Every year, there is a large travel fair in Manila, the Travel Expo held at the SMX Convention Center near the Mall of Asia, and it has traditionally offered the best fare deals in the Philippines! Last year, we scored some business class tickets on Philippine Airlines to London for only $1,474 (read here) – less than economy class on other carriers. We were excited to see what would be on offer this year! Usually the deals are only available on site, so you have to brave the crowds to get them!

After collecting flyers from all the major airlines, we were disappointed to see that PAL had fumbled the ball completely this year – the sale prices were barely less than their regular prices and they were even more expensive than some premium airlines like Qatar, Emirates or Cathay Pacific. Malaysia Airlines was the surprise winner of the 2015 Travel Expo with discounted business class tickets from Manila to Europe (London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Istanbul) starting at $1,600. I wanted to book it right than and there – but to my surprise, they were not able to book at the fair and were only taking interest, with booking happening the next day by phone. The good news was that the fares would be available online for non-Expo visitors as well, all the way through February 28th!

With that, its a great opportunity to score some bargain business class fares to Europe. I managed to book a ticket from Manila to London, returning from Frankfurt/Main, allowing me to try out the Business Class product on their Airbus A380 as well as the Boeing B777! Friends asked, if I was ok to fly Malaysian Airlines after tragically loosing two airplanes last year – and I am: The circumstances of those losses were very unique and I feel perfectly save flying with them! As a OneWorld member airline, I will earn 125% of miles (Not based on revenue!! – looking at you DeltaUnited) on American Airlines, Air Berlin or British Airways, my favorite OneWorld carriers! If you want to save some money, you can fly in Economy for $690 round-trip – for mileage hunters, that’s 16,350 miles for $690 or 4cents/mile, a great deal! So, go check out those fares ex-Manila and have a fun trip!