🥂 Best business class flights of 2025

Estimated read time: 5 minutes and 23 seconds

👋🏼 Good morning, homies! Today’s newsletter is going to be a bit different.

I’m going to tell you about some amazing business and first-class flights I took this year. You’ll see what they look like and, more importantly, how you can book them for yourself.

So, without further ado…

Y’all… I flew a LOT of amazing airline products in 2025… In total, I flew business and first class 54 times this year.

In fact, I’m literally in a KLM business-class suite right now – and I still have multiple luxury flights left before December 31st.

But, I'd like to share with you some of the flights I've booked this year, show you what they look like, and explain how to book them for yourself.

Qatar business class

I flew Qatar business class EIGHT TIMES this year, three of which were in Qsuites:

I had some amazing flights and some more… interesting ones (like flying first-class from Syria). Anyway, I’ve written extensively about Qatar, Qsuites, Doha Airport, and more…

So for now, I’ll just say – Qatar never disappoints. Even without Qsuites, I just always know I’m in for a treat when flying with Qatar.

My favorite way (and the best-value way) to book Qatar flights is transferring points to Avios, especially when there is a transfer bonus.

Aer Lingus business class

I also wrote a big-boy article about Aer Lingus’ inaugural flight to Nashville and how I got to fly their new A321-neo multiple times in business class.

I loved these flights.

The fact that you can easily book it from various U.S. cities for just 45,000 Atmos points or 50,000 Avios makes it a great sweet spot, in my opinion.

Singapore Airlines business class

I have flown Singapore Airlines’ business class a number of times, including two lovely flights this year.

As someone who lives in Indonesia, Singapore is one of the most convenient options for me to go… like… anywhere.

I like Singapore because I know that even if I’m booking flights on their narrow-body 737s, I’ll always be in a lie-flat seat.👇

It’s nice to not have to play the “find the plane with a good seat” game with them.

Singapore has the best service, consistently incredible seats, one of my favorite airports on earth, and plenty of ways to book flights.

For example, you can book Singapore between the U.S. and Europe for just 60,000 Aeroplan points in business class, or sometimes even less with Singapore’s monthly Spontaneous Escapes deals.

Malaysia Airlines A330-900neo business class

This one realllllllllyyyyyy surprised me… back in May, I flew from Myanmar to New Zealand (like one does) on Malaysia Airlines for 75,000 Atmos points.

The second leg (which was about 11 hours long) was on Malaysia’s newest long-haul plane – in sleek new business-class suites with closing doors and free unlimited wifi.

It was so darn comfy, and such a great deal for flying that distance… If you’re traveling around Asia and see this pop up as an option, I can’t recommend it enough.

Garuda Indonesia x15

Yup… I flew Garuda Indonesia in business class fifteen times this year. To be fair, I live in Indonesia, so it’s my “home” airline.

I found so many good deals flying Garuda, both domestically and between Indonesia and Australia, Japan, Korea, and Thailand.

They don’t have the flashiest hard products, but they do have four major things going for them:

• Low business-class prices

• Good award availability through partners

• The best crews in the world (seriously, they’re so nice)

• A great program for earning SkyTeam Elite Plus status

Best of all, if you’re flying domestically in Indonesia (or even flying internationally to Singapore), you can use KLM/Air France Flying Blue to book Garuda flights for 5,500 miles in economy or 15,000 in business class.

Fiji Airways business class

This one was kind of disappointing… I flew Fiji Airways business class twice this year, including one flight on their wide-body A330.

Sadly, their fleet seems so dated, and the service was… well… very bad.

Still, if you’re traveling to the South Pacific, Fiji flies as far as Dallas (DFW) nonstop to Nadi.

And as a oneworld airline, you can use multiple points programs to fly with them, including Atmos points.

Best of all? It’ll only cost you 400,000 points each way (I’m serious).👇

Japan Airlines domestic first class

I also wrote about how to book JAL’s domestic first class on the cheap earlier this year, so I won’t get into it too much now.

