2023 Travel Plans

[Buzzard]

We are also heading for Vietnam and Cambodia in November.
We have booked a Mekong Cruise Siem Reap / Angkor Wat to HCM City, but after that we are building our own itinerary.

We would like to do a 2 night Ha Long Bay cruise from base in Hanoi.
Do you have any experience / suggestions with operators ?

I'm doing a 2 day one night Halong.
My TA in Vietnam was very helpful and gave me quite a few options to choose from. Message me if you would like her details.

 

[Flashback]

OK, can add Christmas in Slovenia now.

 

[OZDUCK]

We have just booked for our trip to the German Christmas markets in December this year arriving in Frankfurt. Like a few others on here we are flying Oman Air in J but with the legs from/to Perth in MH J - on an A330. For both legs of the trip we will have an 11 - 13 hour stopover at KLIA so we will book a 9 hour time slot in the Transit Hotel. The fare for two is about $7-9,000 cheaper than currently available on SQ, QF or QR. We are on the 'old' version of their A330 for the KL/Muscat legs so no Apex suites but a 1-2-1 layout with a flat bed of about 80" but a lot less private.

The only definite plan we have at the moment is to be in a small town just north of Stuttgart on 3/12 so we can go to a fund raising concert for the town band - our friends daughter has been playing in it for a number of years. She also wants to go with us to the Strasbourg Christmas Markets. I am not sure if she is intending to drive us or whether we will all take the train.

I posted this in June. There have been recent reports that Oman Air was having to restructure and cut costs as the Omani government was not prepared to subsidise the extensive losses that the airline has been incurring. It was suggested that flights would be rationalised.

Unfortunately I got a call this evening to say that our booked flights would no longer exist in November/December. Alternatives were offered but they were pretty unworkable and would cut 2 days off our trip. Also the stopover time between the MH flight from Perth was reduced to only 1:45 and this MH flight consistently arrives late often by an hour or more. If we missed that connecting flight in KL we would have to wait 24 hours for the next one and muck up all our bookings in Germany. Also we were offered a return flight on Emirates via Dubai but looking at the itinerary these two legs would be in Y even though we had booked in J.

I have had to cancel our booking and ask for a full refund. This has to be done via e-mail.

Now I am back to looking for flights for roughly 20/11 - 20/12. SQ and CX are about $23,000 for two, QF is around $20,000 and ANA wants over $20,000. Finnair was about $18,000. It looks like we may have to fall back onto the old trick of flying ScootPlus to Singapore and booking another flight out of there. At the moment Vietnam Airlines look like the best bet. We can fly Frankfurt return via Saigon in J for around $7-8,000 for two. Being cautious we will probably spend a night in Singapore on each leg - which actually makes my wife happy. All up the costs, including the hotels, would come out at roughly the same or slightly cheaper than the Oman flights. Obviously at a reduced level of comfort compared to the Oman planes. I don't think the MH legs will be a big loss - except for the Satay. They fly old Air Berlin planes to Perth with a rather odd J setup - it is 1-2-1 but seems very narrow and exposed. The other daily flight uses a pretty basic B737. Hopefully the refund will be quick.

Edit: Flights out of/to Perth were very restricted as well with most dates unavailable.

 

[jase05]

I posted this in June. There have been recent reports that Oman Air was having to restructure and cut costs as the Omani government was not prepared to subsidise the extensive losses that the airline has been incurring. It was suggested that flights would be rationalised.

Unfortunately I got a call this evening to say that our booked flights would no longer exist in November/December. Alternatives were offered but they were pretty unworkable and would cut 2 days off our trip. Also the stopover time between the MH flight from Perth was reduced to only 1:45 and this MH flight consistently arrives late often by an hour or more. If we missed that connecting flight in KL we would have to wait 24 hours for the next one and muck up all our bookings in Germany. Also we were offered a return flight on Emirates via Dubai but looking at the itinerary these two legs would be in Y even though we had booked in J.

I have had to cancel our booking and ask for a full refund. This has to be done via e-mail.

Now I am back to looking for flights for roughly 20/11 - 20/12. SQ and CX are about $23,000 for two, QF is around $20,000 and ANA wants over $20,000. Finnair was about $18,000. It looks like we may have to fall back onto the old trick of flying ScootPlus to Singapore and booking another flight out of there. At the moment Vietnam Airlines look like the best bet. We can fly Frankfurt return via Saigon in J for around $7-8,000 for two. Being cautious we will probably spend a night in Singapore on each leg - which actually makes my wife happy. All up the costs, including the hotels, would come out at roughly the same or slightly cheaper than the Oman flights. Obviously at a reduced level of comfort compared to the Oman planes. I don't think the MH legs will be a big loss - except for the Satay. They fly old Air Berlin planes to Perth with a rather odd J setup - it is 1-2-1 but seems very narrow and exposed. The other daily flight uses a pretty basic B737. Hopefully the refund will be quick.

