Flight to London - which airline?

[Julesmac]

Question for the brains trust on here. My lovely daughter is shouting me a trip to the UK. I'll be travelling alone in April/May next year. I'm 75 and haven't flown o/s for 12 years -with SQ business on the A380. I'd probably have to fly cattle class having given away my points to her, have none for an upgrade. Suggestions for best value & comfort?

Post automatically merged: Monday at 7:44 PM

and a lowly bronze - would I get lounge access anywhere?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Question for the brains trust on here. My lovely daughter is shouting me a trip to the UK. I'll be travelling alone in April/May next year. I'm 75 and haven't flown o/s for 12 years -with SQ business on the A380. I'd probably have to fly cattle class having given away my points to her, have none for an upgrade. Suggestions for best value & comfort?

Post automatically merged: Monday at 7:44 PM

and a lowly bronze - would I get lounge access anywhere?

As per above… Emirates is top notch. I did a flight on them recently BKK-HKG and was really impressed… full meal tray of tasty food, superb selection of IFE, comfortable seats, generous recline. I had an exit row which was even more comfortable. Hint…to give you an idea of the quality, the economy bathrooms are stocked with lotions and positions by the White Company (London).

Helps that they’re also pretty competitively priced for that period at around $2000 (all the majors including qantas are in the $2000-$2300 range).

 

[Forg]

Question for the brains trust on here. My lovely daughter is shouting me a trip to the UK. I'll be travelling alone in April/May next year. I'm 75 and haven't flown o/s for 12 years -with SQ business on the A380. I'd probably have to fly cattle class having given away my points to her, have none for an upgrade. Suggestions for best value & comfort?

Post automatically merged: Monday at 7:44 PM

and a lowly bronze - would I get lounge access anywhere?

I don’t think you’ll get lounge access without paying.

If she’s happy to pay Emirates or Qatar or Etihad or Qantas economy prices, it might be worth keeping an eye out for 2nd-tier carrier premium economy (eg. China Airlines which is actually Taiwanese not CCP-spec, or Vietnamese Airlines). The inflight entertainment won’t be as good, inflight food is always terrible on all airlines so that doesn’t matter, but if you can provide your own entertainment the extra room is sooo much more comfy.
We went Business on China Airlines in 2018 as it was only about $3k each, but at the same time their Premium Economy prices were available for a bit less than the Qantas discounted economy fares available.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I don’t think you’ll get lounge access without paying.

If she’s happy to pay Emirates or Qatar or Etihad or Qantas economy prices, it might be worth keeping an eye out for 2nd-tier carrier premium economy (eg. China Airlines which is actually Taiwanese not CCP-spec, or Vietnamese Airlines). The inflight entertainment won’t be as good, inflight food is always terrible on all airlines so that doesn’t matter, but if you can provide your own entertainment the extra room is sooo much more comfy.
We went Business on China Airlines in 2018 as it was only about $3k each, but at the same time their Premium Economy prices were available for a bit less than the Qantas discounted economy fares available.

I had a quick look at premium economy fares for the time the OP is looking to travel, they seem to start at $4000… almost double the economy fare,

I was going to suggest Japan Airlines premium economy… that comes with lounge access, but the fare probably isn’t worth the extra $2000

 

[tdimdad]

Japan Airlines economy is nice and roomy, a good alternative for the premium economy of some airlines. The service is Japanese, i.e. usually very courteous. I'd consider them as a good candidate for this trip.

 

[Forg]

I had a quick look at premium economy fares for the time the OP is looking to travel, they seem to start at $4000… almost double the economy fare

Yes, an airline has to be having a sale for this to work ... I flew Cathay in 2012 return to London 'cos they were promoting their newly-revamped Premium product with a sale which made it only about $300 more all-up than Economy.

I'm pretty sure that China Airlines sale was about 6 months before flying; if that's the normal timing, I suspect such sales would start to appear next month-ish? But then May is likely starting to get into northern hemisphere premium travel-time, so maybe it's not likely?