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Last month I wrote that it’s the golden age of air travel with cheap fares all over the world. Most of those fares have been in economy, with sub-$400 roundtrips to Europe and Asia with amazing flash sales.
I certainly prefer travel in business class, and readers have been asking for those deals, in the past month I’ve highlighted West Coast to several European cities from $2000 roundtrip, business class to several Asian destinations for $1954, West Coast to Africa from $2146 roundtrip, and Singapore Airlines Business Class to Europe or Asia for Less Than $2000 roundtrip. This last was the best deal of all.
Airlines are more aggressively discounting business class than before, not just economy, even if most of the eye-popping sales are in coach (and even if $2000 is of course still a lot of money). When I can buy paid business class for less than 50% more than I ‘expect’ to ‘usually’ pay for economy that’s a good deal.
United has Toronto – Shanghai and Toronto – Beijing on sale for just over $1700 roundtrip.
Availability at these prices is exceptionally good. And the pricing is good enough that many of you will want to buy (or redeem for) tickets to and from Toronto to take advantage.
Key things to know about this fare:
- Outbound travel is permitted through May 15
- 3 day minimum stay and 12 month maximum stay
- One stopover is permitted in each direct for CAD$100 apiece
- Tickets must be issued by March 31, but I don’t expect this fare to last very long
- Nonrefundable and CAD$450 change fee
You can route through any United hub you wish with this deal, and fly United or Air Canada out of Toronto to your international gateway city. If you fly through Chicago you get to use United’s awesome new Polaris lounge.
You’ll get Polaris food and bedding on your United flights, but you won’t get Polaris seats yet.
Avoid 8-across Boeing 777s, you’ll certainly prefer to fly 6-across.
I could transfer points to United MileagePlus from my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, at these prices you definitely wouldn’t want to redeem miles for the ticket, even leaving aside the issue of positioning to and from Toronto.
(HT: One Mile at a Time)
Your titles should have the origin of the cheap business class flights, not just the destination! The origin of any flight is just as important (more important actually) as the destination!
So this is only good out of YYZ. Doesn’t help if you live in LA, SF, Austin or MIA.
Gents- He gets more clicks if the title is more obscure. More clicks = more cash for Gary. Unfortunately this is true for all the bloggers so don’t expect greater clarity on the title teaser.
This is only Toronto—NOT the west coast. However, I looked on the dates from SFO-PEK….. AND you could fly Economy for about $600 round trip! I kid you not. At this juncture, the flights look empty…and with economy plus, you could just lie down across the 5 middle seats and sleep your way across the Pacific.
The trip SFO to Toronto is about $800 economy on those dates, unless you want to spend twice as much time with connecting flights to bring it down to about $600. So flying to Toronto to catch these “deals” is fine, but a real time suck.
In any case…. the headline to this article should not say from west coast.
A click, @Boraxo, isn’t worth a penny.
@Gary I love that you are reporting flash deals, especially the ones in premium classes! Please keep them coming.