Musings around flights to West Australia.

[richfool]

A couple of recollections from my long haul experiences (mainly between LHR and Bangkok).

I have nothing against flying from Heathrow, apart from:-

~the time wasted flying in ever decreasing circles around the south of England, when returning to Heathrow, rather than being able to fly straight in and land, and that in conjunction with the fact that as an oldie, I tend to need the toilet often. There's nothing worse than being strapped in with the seat belts signs on and needing the toilet. The wisdom of keeping well hydrated directly conflicts with the resultant frequent need for the toilet. Another reason why I favour Premium or Business class seats, - there aren't usually any toilet queues. I understand the alternative solutions to needing a toilet regularly are rather drastic, like being wired for sound, or is it, tubed with a catheter.

So I prefer direct flights as it saves repeating the tedious and time wasting being strapped in whilst waiting and taxiing for take off and circling for landing and getting desperate for a toilet.

I did try an indirect flight once, with Emirates (Economy class) from Birmingham to Bangkok, via Dubai. It must have been around 2004 as it was at the time of the World Cup in South Korea/Japan, and there were football fans on the plane. It was a night flight. On the first leg the chap behind me seemed to be a centre of attraction for other people interested in the football, as there was almost constant flow of people stopping to chat to him, right behind my left ear, and holding and pulling on the back of my seat. My seat back was constantly being banged, kneed or kicked.

Realising that if I asked him/them to desist it was only likely to get worse, I bit my tongue for about an hour or more, in the hope it would stop, before asking politely if he would mind not banging the back of the seat as I was trying to sleep. Needless to say, the banging got noticeably worse. So, I went to the toilet and then on the way back, told the purser what was happening. She remarked they had been causing other problems including smoking in the toilets, and she moved me to a seat in Business class. That was the first time I experienced almost lie-flat seats. Ones where you slowly slid down onto your feet.

We then landed in Dubai, around 2.00 am. My recollections were a huge terminal building with the AC set very cold. I felt very tired and the few seats there were, were all occupied with people stretched out sleeping. So there was nowhere to sit, let along stretch out. The stopover was a very long 4 hours, hanging around in the cold, before eventually we had to queue and re-board, what was I think a Boeing 767. I was seated at the back of what I recall thinking looked like a cinema auditorium. The rest of that leg went without incident.

Following that experience, I have always stuck to direct flights, or via a distant travel hub, such as KL or Singapore, and have flown with, in order of preference and quality: EVA, Singapore, Thai, or Malaysian airlines.

If I don't manage to sleep on a 12 hour night flight, then I end up feeling like a zombie on arrival. So I now fly business class.

One can research airlines and airports with Skytrax: https://www.airlinequality.com/review-p ... e-reviews/

I have observed that whilst the Middle Eastern airlines offer very good passenger in flight experiences, they all too often fall down in terms of their ground service and particularly when flights are delayed, or connections missed.

[BullDog]

Hi BullDog et al.

In the last decade I have flown on the following Business Class to Perth, usually for two or so weeks

Qantas (0 stops)
Singapore Airlines (1 stop)
Thai Airways (1 stop)
Oman Air (2 stops, KL to Perth on a Malaysian Airlines codeshare)

I am shortly about to do the same on Qatar Airways (booked at Christmas, sub £4K) and am deliberately flying different planes on different legs to see what they are like. The new'ish Q-Suite is allegedly very good.

In general, they are all decent IMO (so, I largely concern myself with price). The Qantas direct flight I would argue is the best, all things being equal. Oman Air was the least expensive at the time (sub £3K). I don't particularly like the layout of Bangkok airport - can be a bit of a crush in the middle as you transit.

When I'm out there for longer, I usually fly economy (the extra day or two to recover is then less important).

Regards, Newroad

Thanks. I aim to avoid Oman Air where possible. When covid hit I had a return flight booked via KL like you. I lost my entire return fare due to covid (long story etc....) in a nutshell, they were both extremely difficult to contact and highly uncooperative. A shame, because I had used them for flights to/from Oman and they were fine.

Now that I am paying myself for travel I am far more aware of striking a balance between cost and comfort than I was when my company or clients were paying. Hence my recent research into flights for Q1 23 and this thread. The direct London to Perth flight is without doubt terrific, but at £9000 for two tickets next February, it isn't happening!

My last Perth trip was with Qatar Airways on their A350. Nothing special to be honest. I really miss the A380.

[Lootman]

Oman Air was the least expensive at the time (sub £3K).

I do not know about Oman Air specifically, but some of the lessor known ME airlines are dry only.

Worth knowing if you are spending 10 hours or more with them.

[stevensfo]

Oman Air was the least expensive at the time (sub £3K).

I do not know about Oman Air specifically, but some of the lessor known ME airlines are dry only.

Worth knowing if you are spending 10 hours or more with them.

I didn't know that. A friend who worked for British Airways told me that the strictest country was Saudi Arabia, where he saw a male and female colleague arrested and held for hours for daring to chat while going down an escalator!
He said that while in Saudi airspace, they had to observe Saudi law, but once out of it, all those strict Moslems used to drink the plane dry! They had a Saudi prince once who got so drunk that they called security on arrival, but he obviously had some kind of political immunity...etc etc.

Steve

[Newroad]

Hi All.

I recall the Business Lounge was "dry" (but had some nice Arabic Coffee amongst other things) however the flights were not on Oman Air.

Regards, Newroad

[Lootman]

Oman Air was the least expensive at the time (sub £3K).

I do not know about Oman Air specifically, but some of the lessor known ME airlines are dry only.

Worth knowing if you are spending 10 hours or more with them.

I didn't know that. A friend who worked for British Airways told me that the strictest country was Saudi Arabia, where he saw a male and female colleague arrested and held for hours for daring to chat while going down an escalator!
He said that while in Saudi airspace, they had to observe Saudi law, but once out of it, all those strict Moslems used to drink the plane dry! They had a Saudi prince once who got so drunk that they called security on arrival, but he obviously had some kind of political immunity...etc etc.

This claims to list them all:

https://travellingonpoints.com/article/ ... e-alcohol/

It says Oman Air is dry only on domestic flights. Given the country is tiny there can't be a lot of those.

Kuwait Airways is completely dry. It was also banned from flying to the US because it refuses to sell tickets to Israeli citizens.

[Flysair2020]

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[TaurusTheBull]

Hello,

I think the comments about Scoot are ill informed. The only problem I have had with them is that they seem to like tweaking their flight times, which caused me connection problems last year. But when you consider that I paid £165 from KL-SIN-Athens, and had to book another Athens-Gatwick flight for an extra £40, it does put it somewhat into perspective.

Overall, I'd rate Scoot way above Ryanair. People seem to confuse relative cost with relative service.

Taurus