Daytime flight Asia to Australia? And related Europe via Asia questions

[Rebekkap]

Try Perth. We hate the o'night flight from Bali so flying through Perth departing at 8.30am.

Thanks for the suggestion - I'm quite keen to avoid the four hour flight back from Perth after two longish flights in quick succession though!

1. CX139 HKG-SYD, CX156 HKG-BNE, CX163 HKG-MEL, CX171 HKG-PER, MH125 KUL-PER, MH141 KUL-SYD, MH129 KUL-MEL. QF has none, JL has none, BA has none.

2. AY J fares out of BKK tend to be better than other Asian cities. Maybe a CX fare to BKK? CX fares to BKK do allow stopovers in HKG if you prefer HKG over BKK as your stopover. If you choose to only transit in BKK, make sure that you get all your tickets in a single PNR via a TA so that your bags get through-checked.

3. Avoid the middle east...

Definitely avoiding the middle east - that's why I started looking at Asian options! CX seems to be ridiculously expensive whenever I look at their fares though - about three times more than any other airline. There may be a way of finding more reasonably priced options I don't know about?

I can provide some input on the third question as Ms 13yo is ASD and takes Vyvance (a once-a-day analogue of Ritalin). Back in 2013 we took the family to the USA and we made sure before we left that we got a covering letter from her pedeatrician advising of her condition and medication and dosage. We showed this to Customs outbound with the medication and showed it to CBP on arrival in the US as well as when leaving.

If you're going to stop over in Singapore, read this... Bringing Personal Medications into Singapore | HSA | Health Sciences Authority

Thank you, useful information - we definitely plan to get a letter from the psychiatrist before we go explaining the condition, the medication and the dose. This sort of thing really adds to the stress I must say!

With the combinations of flights and classes how much are you looking to spend each on return flights?

Not totally sure at this point - just starting to investigate. Obviously cheaper is always better!

May I suggest you give Finnair a call and see how much their combi fares are from Australia to Europe. My boss has recently booked a J flight via Finnair to Europe and it was a very good price... so perhaps their combi fares will also be good and it'll also be on the same ticket. You can fly QF/CX in Y to HKG and then Finnair J from there. So can get a day flight to / from Asia

Thanks, I will do that - and HKG is one of my preferred options so that sounds good.

Try CX157 HKG/BNE departs 11.35am arrives 10.15pm.

Definitely an option, thanks!

 

[madrooster]

Definitely avoiding the middle east - that's why I started looking at Asian options! CX seems to be ridiculously expensive whenever I look at their fares though - about three times more than any other airline. There may be a way of finding more reasonably priced options I don't know about?

PM me what you'd like to do itinerary wise and dates, I have GDS access so might be better placed to see if there's anything more suitable as I'll be able to see fares that don't regularly price up on airline websites.

 

[Rebekkap]

PM me what you'd like to do itinerary wise and dates, I have GDS access so might be better placed to see if there's anything more suitable as I'll be able to see fares that don't regularly price up on airline websites.

Thank you, that's very kind - I've PMd you

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Note that flying MH as a QFF earns you SC only in whY and flexY, no J or F from KUL - Aust.

 

[wandering_fred]

Chinese visas were mentioned. Note that when arriving into Peking/Shanghai from one non-Chinese city and departing to a DIFFERENT non-Chinese city transit with a visa is permitted. Other cities are also included with the time limit varying with the transit city. Three days seems to be "normal".

As CX has multiple daytime flights to eastern Australia, simply ticket from BKK/SGN or TPE for more reasonable fares.

Happy wandering

Fred

 

[GoldCanyon340]

and a separate flight CDG-LHR (ugh, BA)

I've done some hops between CDG/ORY and LHR/LGW the past few months and BA has been ok (not even BA can mess up such a short flight). Myself and Mrs340 purchased hand luggage only fares where you don't get a seat allocated until checkin but we've been given exit row seats on each occasion (thanks OWE).

 

[Lowjhg]

FJ does SIN-NAN departing at 1015 and arrives at 0020 if you were also looking for an extended holiday by going via NAN. FJ earns full QFF points and SC i think too

 

[Rebekkap]

I've done some hops between CDG/ORY and LHR/LGW the past few months and BA has been ok (not even BA can mess up such a short flight). Myself and Mrs340 purchased hand luggage only fares where you don't get a seat allocated until checkin but we've been given exit row seats on each occasion (thanks OWE).

