While I love the cheap fares from Scandinavian countries to Asia and Australia at steep discounts, the reality is that that’s not ideal for most Australian based travellers.
After some digging around, I managed to find some insanely cheap business class fares to London, Paris and Frankfurt.
How cheap? Prices start from $2972 return in business class (maybe even cheaper!) and go all the way up to 3484 Australian dollars for the Perth to Paris flight.
Correction: some of the cheapest fares to LHR/FRA appear to have the PER-KUL leg in economy. The Paris flight has business class all the way
Business Class To Europe
Best of all, the majority of the flights are with Oman Air. Never heard of them? They are one of my favourite airlines and have one of the best business class products (seat/service/food/drinks) in the sky… especially at this price point.
I recently reviewed the Oman Air Apex Suite, which is what you will get on the Muscat to London/Paris leg of the journey. Other flights are operated by their A330 which also offers flatbeds.
Because Oman Air doesn’t fly out of Australia, they do partner with Malindo Air who run a B737 from Perth to Kuala Lumpur. I’ve reviewed this flight before, and while Malindo is a budget airline, their business class product is far from bad and totally fine for the short trip from Perth to Kuala Lumpur.
The Route
For this price, you can’t complain about stopovers so if 2 stops are too much for you, look away now.
The flights on offer will be from Perth to Kuala Lumpur then onto Muscat in Oman before continuing onto Europe.
The Price – Oman Air Business Class?
- Perth to Frankfurt (return): AU$2972 (economy on Perth to KUL leg)
- Perth to London (return): AU$3316 (economy on Perth to KUL leg)
- Perth to Paris (return): AU$3484 (business all the way)
The Dates
The fares I managed to find were all for European summer 2020, perfect timing! However, since it’s a little bit harder to find these fares, I wouldn’t be surprised if availability is good for most of 2020. Look and you shall find!
How to find these flights?
The problem is that Google Flights, ITA Matrix and other more conventional search engines don’t really compute with Oman Air inventory. This means it’s a bit of a pain to find the lowest fares.
The best deals I managed to find were via Momondo, which searches prices across a range of OTAs (online travel agents).
Here are the example routes I found:
- Perth to Paris: https://www.momondo.com.au/flight-search/PER-CDG/2020-06-03-flexible/2020-06-24-flexible/business?sort=bestflight_a
- Perth to London: https://www.momondo.com.au/flight-search/PER-LHR/2020-06-03-flexible/2020-06-24-flexible/business?sort=bestflight_a
- Perth to Frankfurt: https://www.momondo.com.au/flight-search/PER-FRA/2020-06-03-flexible/2020-06-24-flexible/business?sort=bestflight_a
For some reason, I couldn’t manage to get the same price direct via Oman Air, so using Momondo or Skyscanner is the way to go. Wait for the search to finish loading!
Should you do a stopover in Oman?
1000%! Last time I flew Oman Air, they were offering a complimentary stopover at the Ritz Carlton Al Bustan Palace in Oman (this promo finished in September but could return at some stage). It’s a beautiful destination for a layover, so make it part of your trip if you can.
Learn more about the Oman Air Stopover program here.
Show me the points!
Oman Air partners with Etihad Airways so you can credit your flights (I believe they book in “D” class fare bucket) to Etihad Guest. The whole return trip will get you around 21,000 Etihad guest points which are almost enough for a Perth to Melbourne business class flight with Virgin Australia (total cost 21,800 points + $40 taxes one way).
