Is business class worth it and how early to do you book

[wowzz]

23 years ago is too long. You need to come back!!

 

After 23 years I doubt he'll recognise it!

[TruckerDave]

23 years ago is too long. You need to come back!!

 

Yes I do. I enjoyed Southeast Asia and really want to return and explore it again.

[Iluvcruising2]

Yes I do. I enjoyed Southeast Asia and really want to return and explore it again.

 

Please visit. This is our tourism website - http://www.yoursingapore.com/en.html

 

I make many videos of Singapore and put some of them on this thread - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2159636

[Iluvcruising2]

We just booked a "Raffles Class" seat and am excited as the reviews all positive - 11 hr flight, our first on SIA.

 

JK

 

Oh cool. SIA used to call it the Raffles Class but no longer, now it is just Business class.

 

From which airport are you flying to Singapore from? Unless you are not flying to Singapore (as SIA operates Houston-Moscow as well as Barcelona to San Paulo Brazil)

 

Anyway, do note that Business and First class passengers can enjoy the 'Book the Cook' service. One of the most famous dishes would be the Lobster Thermidor. You can see me enjoying this dish in the earlier videos I posted.

 

Also, I like to have my meals in bed mode.

[YOUTUBE]mlmsof09bDM[/YOUTUBE]

 

This video shows you how to turn your seat into a bed. It is not automatic. But if this is your first time, ask the cabin crew to help you. By now, I know what to do so I prefer to do it myself.

[YOUTUBE]V0L42r_ECUw[/YOUTUBE]

 

I'm a closet poet, though not a very good one. But still, enjoy the Ode to Satay @ 35,000 feet.

[YOUTUBE]HiCaox5DPAY[/YOUTUBE]

 

The long-haul business class is in a 1-2-1 configuration. When I fly, I always try to choose a window seat on the left side of the plane so that I can watch the landing into Singapore, if the aircraft approaches Changi from the South (which usually is the case, though sometimes they land from the north which means you can't see much either side)

 

Example of what you can see during landing.

[YOUTUBE]NyooUOAfQo0[/YOUTUBE]

Edited March 4, 2016 by Iluvcruising2

[nobog]

Oh cool. SIA used to call it the Raffles Class but no longer, now it is just Business class.

 

Yep, I know that, was just seeing if anyone else would catch it :)

 

From which airport are you flying to Singapore from? Unless you are not flying to Singapore...

 

LAX to Tokyo this May for a SilverSea cruise back to Alaska - and yes, we already have a Book the Cook dinner planned (Crabcakes if I remember).

 

This will truly be a trip of a lifetime for us - first class (OK business) all the way! I don't think I've ever fallen asleep on an airplane and this might be no exception but I can eat and drink! At 6'2" at least I can stretch out. I found a lot of info about Singapore Air at airreview dot com.

 

Jim

[wowzz]

As a rule of thumb, service levels decline as you travel west. So, the best are Singapore, Cathay etc, then the Middle Eastern carriers, followed by the Europeans, with the US carriers following behind.

If I could fly everywhere on SIA I would be truly happy.

PS Can I just say that ANZ have a great reputation, but unfortunately as I have never traveled with them, I am not in a position to comment. One day!

[Iluvcruising2]

Oh cool. SIA used to call it the Raffles Class but no longer, now it is just Business class.

 

Yep, I know that, was just seeing if anyone else would catch it :)

 

From which airport are you flying to Singapore from? Unless you are not flying to Singapore...

 

LAX to Tokyo this May for a SilverSea cruise back to Alaska - and yes, we already have a Book the Cook dinner planned (Crabcakes if I remember).

 

This will truly be a trip of a lifetime for us - first class (OK business) all the way! I don't think I've ever fallen asleep on an airplane and this might be no exception but I can eat and drink! At 6'2" at least I can stretch out. I found a lot of info about Singapore Air at airreview dot com.

 

Jim

 

I hope you have an awesome flight and thanks for flying Singapore Airlines!

 

You can eat? Tell you a trick - after you finish your main course, ask the stewardess very nicely (smile) and say that you are really so hungry and you could do with another main and you really wanted to try something on the main menu (i.e. non book the cook, they typically have 3 choices).

 

If they have extra, they might be able to offer you another main. I heard that they do load additional main courses (sometimes). And also, I have observed on my business travel that a fair number of pax do not eat (assuming it is a red-eye). I have flown a couple of times out of Singapore (red-eye flights) and once in the air, the passenger goes to sleep and puts the do-not-disturb sign on.

 

A couple of times I couldn't finish my main meal and the very nice stewardess was most kind to ask if I wanted to try something else and whether the food was ok. My response was it was ok, I was just too stuffed!

