Economy (World Traveller) / premium economy (World Traveller Plus with 38″ seats) / business class (Club World) selected return fares from London are as follow:

Boston £360 / £638 / £1,740
Abu Dhabi £378 / £608 / £1,540
Miami £378 / £816 / £1,940
New York £396 / £674 / £1,752
Los Angeles £458 / £896 / £2,319
Barbados £499 / £814 / £1,629
Tokyo £547 / £959 / £2,400
Hong Kong £617 / £1,029 / £2,449
Singapore £669 / £1,091 / £2,697
Bangkok £685 / £1,097 / £2,650
Buenos Aires £738 / £1,087 / £2,899
Perth £899 / £1,418 / £3,261
Sydney £979 / £1,494 / £3,261
Melbourne £979 / £1,494 / £3,267

Some of the premium economy fares are reasonable (especially east coast US) and upgrading with miles to Club World – subject to availability – would be a good deal. However, the Club fares are not particularly outstanding.

As always, Virgin Atlantic are immediately matching most of BA’s sale fares on routes which they both serve.

Qantas has its own sale (also ends 20th September) – and has matched BA’s economy and business class prices to Asia and Australia. Its premium economy fares are higher than BA’s (example Hong Kong £1,399, Sydney £2,311) highlighting its superior product, which is more of a “business lite”.

Note that Etihad currently has sub-£3k Pearl business class return fares to Australia. London to Sydney (£2,996) and Melbourne (£2,998). We found some availability on Expedia in November for £2,917. Other good Etihad biz deals are Bangkok (£1,420), Kuala Lumpur (£1,590) and Manila (£1,709).

Air New Zealand also has sale fares available. Fly in their excellent premium economy or business cabins to Hong Kong for £1,011 / £2,330 or Los Angeles £1,082 / £2,199. Book by Sep 20th (business) or Sep 29th (premium).

Remember that NZ also has the “SkyCouch” option in economy to Los Angeles where you can book a row of 3 economy seats which fold into a sort of couch bed.

London-Amsterdam is an important short-haul business and tourist route. Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) airport is served by all 5 of London’s main airports – Heathrow (LHR), Gatwick (LGW), City (LCY), Luton (LTN) and Stansted (STN).

The 230 mile flights will normally take around 45 minutes flying time although they are mostly scheduled for 1 hour 10 minutes.

Airlines serving London-Amsterdam:

British Airways – The Oneworld carrier has 18x daily flights during the week from London to Amsterdam – 8x from LHR, 6x from LCY and 4x from LGW. The Heathrow flights are operated using Airbus A319/A320s. The Gatwick flights use Boeing 737s whilst the City flights use BA Cityflyer’s Embraer E170/E190s. Note, there are less Amsterdam services from City airport running at weekends.

Standard economy (Euro Traveller) fares start at around £100 return – with the Gatwick flights generally being the cheapest. Business class (Club Europe) fares start at about £260 return though special offers can be a bit cheaper. BA lounges are available at LHR, LGW and AMS.

Flights depart from Terminal 5 at Heathrow, North Terminal at Gatwick and the D gates (non-Schengen) at Schiphol.

KLM – The Skyteam airline operates 11x daily (7x Saturday, 8x Sunday) from Schiphol to London Heathrow using Boeing 737s and Fokker 70s. Economy fares are similar to BA’s and start from £100 return. Business class fares are more expensive – expect to pay a hefty £475 return. KLM also penalise passengers for booking one-way flights (£300 fares) so stick to return bookings.

Lounge access for business and elite passengers is at KLM’s Crown Lounge at Amsterdam and the Skyteam lounge at Heathrow Terminal 4 (gate 10).

CityJet – This Air France subsidiary uses Avro RJ85 Avroliners to serve Amsterdam Schiphol from London City airport. There are 7x daily flights during the week, 1x daily on Saturday and 3x daily on Sunday. Economy returns are also priced from the £100 level, whilst a flexible CityPlus fare (classed as premium economy) is offered for £460 return.

Note that Star Alliance no longer have any non-stop flights between London and Amsterdam. bmi pulled out of the route in 2010.

