[DisgustedofSwieqi]

Jut out of interest, from the Great Circle Mapper site

LHR-HKG – 5,995 miles

LHR-DOH-HKG – 7,178 miles

IST-LHR-HKG – 7,559 miles

So about 800 miles, 2 hours, longer using IST over DOH, but as Bucksnet says quite rightly, both significantly longer than direct.

Has anyon elooked at Finnair, LHR-HEL-HKG is only 6,011 miles.

[RichHI1]

Finnair do UKL3554 or 2629 if you come back Thurs or Sunday and One World so miles count… Drawback for me is A343 though not a prob if you like airbuses…

[LuganoPirate]

Seeing the price difference I would not hesitate to fly Qatar on this route. In general I like direct flights especially long haul overnighters, but for a £4000 saving for a couple of extra hours each way more than justifies it. That’s like being paid a £1000 an hour!

[BeckyBoop]

Steve I found these on ebookers flying in business on the dates you gave.

Thai £2,437.22
Emirates £2,478.61
Qatar £2,653.33

All of these involve 1 stop and probably all restricted, good luck sweet 🙂 xx

[Bucksnet]

Disgusted, you have to get to IST first. So: –

LHR-IST-LHR-HKG = 9,125 miles. More than 2 hours longer than LHR-DOH-HKG.

Amsterdam shuffle is LHR-AMS-LHR-HKG = 6,456 miles

http://gc.kls2.com

[LeTigre]

Just make sure that if you fly QR via DOH that you end up on the 77W as much as possible- the business product is far superior to the A333, as the 77W seat is fully flat not angled. Also, the 77W is just so much more comfortable as it generally has a nice new feeling about it, and is less likely to be showing signs of wear and tear.

[stevescoots]

thanks, at least it wasnt me having a stupid internet moment! i fly QR all the time on this leg so QR it was!

one has to wonder tho is a direct flight worth such a massive price difference!

[MartynSinclair]

steve – its all down to how one values time.

[LeTigre]

…and how BA prices it!

[RichHI1]

BA will price seats on revenue generation supply curve, don”t forget they are also trying to get people to fly through London and not fly direct.

[pixelmeister]

As my dear, sainted grandmere used to say ‘You pay’s your money and takes your pick’
It is always possible to find cheaper ways of flying from A to B on longhaul, provided you are prepared to either increase the number of stops or take the pretty route. The snags are the increase in elapsed time between departure and eventual arrival plus the possibility that a connecting flight may be cancelled/delayed or an aircraft substitution made at the last minute. Worst possible scenario is that the first leg of the journey hits a delay meaning that the subsequent sector flight is missed. Not a particularly attractive proposition, unless one has fully flexible ticketing.
At the end of the day it is down to the trade off between cost and time/risk. If you are risk averse, don’t want to spend time hanging around in a transfer lounge waiting for your connecting flight and don’t want to have the anxiety of not making your connection in the event of an earlier delay, then you’ll stump up the cost to fly direct.

[RichHI1]

And the early bird gets the worm. Amazing the deals you can get if you book early and take advantage of sales etc. Leaving it late and going at popular time is like opening your wallet and asking the airline to rob you.

[TMCWoking]

Right now on the BA26 a o/w CW fare is £3238 incl of tax. Seat availability and therefore fares are operate in a highly dynamic market. Not as good as EK & QR but it’s direct.

[VintageKrug]

Sometimes it can be better value if you book the hotels at the same time…..

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/low-price-finder/public/en_gb

[CathayLoyalist]

For future reference having lived in HKG for many years every year from mid Oct thru to the first week in December there are always many conferences, exhibitions and commercial business in general all trying to wrap up deals before Xmas.

[Author]

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