat bed and amazing service.

I thought business was just about more leg space, but there is so much more!

• Free pick up service in style: you just saved yourself 150 AED
• Access to business class lounge: aka free booz and food, it’s like a brunch in Dubai but for free, you just saved yourself another 500 AED
• Priority boarding: In economy I would board as late as possible to minimize time in that small seat but I don’t mind sipping champagne while choosing my meals in a comfy chair before take off.
• Wine, champagne, cocktails, different menu options, snacks, served whenever you want it. If you want to sleep first and then get your meal, no problemo!
• Personal touch: one staff member is assigned to you the whole flight, he or she will make sure you have the best flight experience possible, a little chit chat and an extra smile, it’s not just dropping your chicken or fish container like in economy.
• You can take 2 carry on items: travel light, take everything as carry on so no more waiting for luggage on arrival
• Skip those queues after a long flight with your free fast lane pass for immigration.

I guess you are jealous now so it’s about time I reveal how to fly business on a budget.

Basic tips to find cheap fares (economy and business)

• Be flexible with your dates
  • Specific dates reduce the number of possible flights and therefore the chance of a cheap deal or error fare
  • Some deals only work if you stay at least 7 days or only work on certain days of the week
• Be flexible with your departure and arrival location
  • I did a positioning flight from Dubai to Cairo because business class flights departing from Cairo are crazy cheap
  • I did not plan to go to Bangkok but that was the destination of the cheap deal, then I booked a cheap Air Asia ticket from Bangkok to Cambodia to check out Angkor Wat, you have to love some adventure
• Be patient
• Act fast, as deals and error fares might only be working for few hours or days

Why are these flights so cheap?

• Promotions: airlines give huge discounts for a short period to promote a destination or a new route
• Error fares: airline staff might have made a mistake while entering the price for a certain route. If the airline does not want to honor your ticket, tell them: if there is a typo in my name or I choose the wrong dates then I also have to pay to fix it. Ask for a compensation.
• The price of an airline ticket is a complex non-logical calculation that can result in a good deal for you

An example of a LOL air fare calculation

I live in Dubai and want to fly to Bangkok. So the most logical choice would be to fly from Dubai or Abu Dhabi (only 1 hour away).

Well flying from Dubai or Abu Dhabi to Bangkok in J is quite expensive, up to 2599 USD
(If you don’t know what J, DXB, AUH, BKK or CAI means, I recommend reading my travel hacking series)

If you add an extra flight (Cairo to Dubai or Abu Dhabi) the price drops to 1074 USD 😀

So it’s better to book a cheap return flight to Cairo with a lowcost airline and then fly an extra leg in business! I have to admit the routing is crazy, you will fly from Abu Dhabi or Dubai to Cairo with a cheap airline to then fly the first leg of your business class flight back to … Abu Dhabi or Dubai, a nice boomerang.

If you like you can slip in a visit to Cairo off course. And you can also use cheap airlines like Air Asia to explore Cambodia from Bangkok like I did 😉

So at this point we went from 2599 USD to 1074 USD by adding a flight, read on to find out how I got it even lower.

How did I get another 40% of that crazy price?

Well you could have booked this Cairo to Bangkok deal too if you read my travel hacking post about error fares. In that post I gave a list of websites that you need to follow to discover promo and error fares. One example is the Cheap Flights Lab website or follow the Cheap Flights Lab Facebook page and drool at those prices.  Once you see a deal, book it right away, as it will disappear within a few hours or days.

On top of this very cheap price you will also earn quite some miles for this business class fare, so you can start saving for upgrades in the future 😉

I enjoyed my first business class flight and tied in a trip to Cambodia to explore Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Battambang and Phnom Penh, on the way back I spent 2 days in Bangkok, YOLO 😀

Check my Instagram to get an idea 😉

Een foto die is geplaatst door GingerAroundTheWorld (@gingeraroundtheworld) op 8 Sep 2016 om 2:29 PDT