 

As for drinks - it is pretty much free-flow. Just keep asking. But please don't get yourself (too) drunk. The stewardesses are lovely to look but don't even think about it..... :p (I have a good number of cabin crew friends)

 

So, yeah, just a thought for you - live it up!

 

This was meal service on a flight I enjoyed - Moscow to Singapore.

[YOUTUBE]-tDyw918fkY[/YOUTUBE]

Edited March 5, 2016 by Iluvcruising2

[MNgardens]

Taking a momentary break away from the Singapore discussion:

 

I just booked through Choice Air business class for my late August cruise.

 

MSP to Athens

Venice back to MSP

 

Each ticket came out to less than $2600 which I consider a VERY good deal especially considering that it is still peak season. The tickets are flexible and fully refundable should our plans change or the cruise switch its departure port (already this voyage had changed from Istanbul.)

 

They are ticketed on American airlines. I had also found that price using AA vacations (using them to book the hotel) but the ticket had more restrictions.

[Iluvcruising2]

Taking a momentary break away from the Singapore discussion:

 

I just booked through Choice Air business class for my late August cruise.

 

MSP to Athens

Venice back to MSP

 

Each ticket came out to less than $2600 which I consider a VERY good deal especially considering that it is still peak season. The tickets are flexible and fully refundable should our plans change or the cruise switch its departure port (already this voyage had changed from Istanbul.)

 

They are ticketed on American airlines. I had also found that price using AA vacations (using them to book the hotel) but the ticket had more restrictions.

 

Sounds good. What plane does American use for these flights?

[MNgardens]

I haven't dug too deeply into the the planes - only checked the Philly to Athens segment because the overnight is the most important to me. Right now it looks like it is an A330 (IIRC) in a 1-2-1 arrangement.

[MNgardens]

Just took a look at the flights. From Philly it is an A330-300 and from Venice it is an A330-200 (fewer business class rows)

[TruckerDave]

Taking a momentary break away from the Singapore discussion:

 

I just booked through Choice Air business class for my late August cruise.

 

MSP to Athens

Venice back to MSP

 

Each ticket came out to less than $2600 which I consider a VERY good deal especially considering that it is still peak season. The tickets are flexible and fully refundable should our plans change or the cruise switch its departure port (already this voyage had changed from Istanbul.)

 

They are ticketed on American airlines. I had also found that price using AA vacations (using them to book the hotel) but the ticket had more restrictions.

 

 

Keep and eye on your flights. I have a CHS-BCN and back trip for late April and back early May and they (AA) have changed my flights a few times. I have had to get on the phone with them and get my flights changed to better times. First they took my 4 hr layover in Philly and turned it into a 46 min layover. :eek: Got that fixed then about 2 weeks later they took my 3 hr layoer in CLT on the way back and made that into a 1 hr layover. Even with Global entry and Pre-check there is no way I could make that. :eek: . As I sit here right now I have everything good but each day I check my email expecting another change notice from AA. :mad:. So just keep an eye on your flights incase you need to get them changed. AA was very good about making the changes when I explained how short the connection times had become and the agent agreed and make the changes with no problems. (only thins is now I route through JFK instead of PHL going over and am on a 767 :( instead of a A330)

[waterbug123]

 

I just booked through Choice Air business class for my late August cruise.

 

MSP to Athens

Venice back to MSP

 

Each ticket came out to less than $2600 .

 

I got really lucky- booked biz class seats ATL-BCN and returning FCO-ATL (in June) directly with Delta for only $2200.

[MNgardens]

waterbug123 - That's a great price. You must be thrilled!

 

TruckerDave- That's a good reminder for me for any flight book far in advance. I sometimes book my kids' flights home from college at xmas months in advance. It's funny how much the airline will tinker with the the times.

 

I am not going to sweat which type of plane. I figure any business seat is better than economy seating! That being said, I do wish it will work out to be the 330. It is my sister in law's 2nd time flying and I am thinking how surprised her face will be when she sees the open suites.

Edited March 6, 2016 by MNgardens

[TruckerDave]

waterbug123 - That's a great price. You must be thrilled!

 

TruckerDave- That's a good reminder for me for any flight book far in advance. I sometimes book my kids' flights home from college at xmas months in advance. It's funny how much the airline will tinker with the the times.

 

I am not going to sweat which type of plane. I figure any business seat is better than economy seating! That being said, I do wish it will work out to be the 330. It is my sister in law's 2nd time flying and I am thinking how surprised her face will be when she sees the open suites.

