This is the most amazing travel deal I ever booked – what’s yours?

Scoring a fantastic travel deal always makes me really happy, as it would for anyone. There’s the feeling of achievement not unlike winning a prize, not to mention the smugness of knowing it’s a job well done.

Out of all the great airfares I’ve managed to purloin over the years, one stands out head and shoulders above the rest. It was a scandalously cheap price that is still talked about today among certain frequent flyers.

Qatar Airways Flash Sale to Auckland

Back in May 2016, Qatar Airways ran a flash sale for three days over a weekend. Prices were good, but one fare in particular caused a sensation. You could fly from Pisa in Italy to Auckland in New Zealand and back to Germany for €1,373 return. In business class!

For context, the best fare I ever had in premium economy on British Airways from Europe to Australia was about the same price. Since then, the lowest business class ticket price for a return from Europe to Australia has been around €2,200. That illustrates just how good this price was!

How Were The Flights?

Much to my amusement, there were other people on my flights who also scored the deal, which we found out in random lounge chit chat in Pisa. They were all usually British Airways customers and it was also their first time on Qatar Airways. Quite frankly, I was thoroughly impressed with all the flights.

First up was an Airbus A320 service from Pisa to Doha, giving me my initial taste of the excellent business class product. This was followed by 16 hours on a Boeing 777-200LR on the world’s longest flight at the time. Heading back from New Zealand meant almost 18 hours on the same aircraft type, followed by my first ever flight on an Airbus A350 for the Doha to Frankfurt. I was well and truly hooked!

What Actually Happened With The Pricing?

Not too long after I flew, I met someone who works at Qatar Airways and I mentioned this travel deal. He remembered it quite specifically, because it was someone he knew that put it online.

That person made a mistake, it was never supposed to be priced at €1,373 return. Once it was discovered, the powers that be at the airline noticed all the free press it was getting, since it essentially blew up the frequent flyer Internet.

Therefore, they let it ride for the flash sale duration at the incorrect price. Not only that, but when the start date of the flights were pushed back, they rebooked people on alternative services with Cathay Pacific without much fuss.

Honoring the bookings and even permitting rebooking garnered the oneworld alliance airline a lot of goodwill within the frequent flyer community. Plenty of people took advantage of the tickets like me, and I wasn’t even going to New Zealand. I hopped across to Australia once I got there, and I probably wasn’t the only one.

Overall Thoughts

I’d previously never thought I would be able to afford to fly Qatar Airways. Even then they were considered a top airline and usually the prices were so high that I didn’t even bother checking their website when planning a holiday.

This travel deal changed my purchasing behaviour. I actively look at the Doha based airline when doing flight searches these days and have flown them on a number of other occasions since. Had I not scored that cheap ticket, I probably would never have flown with them, so I think it was a great decision all round to let that fare ride.

What is the best travel deal you have ever scored? I’d love to hear about it! Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Fsheng666 via Wikimedia Commons.
Boeing 777-200ER by Darren Koch via Wikimedia Commons.