Airlines

[welshbairn]

31 minutes ago, Karpaty Lviv said:

I’ve flown Prestwick to Rzerzow, train to Pzemsyl, bus to the border and hitch hiked at the other side before. There is a direct train from Pzemsyl to Lviv now but Prestwick have pulled the routed the last time I checked. Was with Ryanair. Rzerzow is a nice wee place as well to spend a day. 

Sure that would have been more fun but a lot longer getting there. Had a look for airports in Poland a bit closer to the border with good connections but couldn't find them. I just remembered flying via Poland was about half the price most people paid for Georgia away a few years ago, via England, Holland or Turkey. Worth bearing in mind if the timetable connections look decent, and you're too lazy to get a bus to Luton Airport!

[Ingo ohne Flamingo]

Going to add to the praise of Jet2 as well though I used to hate flying them purely for that annoying Jess Glynn tune. 

Had a holiday to Mallorca in July and it got cancelled, got a text then an email, then waited for them to contact me. 7 days later an email again to say a refund will be made within 28 days, it was in my account that night. 

Then rebooked with Jet2 to ibiza for the end of July, quarantine kicked in and I phoned, couldn't find an alternative to the lassie actioned a refund for me saying it'd take 3 to 5 days, still on the call my PayPal flagged up saying money was in the account. Brilliant service! 

Ended up getting away in the end but that was a Ryanair effort to corfu and booked it the day before we left. 

[vikingTON]

Bump. I'm looking at booking a long haul flight from Asia to the UK next year. I'm flexible on the exact date so have a choice between a few different carriers, connections etc. Is there any substantial difference between the carriers below (or perks via connections) or is it all much of a muchness?

Turkish

Qatar (seems to be operating as BA too)

Singapore

[Eednud]

2 hours ago, virginton said:

Bump. I'm looking at booking a long haul flight from Asia to the UK next year. I'm flexible on the exact date so have a choice between a few different carriers, connections etc. Is there any substantial difference between the carriers below (or perks via connections) or is it all much of a muchness?

Turkish

Qatar (seems to be operating as BA too)

Singapore

Not knowing where your departure point is have a look at Finnair as they have flights from SIN, BKK and HKG and are quite often reasonably priced. 

[Michael W]

Qatar is very well set up for connections and so transiting through Doha is a breeze. In terms of comfort I found them good, especially if on the A380 or A350. I don't like their 777s though as the seats are narrow to accommodate 10 across. I think there are very few airlines still flying 9 across on their 777s, unfortunately. 

Can't comment on the other two. 

9 hours ago, Eednud said:

Not knowing where your departure point is have a look at Finnair as they have flights from SIN, BKK and HKG and are quite often reasonably priced. 

The inability to overfly Russia has thrown a pretty big spanner in the works for them, with extended flight times. 

[Savage Henry]

2 hours ago, Michael W said:

Qatar is very well set up for connections and so transiting through Doha is a breeze. In terms of comfort I found them good, especially if on the A380 or A350. I don't like their 777s though as the seats are narrow to accommodate 10 across. I think there are very few airlines still flying 9 across on their 777s, unfortunately. 

Can't comment on the other two. 

The inability to overfly Russia has thrown a pretty big spanner in the works for them, with extended flight times. 

Big fan of using Doha as a hub.  Middle Eastern airlines in general are pretty decent,  although the Manchester to Doha night flight is notorious for being a massive piss up.  
 

New Istanbul can be a hike so watch the layover times.  
 

 

[Have some faith in Magic]

Qatar 787 economy is horrendous space wise. Especially with the underseat entertainment boxes in front. 

[MONKMAN]

22 hours ago, virginton said:

Bump. I'm looking at booking a long haul flight from Asia to the UK next year. I'm flexible on the exact date so have a choice between a few different carriers, connections etc. Is there any substantial difference between the carriers below (or perks via connections) or is it all much of a muchness?

Turkish

Qatar (seems to be operating as BA too)

Singapore

Have used all 3 and they’re all up there amongst the best I’ve flown. Doha, Istanbul and Singapore airports are very easy to transit. Very little between them, but I’ve got to admit I was very surprised at just how good the food and service on Turkish was.  Out of the 3, I’d opt for Turkish or Singapore, but would more than likely try and tie in a few days in Singapore as part of the trip. Incredible place.  

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

22 hours ago, virginton said:

Bump. I'm looking at booking a long haul flight from Asia to the UK next year. I'm flexible on the exact date so have a choice between a few different carriers, connections etc. Is there any substantial difference between the carriers below (or perks via connections) or is it all much of a muchness?

Turkish

Qatar (seems to be operating as BA too)

Singapore

Apparently Singapore are excellent to fly with. Food meant to be great. 

[LuboMoravcik]

Singapore Airlines is the best in the world, as is Changi airport in Singapore. So much better than any of the shite we have in the UK.

[hk blues]

20 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

Big fan of using Doha as a hub.  Middle Eastern airlines in general are pretty decent,  although the Manchester to Doha night flight is notorious for being a massive piss up.  
 

