Travel Hack? Booking Batik Air Business Class on Economy price
Batik Air A320 Business Class - KUL-SIN
Accidentally stumbled upon an interesting discovery for flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur with Batik Air. A potential travel hack?
While organizing my flights for a mattress run in Kuala Lumpur (more details to come in a future blog post!), I uncovered an intriguing observation about Batik Air flights, which I was not able to see when checking on the Google Flights website.
The Unexpected Finding
I was specifically looking for the cheapest Economy class flights from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. However, there was a caveat: I required checked luggage to be included as I will be bringing along a substantial amount of stuff (including liquids) for this trip.
On that specific date, Batik Air appeared to have pricing quite comparable to Jetstar and AirAsia (typically the most budget-friendly options for this route). Thinking that Batik Air would include check-in luggage in the price (making it more cost-effective compared to the other two, which don't offer complimentary checked baggage), I clicked onto the main website (I usually prefer to book directly with the airlines), and found that it was an Economy Super Saver rate, in which there was no complimentary seat selection, check-in luggage and lounge access.
But then, I found out something even more interesting: the Business Promo rate was available at the same price as the Economy Super Saver rate! I didn't think to take a snapshot of it at the time since I wasn't planning to write about it (so you have to take my word for it), but it became a no-brainer for me to book this option. What a steal!
For your information, comparing with the Economy Super Saver rate, the Business Promo rate provides the following perks:
A Business Class seat (of course)
An extra piece cabin bag with max. 10kg
Checked baggage allowance (30kg)
Complimentary seat selection
While lounge access wasn't included, it didn't pose a problem for me since I had my complimentary Priority Pass visits on hand.
Not sure if it was a glitch on the Batik Air website, or whether they were just selling empty Business Class seats (the demand should be definitely lesser on these short routes) but it might be worth a try to search directly on their website for future flights—you might just get lucky!
Another interesting (but less useful) observation was the comparison between Economy Flexi and Business Class (both Promo and Flexi)—surprisingly, Business Class was the more economical option! Do not make the mistake of booking Economy Flexi.
I have already experienced Batik Air’s Business Class, and I have to say that it is truly worthwhile (at the price that I paid), and I would even venture to say that it is better than the Business Class offering from Singapore Airlines on this route! More on this in an upcoming post.
Conclusion
Occasionally, you stumble upon unexpected discoveries, and it was definitely the case for this “travel hack”. I will definitely be keeping an eye on the Batik Air website for my future travels to Kuala Lumpur!
