With the announcement that Australia is re-opening its borders after being closed for almost two years throughout the pandemic, the Star Alliance airlines have launched an incredible business class fare sale from Dublin to Australia.
Bargain business class fares from Dublin to Australia
Fares start from just £1,210 (€1,450) for a return fare in business class from Dublin to Adelaide, and £1,250 (€1,500 return) for a return fare from Dublin to Sydney, the prices are truly mind-boggling.
These bargain return tickets are all available on very good airlines, including Lufthansa, SWISS, and Singapore Airlines, with travel dates running through to early February 2023. The minimum stay is six days, the maximum stay is three months.
Dates & Stopovers
Naturally, you won’t have totally free choice of dates, but the deals are there if you can be flexible with your travel dates. Note that you may have to stop twice depending on the airline – for example, if flying on SWISS, you’ll need to stop in Zurich AND Singapore before getting to your destination in Australia. Whereas if you fly with Singapore you’ll only have to stop once.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to build in stopovers. You may be able to do it via trial and error but it won’t be easy because only specific flights will be valid for this fare.
Covid cover
You have some risk in terms of COVID insurance. Lufthansa will rebook you for free, but you will be responsible for the fare difference. After this promotion expires, a typical fare could be €4,000 – and you’d be on the hook for the difference.
You may want to consider paying a little more to book with more certainty. Pay an extra €95 each way and you can cancel the full trip for a refund for a €250 penalty.
Where to credit your business class sale flights
SWISS and Lufthansa are both part of the Miles & More loyalty scheme, while Singapore Airlines has the Krisflyer programme, which in my opinion is very strong and comes with a lot of benefits.
However, you can of course credit your flight to any other Star Alliance programme. You’d earn around 21,000 miles in most schemes, based on booking class ‘P’.
How to book your bargain business class flights from Dublin to Australia
The easiest place to book is the Lufthansa website here.
If you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX fees (as you will be paying in Euro), your best option to maximise your miles when paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. This offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.
If you’re in the UK and interested in a 0% FX fee credit card, I can recommend the Santander All-in-One World credit card, which comes with a small £3 fee per month.
Officially this offer runs until 7th March 2022, but these seats will disappear very quickly so I doubt there will be any left by that date.