Bangkok & Phuket: Etihad Business Class From Budapest Starting at €1,333

Etihad is offering cheap business class tickets from Budapest to two of its South-East-Asian destinations: Bangkok and Phuket. The flights to Bangkok are especially interesting, as they only cost €1,333 (~HUF 524,006) and have pretty good flight times. The flight to Phuket costs €1,562 (~HUF 614,026) and could be more interesting to someone who wants to have a (seemingly) endless business class experience.

As Etihad doesn’t serve Budapest’s airport, you’ll first fly to one of Etihad’s European destinations with one of its partner airlines, such as Brussels Airlines or Lufthansa, and then continue your trip with Etihad via Abu Dhabi, usually in Etihad’s Boeing 787-Dreamliner.

Search & Book

This deal expires on March 31, 2020. According to the fare rules, you have to travel before November 30th, but in reality, the availability of this deal is much more limited than that. There are select available dates throughout the entire year, but availability is only high in October and November. The rules also state a minimum stay requirement of 3 days and a maximum of 3 months.

You can find these quite limited available dates using Google Flights, and then either book on Etihad’s website, or our Travel-Dealz flight search.

Why is booking with an airline better than with an online travel agency?

More often than not, online travel agencies offer lower fares than airlines do. We still recommend booking with the airlines directly. There are two main reasons for that:

Better Customer Service
In case any problems like delays, cancellations or missed connections arise, you can communicate directly with the airline. The airline has to take care of you because you have a contract with them.

If a travel agency issues your ticket, you may have to reach out to them first. You also depend on your OTA to forward information like flight changes instead of receiving them directly from the airline. In many cases, you may get a prime exhibition of responsibility shifting rather than problem-solving.

This especially applies to premium tickets. You don’t want to spend more than €1,000 to wind up with some budget OTA’s telephone hotline in case anything goes wrong.

Baggage and Other Fees
Economy fares not including hold luggage are industry standard by now. In most cases, travel agencies charge much higher baggage fees than the airlines themselves. If bags are not included in your fare, airlines are often the cheaper alternative.

This also applies to other things like food services, insurances or priority treatment. In almost all cases, you pay less for additional amenities when booking on the airlines’ website.

Miles

All tickets should be issued in booking class Z. For a Budapest – Bangkok roundtrip via Brussels, you should expect roughly:

Etihad’s Business Class

Etihad offers one of the best business class products worldwide. The seats are excellent (aligned in a 1-2-1 formation), the service is outstanding, and you get many amenities that are definitely not part of the global standard, such as being able to dine on demand. You can read a full review here.