 

Plane type does matter sometimes. Not all of AA's international birds have lie flat seats yet.....so if sleeping on the red eye matters, than looking at the plane type can be important...I can't sleep while sitting upright so I will only pick planes with lie flat seats. (and before the"not everyone can afford biz/first class seats" posts roll in, this is a thread about biz class flights. :rolleyes:)

[waterbug123]

waterbug123 - That's a great price. You must be thrilled!

 

 

Yes I was/am! :D

 

That score was right up there with the round trip biz class tix we bought to/from east Africa later in the summer for around 200k miles a piece, which is an excellent miles deal for DL. (I routinely hear stories of people paying 200-300k or more, just to Europe and back for DL biz)

[edo4mayor]

Yes I was/am! :D

 

That score was right up there with the round trip biz class tix we bought to/from east Africa later in the summer for around 200k miles a piece, which is an excellent miles deal for DL. (I routinely hear stories of people paying 200-300k or more, just to Europe and back for DL biz)

 

Hi! Looking into going to Africa sometime soon. Do you mind sharing how you got those 2 great deals( both Europe for $2200 for business and Africa for not so many miles for business.

 

Thank you,

Maria

[Gardyloo]

Hi! Looking into going to Africa sometime soon. Do you mind sharing how you got those 2 great deals( both Europe for $2200 for business and Africa for not so many miles for business.

 

Thank you,

Maria

Round trips in business class on Lufthansa from Vancouver BC to Johannesburg for this coming August are under $2600.

[waterbug123]

Hi! Looking into going to Africa sometime soon. Do you mind sharing how you got those 2 great deals( both Europe for $2200 for business and Africa for not so many miles for business.

 

Sure, but there was no secret method or special tricks employed, just diligence in checking fares and award availability, since both can vary a LOT from day to day. It does help I guess, that I participate in several frequent flyer forums, which helps me gauge when a price is a good one (generally speaking), if someone has a sale going on, etc.

 

For Africa, our plans were to fly from the US into Kigali, Rwanda, and home from Arusha (JRO), Tanzania. As Delta medallion flyers, we wanted to stay with Sky Team airlines, and knew the flights we preferred (Sky Team) would connect through Europe (AMS). Given the length of flights we wanted to fly biz, but those tickets typically run about $10k per person RT so we banked miles to use instead. In order to book the outbound as soon as it was available, we planned to purchase 2 one-ways. Started looking at the 330 day mark, and simply checked daily until award tix became available for our dates. We initially purchased tix for around 112k miles IIRC, but kept watching and a short time later we saw them for 70K. As they were booked out of a diamond medallion account there was no charge to redeposit the miles and reissue the tickets for the lower redemption rate, which we did by calling DL directly. Same process for the return flights, but didn't find quite such a great deal. Tix were around 130K miles per person, so around 200k total PP. I've continued to check periodically to see if the return flight in particular would drop but have seen almost NO availability whatsoever for our travel dates, and typically when I look at the award calendar there are only one or two dates in the entire month with any award availability. You could find an entirely different scenario for your travel dates, but I'd suggest looking as soon as the award calendar is available. It will obviously help if you have flexible dates, but we did not, as we had already purchased pricey gorilla trekking permits that were date specific.

 

For the Europe trip, the trip was planned and dates locked in (due to a cruise) but we hadn't purchased air. We were considering buying coach tix and trying to upgrade using Delta global upgrade certificates my boyfriend has by virtue of being diamond medallion. We've flown to Europe multiple times in the summer or shoulder season, and knew full well that coach tix could be as much as $1700 or $1800, but also new biz was historically around $5k+. I happened to read somewhere (might have been here, I can't recall) that BA was having a big fare sale. On a whim, I decided to check DL for our euro trip tix, thinking perhaps if the BA sale was really a big deal, DL would be offering competitive fares to Europe for the same time frame, particularly given their new partnership with Virgin via LHR. That's when I saw the $2200 biz price on DL and didn't hesitate to purchase right then and there. A friend who booked the trip later, just purchased his air a few weeks ago. When he looked at the same flights, the biz price was $5700. So check early and often as prices can fluctuate tremendously. :)

[edo4mayor]

Sure, but there was no secret method or special tricks employed, just diligence in checking fares and award availability, since both can vary a LOT from day to day. It does help I guess, that I participate in several frequent flyer forums, which helps me gauge when a price is a good one (generally speaking), if someone has a sale going on, etc.

