Chua Enlai: It's Possible To Fly To London for $2,800 on Business Class
And other Biz Class secret tips from this frequent jetsetter that you’ll want to try, pronto.
Chua Enlai flies Business Class frequently. The actor tells us that just last year alone, out of his 46 flights, 29 were in Biz Class. But Enlai thinks it’s downright “ridiculous” and feels “heart pain” to pay the price of a Chanel bag — or $7,000 — on an air ticket for his #lailaitravels. So what gives? Like a coupon-cutting, penny-pinching auntie, he has his wise ways of flying in style. We get the seasoned Biz Class traveler to share three tips with us on how to snag cheap(er) Biz Class tickets.
Even though 29 out of 46 flights that Chua Enlai took last year were on Business Class, the actor still thinks it’s downright “ridiculous” and feels “heart pain” to pay the price of a Chanel bag — or $7,000 — for an air ticket for his #lailaitravels. So what gives? Like a coupon-cutting, penny-pinching auntie, he has his wise ways of flying in style. We get the seasoned Biz Class traveller to share three tips with us on how to snag cheap(er) Biz Class tickets in the first installment of our Les Biz (Class) travel series.
#1: Check your inbox
“Look at airline e-mailers. Once in a while, they have limited-time offers. Sometimes, I base my travel destinations on an offer. Most people are like, ‘I’m going to London so I’m only going to check London.’ But the offer may be to Munich or Rome. So, I’d maybe add on that city to my trip. If it’s somewhere I’ve never been, that’s even better ’cos I love going to new places.”
#2: Buy miles
“Every few months, [Colombian national carrier] Avianca Airlines, which is part of Star Alliance, will have a promo where you buy 1-for-1 miles. You can then redeem those miles on any Star Alliance airline. The good thing is the cost of mileage is not very high ’cos you’re buying 1-for-1. The best thing is they don’t charge fuel surcharge. Sometimes, when you redeem miles, you spend, say, 80,000 miles. But the fuel surcharge and taxes come up to $700 on some airlines. A very popular airline in Singapore charges a very high fuel surcharge. Airlines like Avianca don’t charge fuel surcharge so you could possibly fly to New York in Biz Class for about $3,000 to $4,000. You can fly from anywhere in the world! It’sjust like redeeming a mileage ticket. Of course, it all depends on redemption availability and we know that can be really sketchy. Redeeming a flight for a popular route may be close to impossible. You have to plan ahead.”
#3: Don’t fly from Singapore
“Leave from another city. Sometimes, they have really good deals from Bangkok or Colombo or Sri Lanka. So buy tickets from there. I flew to London for $2,800 on Biz Class ’cos it was from Seoul, not Singapore. I flew Business Class too from Singapore to Seoul for $1,000 — this was an offer from our neighbour up-north. Typically, a Biz Class ticket from Singapore to London would cost $6,000. Another time, I went to New York and I flew from Colombo. I bought a Biz Class roundtrip ticket in Colombo to New York for $3,000. My ticket from Singapore to Colombo was $300. If I were to travel between Singapore and New York, the Biz Class ticket would cost at least $6,000 to $7,000.”
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