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A number of Star Alliance airlines are currently offering good Business Class fares for travel between Stockholm and Beijing but one airline in particular is offering a truly fantastic deal.
Right now Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian are all offering sub $1,900 roundtrip Business Class fares between Stockholm and Beijing but it’s their Star Alliance partner LOT that’s stealing the show with a fare that can be booked for under $1,650.
The Routings
Unsurprisingly all the airlines route their flights through their primary hubs so, depending on which airline you fly with, you’ll be transiting through Zurich, Munich, Frankfurt, Vienna or Warsaw on your way to Beijing.
The journey times are not all that different so your choice will come down to which flight times work better for you, which airline you prefer to fly and, of course, the price.
The Fares
Austrian Business Class From ~$1,842
Lufthansa Business Class From ~$1,833
SWISS Business Class From ~$1,840
LOT Polish Airlines Business Class From ~$1,630
The Fare Rules
The fare rules differ depending on which airline you choose to go with so, as LOT is offering the cheapest fare (by some way), it’s LOT’s fare rules that I’m going to show below.
- Bookings must be made at least 14 days ahead of travel
- Minimum stay is 3 days
- Maximum stay is 12 months
- 2 free stopovers permitted – 1 in each direction
- Valid for travel commencing on/after 28 March 2019*
- Accompanied children/infants (2 – 11) with their own seat cost 75% of the adult fare
- Accompanied infants (<2 years old) without their own seat cost 10% of the adult fare
* The well-priced fare from LOT is available from February.
Fare Availability
Once again the availability of these fares will vary depending on which airline you choose to go with – some have better availability that others.
Fortunately, the cheapest fare from LOT also has the best availability and even if you filter out all the itineraries with long layovers and overnight stops you still end up with a pretty good choice of dates throughout the year….as the screenshots below illustrate.
The best LOT fare is available from the end of February….
….and availability gets better in March….
…before settling down into a pattern from April onwards…
With excellent availability throughout the year this is definitely one of the better Business Class fares we’ve seen to Beijing for a few months.
Finding The Fares
I used the Matrix ITA Airfare Search to find these deal – here’s an example set of parameters that may be helpful for anyone search for the LOT deal:
If you wish to find more availability (and are prepared for longer layovers or overnight stops) simply avoid using the “maxdur” commands you see in the image above.
If you’d like to see availability for other airlines just remove the LO+ commands from the search parameters.
Booking The Fare
You can’t book the fares via the Matrix search so, once you’ve found dates that work for you, you should book via the route which is most beneficial to you.
By this I mean….
- If you’re using a credit card that gives you a bonus for booking directly with an airline you should make sure you book via LOT, SWISS, Lufthansa etc….
- If you’re using a credit card that gives you a bonus for all travel bookings you should be safe booking through most online travel agents or the airline directly.
The fares are easy to find on Google Flights….
…and you should be aware that you can mix and match airlines with these deals too:
Where To Credit The Flights
All of the airlines mentioned above are members of the Star Alliance so there’s a wide choice of loyalty programs to which its flights can be credited….but you need to be careful – you get a lot more credit with some programs than you do with others.
To give yourself all the information you need to make the best decision I suggest using the Wheretocredit tool and, only after making sure you understand with program works best for you, then choosing where to credit the flights.
Bottom Line
At under $1,650 for roundtrip Business Class the LOT fare stands out as one of the better fares I’ve seen to China for a while and the fact that it’s so easy to find is the icing on the cake.
The other Star-Alliance fares are good (if not exactly spectacular) and they offer decent options if for some reason you can’t make the LOT fare work or you’re happy to pay a little more for a different airline.
