Stopovers

[InnerVoice]

3 hours ago, Tychen said:

I've done long stopovers in Shanghai both via China Eastern and via a Qantas/BA connection - you arrive and depart from Pudong Airport, and it was relatively easy to get to Pudong's financial district from there, where you can find Western standard toilets (v important to know where these are when travelling in China), cafes, restaurants etc, and from there you are only a ferry or cab ride away from the old European bits and the old Chinese city across the river. You can stay at quite nice hotels in Shanghai for fairly cheap. China Eastern can be v cheap, and definitely towards the budget end of full service, but it was bearable other than the food, which was terrible. Pack your own sandwich.

Another one I've done is Tokyo. This was when international flights only flew into Narita, I think you might be able to arrive and depart from Haneda now (or a mix of the two). Haneda airport is much closer to town. You can easily stay in say Minato or Akasaka or Odaiba and get quite a bit of sightseeing done in 48 hours.

Hong Kong used to be a comparable option to Singapore, but obviously a lot grimmer now.

On an Emirates/Qantas combination you can do one stopover in Asia, then break up the long second flight further with a stop in Dubai - and it would probably be cheaper than Qantas/BA the whole way.

Good info and thanks for sharing, but Hong Kong 'grim' - one of the most amazing cities in the world, and surely still a great stopover?

[Tychen]

13 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

Good info and thanks for sharing, but Hong Kong 'grim' - one of the most amazing cities in the world, and surely still a great stopover?

You are probably right. I haven’t been there since 2018 and my impression it’s grimmer is mainly based on expat friends who’ve moved away due to the continuing political arrests and schools being forced to teach Chinese propaganda etc. - meanwhile issues like finding a clean public toilet haven’t improved. So it’s just a lot more like the other big Chinese cities now, but the political stuff wouldn’t affect you on a stopover.

[FirstWorldProblems]

On 11/08/2023 at 07:45, Tychen said:

I've done long stopovers in Shanghai both via China Eastern and via a Qantas/BA connection - you arrive and depart from Pudong Airport, and it was relatively easy to get to Pudong's financial district from there, where you can find Western standard toilets (v important to know where these are when travelling in China), cafes, restaurants etc, and from there you are only a ferry or cab ride away from the old European bits and the old Chinese city across the river. You can stay at quite nice hotels in Shanghai for fairly cheap. China Eastern can be v cheap, and definitely towards the budget end of full service, but it was bearable other than the food, which was terrible. Pack your own sandwich.

Another one I've done is Tokyo. This was when international flights only flew into Narita, I think you might be able to arrive and depart from Haneda now (or a mix of the two). Haneda airport is much closer to town. You can easily stay in say Minato or Akasaka or Odaiba and get quite a bit of sightseeing done in 48 hours.

Hong Kong used to be a comparable option to Singapore, but obviously a lot grimmer now.

On an Emirates/Qantas combination you can do one stopover in Asia, then break up the long second flight further with a stop in Dubai - and it would probably be cheaper than Qantas/BA the whole way.

very helpful indeed - thank you

It's proving much harder to find 5 seats on the same plane than I imagined and for some reason several airlines online multi-city booking facilities won't actually let you book (Swiss, Qantas, Lufthansa), crashing at the final stage.  Asiana (who I have never flown) is an option.  Stopping at Seoul in January.......brrrrr

@Blue Flu mentioned that flights are predicted to reduce in 2024 - Easter is showing as 2/3rds the price of Christmas, so it's looking positive.  

[Tulip1]

19 minutes ago, FirstWorldProblems said:

very helpful indeed - thank you

It's proving much harder to find 5 seats on the same plane than I imagined and for some reason several airlines online multi-city booking facilities won't actually let you book (Swiss, Qantas, Lufthansa), crashing at the final stage.  Asiana (who I have never flown) is an option.  Stopping at Seoul in January.......brrrrr

@Blue Flu mentioned that flights are predicted to reduce in 2024 - Easter is showing as 2/3rds the price of Christmas, so it's looking positive.  

I’ve booked a multi city flight recently on the Qantas site with no problem.  Every flight I do to Australia is a multi flight one as I have kids living in different states.  I always fly with Qantas and I’ve never had a problem.  

[FirstWorldProblems]

3 minutes ago, Tulip1 said:

I’ve booked a multi city flight recently on the Qantas site with no problem.  Every flight I do to Australia is a multi flight one as I have kids living in different states.  I always fly with Qantas and I’ve never had a problem.  