New Istanbul can be a hike so watch the layover times.  
 

 

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[vikingTON]

On 14/09/2023 at 20:17, MONKMAN said:

Out of the 3, I’d opt for Turkish or Singapore, but would more than likely try and tie in a few days in Singapore as part of the trip. Incredible place.  

I've got two weeks to see Vietnam from north to south so will pass on Singapore this time, though I did consider it. The transition to Singapore costs at the end of that fortnight would probably cloud the judgment anyway. 

I've used the collective wisdom of the thread to choose Singapore - a quick hour and a bit layover from Ho Chi Minh City and then to Paris for £500.

Scoot seem to be offering flights for literally half that price to Berlin or Athens, but for such a long haul it seems an unwise trade-off. 

[highlandmac]

On 18/08/2020 at 18:56, Karpaty Lviv said:

I’ve flown Prestwick to Rzerzow, train to Pzemsyl, bus to the border and hitch hiked at the other side before. There is a direct train from Pzemsyl to Lviv now but Prestwick have pulled the routed the last time I checked. Was with Ryanair. Rzerzow is a nice wee place as well to spend a day. 

Just watching first episode of "living next door to Putin",I think it's obvious why Ryanair arent flying into there anymore,it's no longer a sleepy provincial airport!

Lovely place(though my first impressions,into the building site of a train station in the middle of a blizzard,weren't great),well worth a visit&a piece of cake to get to from Krakow 

[Karpaty Lviv]

52 minutes ago, highlandmac said:

Just watching first episode of "living next door to Putin",I think it's obvious why Ryanair arent flying into there anymore,it's no longer a sleepy provincial airport!

Lovely place(though my first impressions,into the building site of a train station in the middle of a blizzard,weren't great),well worth a visit&a piece of cake to get to from Krakow 

I got the train from Krakow to Pzemysl last year, didn’t have time to stop off at Rzerzow.

I’m taking the bus next month from Warsaw to Lviv, I’m not looking forward to the wait at the border but it’ll be in the middle of the night so hopefully won’t be too long. 

Question RE Ryanair - if I buy the cheap ticket, can I add check in luggage at a later date? I think I did this before but can’t quite remember.

Edited September 20, 2023 by Karpaty Lviv

[doulikefish]

24 minutes ago, Karpaty Lviv said:

I got the train from Krakow to Pzemysl last year, didn’t have time to stop off at Rzerzow.

I’m taking the bus next month from Warsaw to Lviv, I’m not looking forward to the wait at the border but it’ll be in the middle of the night so hopefully won’t be too long. 

Question RE Ryanair - if I buy the cheap ticket, can I add check in luggage at a later date? I think I did this before but can’t quite remember.

Yes you can when you do the online check in 

[welshbairn]

30 minutes ago, Karpaty Lviv said:

 

Question RE Ryanair - if I buy the cheap ticket, can I add check in luggage at a later date? I think I did this before but can’t quite remember.

 

5 minutes ago, doulikefish said:

Yes you can when you do the online check in 

Aye, you can do it online at anytime but you'll pay more if you wait till you get to the airport.

[Flybhoy]

Anyone on here flown with Air France before?
I'm off to Madrid with them on Monday and wondered if you are crammed in like Ryanair/EasyJet, being relatively tall/big I tend to boom extra leg room seats with them, what are AF like for legroom/space ?

[hk blues]

9 hours ago, Flybhoy said:

Anyone on here flown with Air France before?
I'm off to Madrid with them on Monday and wondered if you are crammed in like Ryanair/EasyJet, being relatively tall/big I tend to boom extra leg room seats with them, what are AF like for legroom/space ?

Years since I flew with them but my lasting memory is that they are the only airline that has charged me for additional carry-on baggage weight.  And it was Christmas. C***s! 

[Molotov]

Planning a trip to USA next year to visit 3 cities San Diego-San Fran-Las Vegas.

Departure airport will be Paisley International.

I’m more than happy to look at all options as I know I will need a connecting flight. So I don’t mind getting my transatlantic connections via Reykjavik, Amsterdam  Dublin, etc rather than London. 

I use Google Flights and other such tools to look at flights times and costs. 

I don’t bother with inflight meals or entertainment so that’s not a concern. 

Happy to hear from the P&B massive as to what your preference would be on USA international and domestic airlines they would use on such a trip. 

Thank You. 

[MP_MFC]

Benefits of using Dublin are obviously pre clearing immigration but there are a couple of dogs in the AL long haul fleet that area old ex Qatar planes with lots of broken seats, IFE and the massive boxes under seats for it. They are due to be refurbed in the next few months though. 
 

iceland is a really great transfer in my experience, the airport is probably somewhere between Prestwick and Inchinnan Intercontinental in terms of size and I found Icelandair very good to fly with and obviously Play are also there if you want to gamble on the latest low cost Icelandic offering not going bust. 
 

As for US carriers I’ve not personally used any other than AA who were fine but by all accounts jet blue and southwest are great, the legacy carriers are hit and miss and the likes of Spirit and Frontier should be considered worse than Ryanair.