[cwoodward]

Tt is being wildly reported that all HKG-LHR flights will be B777-300ER with new business class from early March.

Separately a that London LGW will return from end September 5 times a week -my airport source for this is not 100% reliable

[AndrewinHK]

Makes sense to debut it to LHR. The CEO did single out the routes to the UK saying in an interview ‘demand from the United Kingdom was particularly strong’.

[christ]

And I wonder what eye watering prices it will be and with a mixed quality service v ba or Qatar!

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VivaVida

[cwoodward]

As these flights run ‘full’ much of the time it seems that many prefer Cathay and are prepared to pay for the “Cathay” experience convenience and comfort rather than the 1 stop 20 hour Qatar flight. Of course they do also code share on the Cathay flights

[stevescoots]

i believe bottom line is its down to cost and timing. the only other direct LHR is BA and they are just as expansive and destroyed their reputation for service years ago. The QR/AY etc flights are lower cost if you take the long layovers (I am on QR in 2 weeks) but go for a decent timing of 2 hrs in DOH or DXB etc and pricing close to CX. I dont believe consumers are paying higher for service, more the direct route. that’s what i do

[christ]

@stevescoots – I am surprised about your comment about BA reputation as on the whole I have always had outstanding service on BA long haul and a far more consistent service than Cathay.

I also think BA club suite is leagues above Cathay seat (although I appreciate it ie not on the winter timetable).

For Qatar, I agree that the short stopover is high- however sometimes going to Gatwick can make considerably cheaper but may not be a good location for all.

[stevescoots]

Reputation, BA have a bad reputation with the less frequent flying public at large which lets be honest is the numerical majority of the bums on seats. the reverse can be said of CX. I agree that BA’s suite is far better than CX J seat. I agree about going Gatwick is not suitable for most above the A14 cross country line, likewise MAN if below it. Off topic if you happen to live East of the A1 in the Mids. or Nelson county then every Long-haul airport is a journey in its self!

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cwoodward

[MartynSinclair]

Steve, I would use BA to HKG and Asia if I could justify it. Schedules are bad, options are limited and costs prohibitive. Last time I flew a BA long-haul was nearly 5 years ago. I would love to try CX (long-haul), but again, options are expensive – so I go for the cheaper routes Finnair / QATAR and suffer a stop over…

Oh to get back to pre covid schedules and PRICES!

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stevescoots, Johnnyg, cwoodward

[Rferguson2]

I was curious about these eye watering fares. I just had a look at some random dates LHR-HKG-LHR in business class filtering for direcct flights only (so basically BA/CX). CX came in cheapest at GBP3332 return (28/2-7/3) BA was considerably more at GBP4197.

Saying that, direct flights between an airlines hub and the destination will always be artificially high as they know they have a local loyal following willing to pay the big bucks for a non stop flight.

When you look at flights from LHR to other Asian destinations via HKG Cathay is quite competitive (searching LHR-MNL for example on the same dates). CX was cheaper than JL, SQ, NH and TG.

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tomyam42, cwoodward

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