Thank you.  I spent 3 days trying and it kept crashing.  I'll give it another go.   I ended up calling Swiss and it turns out the flights they have on the website weren't available.  

[FirstWorldProblems]

@Tulip1 Qantas still wouldn't let us book online (kept crashing at passenger details), so we called to try and book with a human......price was £1,800 higher than the online price.  That's not cricket.

We have finally booked out flights tonight so will be back down under for Christmas again.  I cannot believe I've just paid £15k on 5 economy flights.  Unbelievable.  If we could go at easter it's £10k, but youngest will be revising for GCSE's so it wouldn't be right.

I ended up really keen on both Beijing and Seoul......but no one else wanted to be having a holiday in -10 degrees so I was outvoted.  Stopping in Dubai instead.  Downtown for 36 hours outbound and some resort type place for 3 days on the return.  We've never been there before so it should be good to see somewhere new

[Tulip1]

24 minutes ago, FirstWorldProblems said:

@Tulip1 Qantas still wouldn't let us book online (kept crashing at passenger details), so we called to try and book with a human......price was £1,800 higher than the online price.  That's not cricket.

We have finally booked out flights tonight so will be back down under for Christmas again.  I cannot believe I've just paid £15k on 5 economy flights.  Unbelievable.  If we could go at easter it's £10k, but youngest will be revising for GCSE's so it wouldn't be right.

I ended up really keen on both Beijing and Seoul......but no one else wanted to be having a holiday in -10 degrees so I was outvoted.  Stopping in Dubai instead.  Downtown for 36 hours outbound and some resort type place for 3 days on the return.  We've never been there before so it should be good to see somewhere new

The price increase quoted that was so much higher than the online price is terrible, especially as you only phoned because their site wasn’t working.  Good you’ve finally got something booked with a few days of resort fun to end it all.  I remember trying to avoid Easter when mine were revising for exams.  Christmas will be lovely I’m sure.  I’m out there for Christmas too.  

[FirstWorldProblems]

16 hours ago, Tulip1 said:

The price increase quoted that was so much higher than the online price is terrible, especially as you only phoned because their site wasn’t working.  Good you’ve finally got something booked with a few days of resort fun to end it all.  I remember trying to avoid Easter when mine were revising for exams.  Christmas will be lovely I’m sure.  I’m out there for Christmas too.  

Awesome - I hope you have a fantastic time.  Only 122 days away

Edited August 14, 2023 by FirstWorldProblems

[Ausvisitor]

On 12/08/2023 at 17:43, FirstWorldProblems said:

very helpful indeed - thank you

It's proving much harder to find 5 seats on the same plane than I imagined and for some reason several airlines online multi-city booking facilities won't actually let you book (Swiss, Qantas, Lufthansa), crashing at the final stage.  Asiana (who I have never flown) is an option.  Stopping at Seoul in January.......brrrrr

@Blue Flu mentioned that flights are predicted to reduce in 2024 - Easter is showing as 2/3rds the price of Christmas, so it's looking positive.  

Easter has always been about 60-70% of the cost of a XMAS flight so it would seem that nothing has changed just the base cost has risen across the board

[Ausvisitor]

Have great trip though, I'm going the other way at the same time $2,300 return for 3 weeks taking in the week before XMAS and coming back after new year

[FirstWorldProblems]

Awesome. That’s a great price. Who are you flying with?  Hope you have a great time. 
 

I’ve been keeping an eye on fares at Easter just out of curiosity and they are much closer to normal now. £1,500 with Singapore but there is one particular set of dates during the holidays at £1,150. 

[Nemesis]

2 hours ago, Ausvisitor said:

Easter has always been about 60-70% of the cost of a XMAS flight so it would seem that nothing has changed just the base cost has risen across the board

Easter will always be cheaper than Christmas. Dredging up my BA training from the Dark Ages, there are established time-frames for airline prices rises/cuts.

So roughly speaking, fares rise for Xmas on around the 14th December, and fall again around 14th January. they then stay around the same level until around 2 weeks before Easter (dates change each year of course) when there is a slight peak, but prices then may drop back if there's an early Easter, before a rise for UK/Europe-summer fares in mid June. Drops slightly early September, then again for mid October, staying down till the Xmas fare rises.

Sometimes if you play with dates and go back or forward just a day or two you can make a big difference by missing the rise/fall especially at Christmas.

Budget airlines tend to base themselves more around school holiday demand, but the main airlines all use roughly the same price guides.