 

For Africa, our plans were to fly from the US into Kigali, Rwanda, and home from Arusha (JRO), Tanzania. As Delta medallion flyers, we wanted to stay with Sky Team airlines, and knew the flights we preferred (Sky Team) would connect through Europe (AMS). Given the length of flights we wanted to fly biz, but those tickets typically run about $10k per person RT so we banked miles to use instead. In order to book the outbound as soon as it was available, we planned to purchase 2 one-ways. Started looking at the 330 day mark, and simply checked daily until award tix became available for our dates. We initially purchased tix for around 112k miles IIRC, but kept watching and a short time later we saw them for 70K. As they were booked out of a diamond medallion account there was no charge to redeposit the miles and reissue the tickets for the lower redemption rate, which we did by calling DL directly. Same process for the return flights, but didn't find quite such a great deal. Tix were around 130K miles per person, so around 200k total PP. I've continued to check periodically to see if the return flight in particular would drop but have seen almost NO availability whatsoever for our travel dates, and typically when I look at the award calendar there are only one or two dates in the entire month with any award availability. You could find an entirely different scenario for your travel dates, but I'd suggest looking as soon as the award calendar is available. It will obviously help if you have flexible dates, but we did not, as we had already purchased pricey gorilla trekking permits that were date specific.

 

For the Europe trip, the trip was planned and dates locked in (due to a cruise) but we hadn't purchased air. We were considering buying coach tix and trying to upgrade using Delta global upgrade certificates my boyfriend has by virtue of being diamond medallion. We've flown to Europe multiple times in the summer or shoulder season, and knew full well that coach tix could be as much as $1700 or $1800, but also new biz was historically around $5k+. I happened to read somewhere (might have been here, I can't recall) that BA was having a big fare sale. On a whim, I decided to check DL for our euro trip tix, thinking perhaps if the BA sale was really a big deal, DL would be offering competitive fares to Europe for the same time frame, particularly given their new partnership with Virgin via LHR. That's when I saw the $2200 biz price on DL and didn't hesitate to purchase right then and there. A friend who booked the trip later, just purchased his air a few weeks ago. When he looked at the same flights, the biz price was $5700. So check early and often as prices can fluctuate tremendously. :)

 

Thank you so much. I have a lot to learn.

 

I will ask Gardylo if he/ she can share how they got the wonderful fare form Vancouver.

 

Best regards,

Maria

[edo4mayor]

Round trips in business class on Lufthansa from Vancouver BC to Johannesburg for this coming August are under $2600.

 

Hi! We are from Seattle and would go to Vancouver to get the business airfare you got.

 

Do you mind sharing how you scored those airfares?

 

I know that you cannot share TA information so in case you used a TA My e mail is edo 4 mayor at yahoo dot com

 

Thank you,

Maria

[Gardyloo]

Hi! We are from Seattle and would go to Vancouver to get the business airfare you got.

 

Do you mind sharing how you scored those airfares?

 

I know that you cannot share TA information so in case you used a TA My e mail is edo 4 mayor at yahoo dot com

 

Thank you,

Maria

I use the "gold standard" in airfare search tools, ITA Matrix. You can't book using ITA (but can with its linked Google Flights) but you can book directly with the airlines once you see a deal you like. In this case, I just checked using Expedia, and got numerous fares for $2600 - $2700 for departures in August. Don't know when you're traveling (I'd recommend August if it's for a safari in South Africa) so the prices may be a little different.

 

Flights out of Vancouver are on Air Canada, connecting to Lufthansa, or Swiss, depending on the ticket specifics.

[edo4mayor]

I use the "gold standard" in airfare search tools, ITA Matrix. You can't book using ITA (but can with its linked Google Flights) but you can book directly with the airlines once you see a deal you like. In this case, I just checked using Expedia, and got numerous fares for $2600 - $2700 for departures in August. Don't know when you're traveling (I'd recommend August if it's for a safari in South Africa) so the prices may be a little different.

 

Flights out of Vancouver are on Air Canada, connecting to Lufthansa, or Swiss, depending on the ticket specifics.

 

Thank you so much.

 

Maria

[edo4mayor]

I use the "gold standard" in airfare search tools, ITA Matrix. You can't book using ITA (but can with its linked Google Flights) but you can book directly with the airlines once you see a deal you like. In this case, I just checked using Expedia, and got numerous fares for $2600 - $2700 for departures in August. Don't know when you're traveling (I'd recommend August if it's for a safari in South Africa) so the prices may be a little different.

 

Flights out of Vancouver are on Air Canada, connecting to Lufthansa, or Swiss, depending on the ticket specifics.

 

Sorry, I forgot to ask how far in advance did you get your ticket?

Thanks again

[Gardyloo]

Sorry, I forgot to ask how far in advance did you get your ticket?

Thanks again

I haven't flown that route to South Africa; I usually visit SA as part of round-the-world itineraries, but that's a whole 'nother subject. ;)

 

I looked at Vancouver-Africa ticket prices for travel in August of this year. I don't know how long those fares will last (nobody does) so if you have plans in hand and can commit, I'd probably book sooner rather than later.