I've done one hour flights on BA. I loathe them, would rather fly JQ.

 

[Himeno]

Chinese visas were mentioned. Note that when arriving into Peking/Shanghai from one non-Chinese city and departing to a DIFFERENT non-Chinese city transit with a visa is permitted. Other cities are also included with the time limit varying with the transit city. Three days seems to be "normal".

As CX has multiple daytime flights to eastern Australia, simply ticket from BKK/SGN or TPE for more reasonable fares.

Happy wandering

Fred

The Chinese transit visas can be complex. Depending on what you are doing and what routing you are using, you might need one, or you might not.
If you are in transit to a 3rd country (Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau count as 3rd countries), and you have a passport issued by a listed country (AU and NZ are both listed), you can get a 72 hour visa on arrival at Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Beijing, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Guangzhou, Guilin, Kunming, Shenyang, Tianjin, Wuhan, Xiamen or Xian. You can not leave that city during the 72 hour period, must arrive/depart from the same city and can not stop elsewhere in mainland China.
SYD-PVG-LHR counts, SYD-PEK-PVG-FRA does not, nor does SYD-CAN-MEL. SYD-PVG-HKG-SYD would also count, even if that HKG is only a transit itself.
If you are doing something like SYD-PEK-PVG-FRA, you'll need a 24 hour transit visa before you depart.

Some cities count the 72 hours from 00:01 the morning after you arrive. Others count it as per flight schedules.

 

[ozmille]

That reminds me - QF72 SIN-PER is another option. Arrives in Perth just before midnight.

5+ hrs in a 737 is not something I would look forward to though :shock: also around Christmas that flight seems to be departing SIN at 1910 arrival 0030

 

[Borisdog]

5+ hrs in a 737 is not something I would look forward to though :shock: also around Christmas that flight seems to be departing SIN at 1910 arrival 0030

Any more than 2 hours on a 737 renders me almost suicidal.

 

[Mattg]

5+ hrs in a 737 is not something I would look forward to though :shock: also around Christmas that flight seems to be departing SIN at 1910 arrival 0030

To be honest, I agree with you... just putting it out there as a possibility.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

I know cost isn't your only criteria but as far as it goes MH might be an option.

As has been observed MEL-BKK on MH can have you flying back to MEL on MH129 departing 10:30 arriving 21:25.
Despite the extra sector MEL-BKK is a little cheaper than MEL-KUL and it positions you for ticketing from BKK which is cheaper than from KUL.
The trick is to watch for MH's business promo fares which pop up regularly. They're available now on MEL-BKK but not currently for BKK-LHR.
You would obviously need to ticket this as two separate, nested return itineraries (MEL-BKK-MEL and BKK-LHR-BKK).

And of course the 4 BKK sectors in J give you 160 SCs each for essentially no cost.
Which more than compensates for the low SCs on the 2 MEL sectors.

You could choose to stopover either in BKK or KUL. On the way back you would have to overnight in KUL to pickup your preferred daytime flight to MEL.
If you don't want that to be a stopover and you don't want to mess with customs and immigration you could use your QF plat to access the MH First lounge.
A la carte dining (limited though it is) for dinner and breakfast, and hopefully you could get one or two sleeperette rooms since you're there overnight.
They have proper (single) beds, although the doors have small translucent windows in them so they are not completely dark.

If you don't like BA your only OW option for LHR-Paris is IB via Madrid. Two sectors but then two sets of status credits.

Note that even if you book this separately (which you may need to because if you try to book to CDG MH will try to book you on new EK codeshares) as long as it is all OW MH will still through check you and your bags.
They will not be applying the new OW rules which would allow them to refuse to throughcheck you because you have two separate bookings.
So MH would take responsibility if you were delayed and missed your LHR-CDG/ORY flight.
Of course BA/IB may not extend the same courtesy ex-Paris for the return flights.

Unfortunately you would have to put up with 737s for the 4 BKK sectors but they're only 2 hours each and you'd have an A380 for the LHR sectors and one of the refurbished A330s for the MEL sectors.

PS: I know nothing about the approach of either Malaysia or Thailand to travellers with prescription drugs so I have ignored that issue.