But I just think it’s so cool how you can book a flight like this in Japan for soooo cheap, even on a short 1.5-hour flight.

In case you didn’t know, Japanese airlines like JAL and ANA let you upgrade your ticket on the day of departure at the airport quite cheaply.

If you fly these airlines long-haul, you can enjoy some of the best seats in the sky, including ANA’s “The Room,” which you can read about how to book here.

Korean Air’s new 787-10 business-class suites

This was another one of my favorites, though slightly disappointing at the same time.

Korean Air recently launched its new business-class Prestige Suite product on its 787-10 planes, and it’s freaking gorgeous.

Like most widebody planes, they typically fly this on longer routes… but they also offer it on one short 3-hour hop between Seoul and Sapporo, Japan.

You can even use Delta SkyMiles to book this for super cheap (if you can hunt down award space 😉).

Sadly, despite these being super spacious, brand-new suites with doors, the doors are legally required to stay open as Korean Air hasn’t received regulatory approval to unlock them. 😑

Korean Air isn’t my favorite airline in the world, but if they start retrofitting planes with this product, I’d fly them as much as possible.

Emirates first class (obviously)

I was lucky enough to fly Emirates first class TWICE this year, both on fifth-freedom routes.

Here’s what I did in both cases:

I booked cheap business-class seats, then transferred Capital One miles to Emirates to upgrade to first class after booking.

In the most recent case (from Bangkok to Hong Kong), I paid just 11,500 miles to upgrade to first…

… talk about a solid use of points, right?

Booking into business and using miles to upgrade is still the best way to experience Emirates first class (until Capital One devalues their transfer ratio next year 😭).

Saudia business class

In case you didn’t know, Saudia has multiple fantastic business-class products, even on some of their small planes.

I flew their A330 from Jeddah to Nairobi a few months ago and loved every second of it.

Comfy lie-flat seats, great food, fast wi-fi, and a nice shiny Middle-Eastern airport in Jeddah.

Here’s the other cool thing about Saudia…

While everyone else is jumping over each other to book award seats on Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Oman Air, and Gulf Air, Saudia is just chillin.

There’s frequent availability from New York to Jeddah through Flying Blue for about 100,000 miles each way, for example.

That’s a lot, but Flying Blue has very frequent transfer bonuses from various banks. And when you shave 20% or 30% off, that’s a very good deal for 12 hours in lie-flat business class.

Plus, I see availability on other SkyTeam programs like SAS and Delta, making it one of the easier Middle Eastern airlines to book with points.

Etihad business class

Back in September, I flew Etihad from Jakarta to Boston via Abu Dhabi, basically soaking in this amazing business class for like 22 hours.

This was one of the best business-class experiences of my life.

And while I was super excited to try out the new suites with closing doors, I was again disappointed to find that the doors were not allowed to be closed for regulatory reasons. 🤦‍♂️

Anyway, Etihad can be booked with a few different points currencies, all of which are accessible as transfer partners from U.S. banks:

• Etihad Guest miles

• Aeroplan points

• AAdvantage miles

Cathay Pacific

I’ve found that I just freaking love Cathay. I love their seats, their brand, Hong Kong airport, and the deals.

I have flown Cathay’s business class… too many times – including three times this year.

As someone who travels to China often, I love that I can book lie-flat seats on 2-3 hour flights for just 16,000 Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles.

Plus, in terms of getting between the U.S. and Asia in economy, Cathay miles offer the single best deal:

• 27,000 miles from West Coast cities (Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles)

• 38,000 miles from every other city

Since Cathay Pacific miles can be easily earned from U.S. credit cards, I think it’s one of the best programs out there – not to mention there’s usually a transfer bonus at least once a year.

In summary

There are a bunch of other airlines I flew in business class this year that we don’t have time to talk about (and aren’t as exciting).

But in summary, I feel lucky to have been able to experience all of these cool flights in just one year – and I hope you learned a thing or two about how to book some of them for yourself.

Take care and see you next time,

52.3676° N, 4.9041° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt