A dilemma about long haul flights

Some sound advice there from Paul F. If i could just mention something about bulkhead seats though. Yes these seats offer greater legroom, but you can sometimes end up sitting with people traveling with a baby, as the bulkhead seat has a basinette in front of it. As you can imagin this could cause some noise disruption for you if the bambino starts crying alot. Also the bulkhead seats can be slightly narrower as the tray table is usually stowed in the armrest. I hope you have a fantastic trip and just try to enjoy the flights. Personaly i love long hauls. Im one of those crazy folks who flys them just for fun, and broke my distance record early this year by flying just over 20,000 miles in 6days. I was wiped out when i got home, but man i loved it. Enjoy.

Nope. 😀

Thanks Paul! 😉

Cal900, it’s a done thread, the flights are booked. Did you not read through the whole topic?

How old are you? What with you parents been worried etc?

Go via Bangkok.

Get complete smashed in the bars (turn down the attractions of the lady boys, or not depends on your thing) crewel back to the airport, sleep.

And go to Perth on Air Asia.

Long Haul

Hi Dan,

Some tips I’ve learnt from experience on numerous longhauls and numerous different carriers/cabin classes:

1. Drink plenty of water/juice etc during the flight to avoid dehydration – otherwise it just adds to the overall “fatigue” you’ll feel.

2. Do a little research to try and work out which seats (e.g. window) offer minimum disturbance value, but remember that its far easier to get up to stretch your legs or go to the toilet if you are in an aisle seat. Will other pax need to disturb you to get in or out of their seat? Will noise from a nearby galley area or pax using or waiting for the toilets disturb your seat? Bulkhead seats may offer a little more legroom and avoid problem of pax in front reclining their seat into “your” space but you may find your cabin bag has to be stowed in overhead locker that is not easily acessible, and you will be staring straight at a wall when not using IFE, and your seat tray may be less convenient than in a normal seat.

3. Pre-seect or check in as early as possible (on line or in person) to try to get the best seats available. But bear in mind this may mean you have even more time to wait at the departure airport if you check-in early in person.

4. Apart from the first hour and last hour (unless you have a window seat and clear vis to the ground) it’s plain boring. Yes IFE helps, but given interruptions for food/drink, cabin announcements, and the limited “personal space” you have, I find that trying to watch films back to back isn’t much fun.

5. I tend to try to sleep as much as possible – catnaps rather than proper sleep as theres always something happening to disturb sleep. (Earplugs and an eye shade do help, as does a little alcohol – but not too much).

6. And don’t forget you’ve got to add a good few hours to the total journey time to allow for transit from home to airport and check-in and for baggage collection plus transits to final destination etc. Okay so the hour or two on each end is less significant than it is when you’re flying shorthaul, but it still adds a couple of hours each end to what will be a tiring trip.

7. I find it easier to read a number of magazines in flight than a single book – again probably because there’s always something happening to disturb my concentration, so shorter articles are easier to dip in and out of. Broadsheet newspapers are a nightmare to read:rolleyes:

8. Wear suitable clothing – remember you’re going to be eating/sleeping/sitting in it for many hours, in a cabin where you are not in control of the temperature. Dress for your own personal comfort rather than to seek the sartorial approval of others. You can always change from/into trendy streetwear at the airport(s) if you must.

9. A fully loaded/charged Ipod/MP3 and/or portable DVD/laptop means you don’t have to rely on the tastes of the airlines IFE-selection team, and can listen to/watch things that are to your taste.

10. Given option of more or fewer changeovers en route I’d always go for the fewest possible sectors, as each change simply adds more time/potential hassles/frustration to the overall trip. After a couple of hours you’ll just want to get to the final destination as quickly as possible. Although breaking the journey up might seem a good idea, all it means is that you get off the early sector(s) knowing you’ve got to go through the same process all over again – Unless of course, the purpose of the trip is to enjoy the trip itself, which I sense yours is not – most long haul pax simply want to get from A to B as quickly as possible as it’s the destination rather than the journey that is their goal.

Add in time differences and you’ll be suprised how tiring it can be to sit in an aluminium tube watching films for more than a couple of hours!

I am sure others on here may offer other tips, and may even contradict me.

Or alternately try flying busieness class (yes, I know, you’re paying, it’s not on expenses 🙁 )where flatbed/wider seats, more personal space and better cabin service all help – but even those things cannot help overcome the basic fact that you’re sitting in the same place for a very long period of time … I’ve been fortunate enough to fly business class on a couple of occasions and to fly premium economy on other trips, and it does help compared to economy, but the best part of all my longhauls has always been walking out of the destination airport knowing the trip is finally over.

Paul F

Yeah, that was the main reason I felt uncomfortable with that route.

But it’s booked now so no worries anymore.

OK, I have to confess I haven’t read all the points on the page so it may already have been mentioned….BUT, if you book individual sectors with different airliens directly then if you get stranded for some reason (for example if the Jetstar aircraft went tech in HKG) and you missed your conenction, then you would be liable for the cost of the conenction, not the airline that went tech (or whatever), and so you may buy that Virgin Blue flight, miss it, and have to pay an extortionate price for a new flight the day before.

For anyone that might be interested, I have now booked the flights. It was no small feat. Every airline I went to threw a tantrum about something, apart from Virgin.

Outbound:
EK0002 LHR-DXB (A380)
EK0384 DXB-HKG (via.BKK, 777-300)

VS200 HKG-SYD (A340-600)

Return:
VS201 SYD-HKG (A340-600)

EK0381 HKG-DXB (777-200)
EK0001 DXB-LHR (A380)

Are direct flights from HKG to SYD really expensive?

Unfortunately yes, they are pretty extortionate.

Thanks for the rest of the info, I’ll keep it all in mind!

P.S.: Bangkok is just an ugly spread of concrete.

The city or the airport?

Regardless…you’re very much mistaken imo!

quite impressive i think :p

I had to spend about 10 hours in Bangkok…but I was with a mate. It wasn’t too bad. It’s a nice airport – very modern, lots of shops etc. Whether I could fancy 19 hours or not is a different matter.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the supposed troubles over there. I have friends there and their response typically is “what trouble?”

The earlier suggestion about Khaosan Road is what I was going to say. It’s a nice place. Just make sure you eave plenty of time to get back to the airport, it’s quite a trek.

Lots to see around there, just have your wits about you as said. With regards to the drugs thing…just do what I did and check your bag before you check it in. But, lots of those stories will be media hyped..some people in the past have even (supposedly) accepted packages..which then turned out to be drugs. Don’t accept anything from anybody!

Are direct flights from HKG to SYD really expensive?

What about going all the way round, via North America?

Researched, and not cheaper.

What about going all the way round, via North America?

P.S.: Bangkok is just an ugly spread of concrete.

That doesn’t really clear it up at all! Write the route, point to point, and give the length of time at each airport between connections so it makes some kind of sense, like:

LHR-DXB 4 hours DXB-HKG 2 hours HKG-… etc.

Paul

Ok, well for EK:
HKG-BKK = 2hr 40mins
*19hr 45mins stop-over*
BKK-SYD = 8hr 55mins

Total time: 31hr 20mins

For the LoCos:

HKG-SIN = 3hr 40mins
*3hr 05mins stop over*
SIN-PER = 5hr 25 mins
*6hr 10mins stop over*
PER-SYD = 6hr 10mins

Total time: 24hrs 30mins

So the difference is just under 7 hours. So yeah, as I said the Low cost option is quicker, but if there was something to do at BKK it would make things a whole lot easier. I would also quite like the peace of mind of travelling with one airline.

If you give us the dates you want to travel and the price range you want, a few of us could play around with several different options to see if we can come up with something interesting (well, those of us who have too much free time!).

No need! I have spent months planning this trip and have researched options with just about every possible airline. What I’m looking for now is some information to help me make the decision between the two cheapest.

Thailand is OK!!If the Red shirts are on the march again you may have to keep out the city centre but I believe the Gvmt will stop the airport being zapped.19 hours ?You need a hotel but not the airport one ,there are several nearbye and you can get a visa on arrival (good for 28 days).

Thanks very much for the info! I may have to do some research into hotels tonight.

buy a microlight.

Why?….. I’m a glider pilot, I don’t need an engine! :diablo:

1. Bangkok is a great city! 19 hours in the airport? I’d get a taxi to the Khao San Road for the night (45 min drive, approx £3 taxi) and join the party on the street with the rest of the backpackers and £1 beers! If you’re not too hungover make sure you sample some of the amazing food on the streets (about 50p a dish) and take a quick visit to the Grand Palace. The airport is very nice and modern, it had a few teething problems on opening but it’s better than most European airports I’ve been to. There is a pretty huge food hall in the airport as well with mainly Thai food and again quite cheap (why would you want a Burger King?!)

Thanks. And the burger king was a joke, by the way. 😀

2. I flew on Virgin Blue and Jetstar several times in Oz. Just the same as each other and probably on par with someone like EZY in the UK. Professional staff, clean planes but everything else you have to dip in to your pocket for. Jetstar also had a habit of running out of food after the first half of the plane, both times I was sat in the middle on one of their flights they’d run out by the time they reached me (wasn’t impressed on the 4+ hour sector Melbourne-Cairns!)

