Australian carrier Qantas has special offer business class deals to various Aussie / Kiwi cities from London. Travel is up to 13th December, book by 30th June.

Prices are:

Perth £1,990
Melbourne £1,991
Adelaide £1,998
Sydney £1,999
Brisbane £2,001
Christchurch £2,089
Wellington £2,089
Auckland £2,099

It is possible to fly on the QF A380 via Singapore. Some flights are code-shares operated by partner British Airways. The flight is bookable at the Qantas website but we found cheaper fares on Netflights (£1,938 to SYD, £2,041 to AKL). Note, (1) these are non-changeable / non-refundable fares and (2) these don’t seem to be available on ba.com.

Emirates has an exceptional 2-for-1 business class offer from the UK to Australia / NZ (and other worldwide destinations). Note – you have to fly from Birmingham BHX with a companion. Prices are:

Perth £1,565
Melbourne £1,566
Sydney £1,574
Brisbane £1,575
Christchurch £1,587
Auckland £1,597 (£1,549 on Netflights)

These are excellent prices, some of the lowest business fares Down Under for a while. You must book by 10th June using promo code UKBHX21, outbound travel by 30th November.

This companion offer also has fares to Asia and South Africa at around the £900 mark.

You get a complimentary chauffeur as long as both passengers are collected from the same address. Changes are permitted (for a charge) as is a free stopover in Dubai.

You could fly on the EK A380 on some sectors – currently utilised on daily flights Dubai to Sydney/Auckland (EK 412/413). Also EK 372/373 Dubai – Bangkok if you’re heading to BKK.

Cathay Pacific are selling business class flights to both Australia and New Zealand for sub £2k. This seems to be a reaction to the Qantas sale. Prices:

Sydney £1,980
Melbourne £1,972
Adelaide £1,978
Perth £1,970
Brisbane £1,981
Auckland £1,990

Book by June 30th, some changes are allowed for a fee.

If you are considering Qantas or Cathay and are not 100% sure of your travel plans then it would probably make sense to go with the slightly more flexible Cathay fares.

We found lower fares on some agents, for example Netflights / Travelocity had Cathay flights to Sydney for £1,870 – however no changes or refunds are allowed!

Tip: Always understand the terms / conditions of your ticket before booking with an airline and especially an agent.

Finally, Travelocity is selling Singapore Airlines business fares to Sydney in July for as low as £1,926 (Perth £1,947). Travelocity also has Etihad flights to Sydney for £1,938 (via Abu Dhabi).

There are some tremendous business class deals to be had from the UK this summer. With the airline industry having a tough time there are great offers on the market to entice flyers back to the premium cabins. Let’s take a look..

United Airlines is running a half-price business class sale ex-UK, bookable by 2nd June. Travel is between 11th July to 31st August – peak season when trans-Atlantic flights are normally at a premium.

Lowest prices from London are:

New York £795
Boston £845
Washington DC £845
Philadelphia £845
Atlanta £905
Miami £939
Las Vegas £1,109
Los Angeles £1,109
San Francisco £1,109
Seattle £1,165
Honolulu £1,309

British Airways is running another business class sale at the moment, running up to June 30th.

Club World offers (return) to North America from London:

New York £1,099
Boston £1,199
Miami £1,399
Toronto £1,499
Los Angeles £1,699

Travel 1st July all the way to 13th Dec.

Other offers worldwide available include Caribbean destinations for £1,319 return.

Note, BA are also targetting some members of their Executive Club with £200 off Club World bookings with promo code BAUK-VALUED which means flights to New York can be had for £899.

As usual Virgin Atlantic are matching or slightly undercutting many of BA’s Club fares. Upper Class flights to New York JFK are priced from £1,096.

American Airlines has the following business class offers from London:

New York £1,098
Boston £1,198
Orlando £1,311
Miami £1,398
Los Angeles £1,658

Book by 30th June, travel to 13th December.