Easyjet – The “no frills” airline flies from Gatwick (5x daily), Luton (4x daily) and Stansted (4x daily) – flight frequencies are reduced by about half at weekends. If booking in advance, base fares start at around £55 return – but you need to add on £20 for checked luggage, £12 for credit card fees so in the end you pay about £90 return. Food and drink must also be purchased if required and there is no assigned seating – so boarding can be a scrum.

One positive aspect to Easyjet is they will allow you (subject to availability) to get on an earlier flight on the day for free – try doing that with BA or KLM and they will probably charge you for a new fully flexible ticket.

Easyjet flights at Amsterdam arrive and depart from the low-cost H pier. The Gatwick flights operate from the North Terminal.

Alternatives: High speed rail is an option with a combination of the Eurostar which goes from London St Pancras station to Brussels Zuid/Midi and then taking a Thalys train on to Amsterdam. This journey takes about 4 1/2 hours – you do need to go through security and border controls  when departing with the Eurostar. Due to the popularity of the Thalys, prices for this trip can be quite high – £320 return is a common fare. (Cheaper prices are available by taking the slower Intercity train service from Brussels to Amsterdam or any Dutch station).

Journey times will be reduced when direct London-Amsterdam train services start in 2013.

Please also see our related articles:

Amsterdam Schiphol – Airport Guide
Amsterdam Schiphol – Lounges
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Hotels

Malaysian’s sale fares are bookable until 17th May for travel between 15th August 2011 and 11th December 2011, or 16th January 2012 to 31st March 2012. The fares include a 20kg luggage allowance. Maximum stay is 3 months and stopovers in Kuala Lumpur are permitted. Malaysian’s Enrich points can be accrued on these fares.

Return fares are as follows:

Kuala Lumpur (KUL) £305
Penang (PEN) £333
Langkawi (LGK) £333
Kuantan (KCH) £333
Kuala Terengganu (TGG) £333
Denpasar-Bali (DPS) £342
Jakarta (CGK) £342
Hanoi (HAN) £343
Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) £343
Manila (MNL) £345
Kota Kinabalu (BKI) £347
Kuching (KCH) £347
Singapore (SIN) £352
Bangkok (BKK) £352
Phuket (HKT) £352

Business class fares from London to the above destinations are priced at £1,999 return. (Note, if you fly from Rome, Italy the biz class fares are a bit cheaper – ranging from €1,966-€1,991).

Last week we discussed Lufthansa’s £349 deal to China (£439 to Singapore) – and hoped that better deals would enter the market. These Malaysian fares are significantly better with a good range of cities and wide travel date period.

With long-haul travel to Asia/Australia having been sluggish recently, these aggressive fares should stimulate some extra demand. It will be interesting to see if other airlines react with their own price cuts.

Cathay Pacific has also reduced its sale fares to Australia (which we also mentioned in the previous post). Return fares to Sydney are now £699 and to Melbourne £679 – book until 12th May. The £699 fare to Brisbane remains bookable to 25th May. Outbound travel by 15th June, max stay 1 year.

Asia Deals: An excellent Asian deal on the market is from Lufthansa (Star Alliance) which has flights from London to Beijing from £349, flying on the Airbus A380. Other deals include:

Nanjing £349
Singapore £439
Shanghai £489

If flying to China it is usually cheaper to fly to Beijing rather than the business capital Shanghai, as seen from the above prices.  These Lufthansa deals are available until 3rd May for departures between 15th May and 30th June, maximum stay permitted is 3 months. The Singapore fare (operated using a 747) look quite good as well.

Australia Deals: Royal Brunei always has competitive fares to Australia/NZ in the off-season and the following deals are available through NetFlights:

Perth £619
Melbourne £630
Auckland £669

These are bookable until 14th June for travel up to 22nd June. If booking be aware of the length of stopovers at Brunei airport and also note the fuel stop in Dubai.

Cathay Pacific (Oneworld) has some reasonable fares to Australia including a sub-£700 fare to Brisbane:

Adelaide £779
Brisbane £699
Cairns £779
Melbourne £779
Perth £729
Sydney £779

These are bookable until 25th May for outbound travel until 15th June. You can stay up to 1 year – good for backpackers with working holiday visas.

Qantas (Oneworld) has almost matched the Perth fare, offering £731 for travel between 18th April and 20th June. Book by 3rd May.

Hopefully we will see some more competitive fares to Australia coming onto the market in the next month or two.