Thanks again. “on par with someone like EZY”, thats what i suspected. Which is ok, although obviously I’d rather it was EK.

3. I’ve done a lot of low-cost flying for fun and must admit it’s starting to get a bit tiring. Being right next to STN I’ve managed 130 Ryanair flights in the last few years. I’ve finally decided in the last month or so that in the future I can really only be bothered to fly now if I’m going with someone or somewhere for a purpose. Needless to say, long-haul flying tends to be no better. After the initial excitement of getting on board a big plane and messing around with the IFE, it all starts to become the same and you’ll soon just be excited about the destination. However, if you want to make the journey as pleasent as possible then I’d be swayed toward the A380. Economy seats are pretty similar whoever you fly with, but I found the A380 to be about the best organised cabin and most comfortable seating area that I’ve experienced on a wide body.

Ok, that’s good to know. Best not just fly long haul for fun, then. 😀

1. Bangkok is a great city! 19 hours in the airport? I’d get a taxi to the Khao San Road for the night (45 min drive, approx £3 taxi) and join the party on the street with the rest of the backpackers and £1 beers! If you’re not too hungover make sure you sample some of the amazing food on the streets (about 50p a dish) and take a quick visit to the Grand Palace. The airport is very nice and modern, it had a few teething problems on opening but it’s better than most European airports I’ve been to. There is a pretty huge food hall in the airport as well with mainly Thai food and again quite cheap (why would you want a Burger King?!)

2. I flew on Virgin Blue and Jetstar several times in Oz. Just the same as each other and probably on par with someone like EZY in the UK. Professional staff, clean planes but everything else you have to dip in to your pocket for. Jetstar also had a habit of running out of food after the first half of the plane, both times I was sat in the middle on one of their flights they’d run out by the time they reached me (wasn’t impressed on the 4+ hour sector Melbourne-Cairns!)

3. I’ve done a lot of low-cost flying for fun and must admit it’s starting to get a bit tiring. Being right next to STN I’ve managed 130 Ryanair flights in the last few years. I’ve finally decided in the last month or so that in the future I can really only be bothered to fly now if I’m going with someone or somewhere for a purpose. Needless to say, long-haul flying tends to be no better. After the initial excitement of getting on board a big plane and messing around with the IFE, it all starts to become the same and you’ll soon just be excited about the destination. However, if you want to make the journey as pleasent as possible then I’d be swayed toward the A380. Economy seats are pretty similar whoever you fly with, but I found the A380 to be about the best organised cabin and most comfortable seating area that I’ve experienced on a wide body.

buy a microlight.

Bangkok

Thailand is OK!!If the Red shirts are on the march again you may have to keep out the city centre but I believe the Gvmt will stop the airport being zapped.19 hours ?You need a hotel but not the airport one ,there are several nearbye and you can get a visa on arrival (good for 28 days).Dont know how old you are but Bangkok has plenty of life and places to see,just dont accept drinks from women or you might wake up 24 hours later with nothing!!As for Hong Kong I and my family visited it from BKK and only paid 100 pounds return on an Air india flight(3 years ago).There are many travel shops in BKK have a google and see thier prices,thought Thai air were reducing prices right now?

If you give us the dates you want to travel and the price range you want, a few of us could play around with several different options to see if we can come up with something interesting (well, those of us who have too much free time!).

That doesn’t really clear it up at all! Write the route, point to point, and give the length of time at each airport between connections so it makes some kind of sense, like:

LHR-DXB 4 hours DXB-HKG 2 hours HKG-… etc.

Paul

4 sectors with a 19 hour stopover or 3 sectors with relatively short gaps in between. Do you really need me to say which one I’d go for? :rolleyes: 😀

Paul

4 sectors against 3? Ok, I think I need to clarify something. :confused:

The “EK all the way” would be LHR-DXB-HKG(4 night stop-over)-BKK-SYD, returning SYD-BKK-DXB-LHR. So (ignoring the return for the mo) for the HKG onwards thats 2 sectors, right? But 4 sectors total, granted.

The EK + low cost would be LHR-DXB-HKG with emirates, then HKG-SIN-PER-SYD with the LoCo’s., and the same on the way back. From HKG onwards thats 3 sectors, but 5 in total.

Hopefully that clears things up a bit.

So which of the two methods would you suggest Paul?

4 sectors with a 19 hour stopover or 3 sectors with relatively short gaps in between. Do you really need me to say which one I’d go for? :rolleyes: 😀

Paul