London to Taipei - any direct carriers?

[tonym911]

Been trying to find direct flights from London to Taipei but other than China Airlines (whose website defeats me) and about a thousand price comparison websites offering me 30-hour, two-stop flights for anything from £750 to £6000 (??) I'm drawing a blank. Anybody know if there are any direct carriers from London? If they all go via HK, I can live with that, in which case who are the best carriers in PHers' opinions?

[MidlandDan84]

AFAIK there are no direct services to Taipei from London. I think its something to do with carriers not being able to serve mainland China and Taipei under some agreement (not sure of exact details).

Eva Air fly to Taipei via Bangkok from LHR and are supposed to be very good.

[R6dug]

MidlandDan84 said:

Eva Air fly to Taipei via Bangkok from LHR and are supposed to be very good.

Eva are very good

[tonym911]

So Thai Air to Bangkok and then EVA?

[MidlandDan84]

tonym911 said:

So Thai Air to Bangkok and then EVA?

Nope, Eva fly from LHR to BKK and then onto Taipei. AFAIK its a Boeing 777 and continues onto Taipei so you dont even have to change aircraft.

[fat80b]

Eva is the nearest to a direct flight but personally, I prefer routing via Hong Kong rather than Bangkok. I have done this journey ~20 times now and for me the times / choice is better.

That way you can choose either Virgin, Cathay or BA from LHR all of which leave at a reasonable time, you get a good nights sleep on board as the times are right and once in HKG, there are dozens of Cathay flights from HKG to Taiwan. If you are quick to transit HKG (run to the Cathay transit area), they will bump you to a flight that is already boarding and you will be on your way before you know it.

On the return leg, you can have a full work day in Taipei, transit to HKG in the evening and get the last flight from any of the carriers home. They all then race back to land at dawn UK time. If you are real keen, you can sleep on the plane and get dropped off back at work without missing a day during the working week....


Bob

[tonym911]

thanks to all for this useful info