Air Canada is also matching the BA/AA sale with the same booking and travel dates. Return prices from London to the US (via Canada) are:

New York £1,047
Boston £1,157
Orlando £1,293
Miami £1,383
San Francisco £1,633

Air France has business class fares from London, Manchester or Edinburgh to New York from £1,051. The flights are operated by partner Delta Airlines.

Swiss has some good business class offers worldwide from Birmingham, Manchester and London. Prices from Birmingham:

New York £1,054
Boston £1,204
Johannesburg £1,289
Sao Paolo £1,601

They also have intra-Europe business class deals, the best of which is London-Barcelona at £215.

Air New Zealand has business class flights to Los Angeles from £1,628 – travel to 13th Dec, book by end of June.

Emirates have some value business class fares out of Birmingham:

Cape Town £1,387
Hong Kong £1,376
Singapore £1,378
Christchurch £2,222
Sydney £2,261

Travel up to 9th December. Prices from London are £200-£500 higher.

Perhaps the best deal of the lot – you can currently fly from London to Melbourne or Sydney on Singapore Airlines in business class for under £2,000. This can include some legs outbound on the A380 – we found prices of £1,977 to MEL and £1,986 to SYD.

Singapore Airlines – the first airline to fly the A380 commercially, from Singapore to Sydney, Australia. They currently have 4 A380 aircraft in service deployed on various routes:

Singapore to Sydney – Flight SQ 221

Sydney – Singapore Flight SQ 222

London Heathrow to Singapore Flights SQ 317 / SQ 321

Singapore to London Heathrow Flights SQ 318 / SQ 322

Singapore to Tokyo Flight SQ 638

Tokyo to Singapore Flight SQ 637

This week (2nd to 8th Aug) one of the A380s has been flying on the Singapore – Beijing route ahead of the Olympic Games.

Emirates – On 1st August Emirates flew its inaugural A380 service from Dubai DXB to New York JFK. From 8th August they will fly the route as follows:

DXB to JFK Flight EK 201 (Sun / Wed / Fri)

JFK to DXB Flight EK 202 (Sun / Wed / Fri)

Emirates plans to fly the A380 on the Dubai to London Heathrow route from December 2008 and Dubai – Sydney – Auckland from February 2009.

Qantas – Are awaiting delivery of their first A380. They begin service on October 20th 2008 with flight QF 93 from Melbourne to Los Angeles. On October 24th, flight QF 11 will fly from Sydney to Los Angeles. These flights can be booked on Qantas’ website.

Qantas will deploy the A380 on its Sydney to London backbone route in 2009.

If you are based in Sydney you will be spoilt for choice on A380 options.

Next year will also see A380 deliveries to Air France and Lufthansa.

Singapore has been operating the A380 Super Jumbo since October 2007 on flights between Singapore and Sydney, Australia and now has 3 aircraft in service.

If you want to fly on the A380 you can book with Singapore Airlines – return to Singapore from £570. Flights to Australia can be had from £750 return – you can fly out to Oz on the 380 as follows:

Flight SQ 317 Departs LHR 1155, Arrives SIN 0745

Flight SQ 221 Departs SIN 2035, Arrives SYD 0555

This gives you 13 hours to kill at Changi airport – you could head into the city on one of the free tours available.

If you want to return on the A380 you will pay a slight premium which will bump the price to £882.

Most of the seats have now been sold via an ebay auction which has raised US $1.3 million for charity (a few seats still remain open at time of writing). One bidder paid over US$100,000 for a Suite package while the cheapest economy seat went for only US$560.

However if you missed out on the auction, you will soon be able to experience the A380 on SIA’s Singapore – Sydney scheduled service. The aircraft will start flying on the route (daily return) from Sunday October 28th.

If you want to book, these are the following flight numbers:

Flight SQ221 SIN – SYD (departs 2030, arrives 0700 +1)

Flight SQ220 SYD – SIN (departs 0850, arrives 1345)

There will be 471 seats on board the A380 aircraft: 399 economy class seats, 60 business class seats on the upper deck and 12 first class suites.