If you don’t mind driving yourself to the airport, hanging in the food court and foregoing your frequent flyer points then you could be lying flat the whole way to your European ski destination.
Say what? Emirates airline launched a new ‘business class special fare’ last month and it’s coming to Australia. You get a business class seat and some, but not all, of the trimmings.
Sign us up, we just want the comfort so we can get to the slopes without the jet lag.
The special fare will obviously be dependent on routes and season. You’ve got Buckley’s of a seat during high season times, but the beauty for Aussies skiing and snowboarding in Europe is that we can go during less than peak times.
Yes you’ll get priority boarding, yes you’ll get business dining, yes you’ll get the cool little amenity pack and on demand entertainment, yes you’ll get 40kg of luggage. But you won’t get a chauffeur to pick you up to take you to the airport (quelle horror) and you don’t get to upgrade with your points and you will only get seat allocation 48 hours of departure (hint, there’s not a bad seat in business).
Oh, and you don’t get full business points and if you need to change your flight it will cost you more. Yep, we’re good with that.
Then there’s the matter of the lounge. You won’t get access to that either, unless you’re Emirates Skywards Gold or Platinum status (and partner airlines equivalent), then the key to the lounge is yours. We reckon the airport McCafe is just as good (not really).
The fares are also only available when you book direct with Emirates and the savings are quite substantial. Escape.com.au reported a 2020 Dubai to Paris fare is $2680 on the new special business rate versus $4323 full business fare.
