Saudia Business Class: 90 XP FlyingBlue Mileage Runs Starting at €616 from Cairo (Little Time at Destination)

SkyTeam member Saudia currently offers some very attractive business class fares with departure from Cairo. For less than €700, you can book trips to cities like Manila, Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur. Sadly, there is an enormous catch with these fares: While the fare rules don’t specify any maximum stay, these prices only pop up if you stay less than 24 hours at your destination. This means the tickets are only usable as one ways or mileage runs.

You can travel to the following destinations:

• Manila at €616
• Jakarta at €624
• Bangkok at €648
• Kuala Lumpur at €686

Our availability calendar highlights all possible flight dates at the lowest price with just one change of planes. It will forward you to our flight search with your preselected flight dates. You can also check what other OTAs have to offer via Skyscanner. You can also book them on Saudia’s website, but that would require you to use the site’s multi-stop search.

Most itineraries will help you get to know both Saudia hubs of Jeddah and Riyadh – one on the inbound and one on the outbound flight. There are also flights that feature a domestic transfer between the two cities. While this bumps the price even further, you’ll most likely need a Saudi Arabian visa to board these transfers. That costs roughly €20.

Some of the flights between Cairo and Saudi-Arabia are economy class legs. Make sure you get the flights in business class to get the maximum points. Saudia mainly deploys A330 on its flights to Egypt. On long-haul flights, the airline uses Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 aircraft. The 787 features a more modern product than the older triple seven. You can find reviews for these flights here:

• Saudia Boeing 777 business class review by Paliparan
• Saudia Boeing 777 business class review by ThePointsGuy
• Saudia Boeing 787 business class review by Paliparan
• Saudia Boeing 787 business class review by inflightfeed

It should also be noted that Saudia is a dry airline. It does not serve alcohol on board or in any of their lounges.

Search & Book

Tickets are that cheap because you are basically booking a business class roundtrip from Cairo to Riyadh or Jeddah – with a stop in one of the mentioned East Asian cities.

The fare rules don’t provide any useful information for this deal – the availabilities tell more about the prices than the airlines’ fare rules. Google Flights helps you find additional flight dates. The most convenient way is choosing flight dates above and let our Go2 tool forward you to vendors.

It is also possible to book these tickets on Saudia’s website. You need to go to the (atrocious) multi-stop search, that opens a new site.

Make sure to bring some time and patience to fill in the mask. It’s best to search for three flights: The first shall take you from Cairo to your destination (in this case) Manila. The second flight is from Manila to Riyadh a day later. The last flight is from Riyadh back to Cairo, on the same day the westbound flights departs from Manila:

Make sure you select Business as the travel class. Now you are able to book the low fares on Saudia’s website, with is preferable for many reasons:

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.

Mileage

Now we are getting to the most interesting part of this deal, as the short maximum stay does not allow you to spend any time at your destination. Saudia issues all business class segments in booking class I. The cheapest roundtrip from Cairo to Jakarta (with a single stop each way) earns you:

Especially the 90 XP for FlyingBlue members are interesting. Like mentioned above, you can bump up that number by choosing an itinerary with two Saudi domestic flights between Riyadh and Jeddah:

This trip would grant you instant Silver status (100 XP) and take you more than half the way to Gold (180 XP), which would mean SkyTeam Elite Plus Status. That tier includes free bags and lounge access on all SkyTeam flights.

You can check your personal earnings with our mileage calculator:

Thanks to our source Flyertalk!

Cover Picture: © Saudia Airlines 2022