Edit: Flights out of/to Perth were very restricted as well with most dates unavailable.

That sucks, sorry to hear. I hadn’t realised that WY’s situation was so bad and as much as I love their product it’s definitely something to consider for March when we head back to Europe.
Might just stick with the ever reliable EY

 

[Warks]

OK, can add Christmas in Slovenia now.

We were thinking of doing a Euro Xmas the next time the extended family expects us to host Christmas day... Slovenia or Austria were at the top of the list.

 

[OZDUCK]

That sucks, sorry to hear. I hadn’t realised that WY’s situation was so bad and as much as I love their product it’s definitely something to consider for March when we head back to Europe.
Might just stick with the ever reliable EY

Thanks. This report is similar to what I had seen previously - and worried me.

Oman Air approves major restructuring programme to stem losses and reduce debt

Airline also considering integration with Omani's SalamAir under four-year plan

www.thenationalnews.com

 

[MelbFlyer]

I'll be off in October for my honeymoon -

Melbourne > HK > Paris > Lyon > Barcelona > London > Singapore > Melbourne

Booked a OWA and will be taking trains between Paris / Lyon / Barcelona.

 

[OZDUCK]

Well it took a bit of fiddling around with Oman Air after they cancelled our flights but now the - "Refunded amount will appear in your card account within 14 -30 working days."

The process was that I had to send a request to cancel the booking to their 'refund' address. They replied and asked for my approval to cancel the booking and refund the amount stated in their e-mail to my CC. Unfortunately they had calculated the refund amount by removing a $175 cancellation fee for each person from the amount I had paid. I reminded them that the reason I was cancelling was because they had cancelled the flight I had booked. I heard nothing for 24 hours so I sent another reminder again pointing out again that it was their schedule change that had caused me to request a refund. About 18 hours later I got an e-mail saying that the full amount would be refunded. Again I had to give my permission before the booking was cancelled.

 

[OZDUCK]

Well it took a bit of fiddling around with Oman Air after they cancelled our flights but now the - "Refunded amount will appear in your card account within 14 -30 working days."

The process was that I had to send a request to cancel the booking to their 'refund' address. They replied and asked for my approval to cancel the booking and refund the amount stated in their e-mail to my CC. Unfortunately they had calculated the refund amount by removing a $175 cancellation fee for each person from the amount I had paid. I reminded them that the reason I was cancelling was because they had cancelled the flight I had booked. I heard nothing for 24 hours so I sent another reminder again pointing out again that it was their schedule change that had caused me to request a refund. About 18 hours later I got an e-mail saying that the full amount would be refunded. Again I had to give my permission before the booking was cancelled.

And the full amount has now appeared in my CC account after 3 days.

 

[OZDUCK]

We have jut re-booked our Christmas Markets trip to Germany after Oman cancelled on us. We will now Fly ScootPlus to Singapore and then J on Vietnam Airlines to Frankfurt via Hanoi. Coming back we fly via Saigon to Singapore and have managed to find two SQ J seats using Krysflyer miles- at midnight but at least not waitlisted - back to Perth.

 

[OZDUCK]

We have jut re-booked our Christmas Markets trip to Germany after Oman cancelled on us. We will now Fly ScootPlus to Singapore and then J on Vietnam Airlines to Frankfurt via Hanoi. Coming back we fly via Saigon to Singapore and have managed to find two SQ J seats using Krysflyer miles- at midnight but at least not waitlisted - back to Perth.

We are now travelling on, heaven forbid, QF out of Perth on the day before our Vietnam Airlines flight. I decided to have a look out of interest and on special the QF economy fare was cheaper than ScootPlus. We then paid $80 each and booked exit row seats. All I really wanted ScootPlus for was the extra legroom. So all up it was a little over $100 dearer and we arrive at 17:45 instead of the ungodly hour of 02:50. Plus we get to watch the exciting QF IFE and drown ourselves in premium wine .

The cheapest one way SQ Y fare on the same day was around $200 dearer per person than QF.

 

[Flashback]

Quick little weekend jaunt over to Pristina (Kosovo - another country to tick off the list), £7.77 return for the flight. Will cost £40 return to get to LTN..... but I haven't been to LTN yet, so need to tick that off the list too. May as well check out the Christmas market while I'm there eh @VPS?

 

[jase05]

but I haven't been to LTN yet, so need to tick that off the list too.

You ain’t missing much

 

[Flashback]

You ain’t missing much

Yep, the tick is the only thing missing from that experience...... just need to cross my fingers there's no train strikes that day, which is an every other week event at the moment. Otherwise it's bus & tube into town, then A1/A2 National Express from there.

 

[VPS]

Quick little weekend jaunt over to Pristina (Kosovo - another country to tick off the list), £7.77 return for the flight. Will cost £40 return to get to LTN..... but I haven't been to LTN yet, so need to tick that off the list too. May as well check out the Christmas market while I'm there eh @VPS?

If you must