Which Airline to Oz??

[w8pmc]

About to book a trip to Melbourne for March 2019 & have narrowed it down to 3 airlines, but only have recent experience of 1.

Basically the 3 options are Qatar, Cathay & Emirates, all flying from Manchester to Melbourne. Cabin will be Business Class & all 3 offer similar total journey times & at a similar price point.

Obviously the connecting airports are different, so Doha for Qatar, Hong Kong for Cathay & Dubai for Emirates. All have similar layovers in their respective Airports. I've flown Emirates Business a few times, but this was about 4yrs ago & their Business Class cabin in the A380's out of MAN were a little tired, i'm sure this is improved now as i believe Emirates have been rolling out their new Business Class product.

Cathay looks interesting as the first leg is much longer & may mean a better quality sleep pattern.

Obvious advantage with Emirates is the Chauffeur both ends, although MAN is only a 30min journey from home & i can get picked up from Melbourne Airport.

So is any one of these airlines on this route & in Business Class, so good that it's worth selecting? Last point is I do collect AVIOS so Cathay & Qatar perhaps give the option being OneWorld of contributing to my points pot.

Thanks in advance.

[w8pmc]

captain_cynic said:

I'd recommend Singapore Airlines for economy or business.

A Cathay business seat is 20" wide, a Singapore economy seat is 18-19" wide. Their business class seats are 28-30" wide, plus on flights out of Singapore you can Book the Cook (a larger selection of meals you can choose before hand). As far as business class products go, Singapore's is hard to beat, their economy product takes some beating as well.

I don't think they have a route out of MAN to Singapore (will check though).

[w8pmc]

Thanks everyone, some good insight.

Will look at Singapore Airlines, although from MAN it wasn't coming up as an option on Expedia.

Any idea when the next Emirates sale is due as a First Class for Business Class price sounds appealing? Also, any other websites that perhaps offer additional route options &/or lower costs for these flights over & above Expedia?

[w8pmc]

Surprise surprise, now i'd pretty much decided on Emirates, the price point has moved & now a difference of nearly £1000 between Emirates & Cathay Pacific, so Cathay is looking more preferable.

Flight times & connections are very similar so travel time is very similar, albeit an extra 2hrs layover in Hong Kong on the way back with Cathay. Still direct from MAN with just the 1 stopover, however rather than A380's all legs with Emirates, Cathy appears to be A350-900 from MAN-Hong Kong & 777-300ER from Hong Kong to Melbourne. On the way back it's A350-900 both legs.

For the £1000 saving, would Cathay be pleasurable or am i better off spending the extra & going Emirates? Although the Chauffeur to/from departure & arrival airports would be handy, i'm only 30mins from MAN & can get a lift to/from Melbourne, so not really worth the extra £1000 just for that service.

[w8pmc]

djc206 said:

Emirates gaudy business class for an extra grand? You’d be mad.

Cathay business on the A350 looks nicer to my eyes, less bling, more private, wider seat. You’d also be collecting 560 tier points which puts you close to silver status.

That doevetails onto my thinking & got some Their points already so if 560 available then i'll go Silver on this trip. Looks as though it'll be Cathay then

[w8pmc]

Decided on & now booked with Cathay Pacific, MAN-HKG-MEL & the same in reverse for the return.

After much investigation if was by far the quickest route from MAN & the better flight times with only 1 overnight in each direction (ex-Europe although a little cheaper was +2 outbound & around 31hrs for the return). Didn't get the flights at the lowest price i saw them a few weeks ago, but hadn't jumped up by too much.

Ended up paying an extra £120 booking direct with Cathay rather than via Expedia as had a last minute thought i may not get the BA (OneWorld) Tier points by using an agent & also thought it easier to select seats for free using Cathy direct (this thought process may of course have the potential to be incorrect)

I've logged my BA Exec Club details against the booking for all 4 legs, so i assume once completed i'll get the full credit of BA Tier Points & Avios (appears to be 125% of Avios with Cathy when flying Business Class I).

Both directions i have about 3hrs to kill in HKG & i note a couple of people mentioned that Cathy have a few Lounges available & that one is defo worth a visit. What's the name of the 'must visit' Lounge?

Also i'm travelling to Melbourne for the Australian F1 GP (Fri-Sun), so will have a couple of days in Melbourne on the Monday & Tuesday before setting off home on the Wednesday. Any must visit places or sights worth seeing on these spare days? Wife is an avid Neighbours fan & i'm under strict instructions to avoid Ramsey Street or she'll kick my arse

[w8pmc]

WyrleyD said:

I've done NZ four times now in Cathay business class but from CDG. The lounge is the Pier Business Class lounge at HKG and it's superb, easily the best business class lounge I've ever been in and it's huge. I've been Cathay Silver for some time so don't know if that makes a difference when selecting seats.

What aircraft is it from MAN? If it's the A350-1000 then don't select the first two rows of business class - try for anything in rows 15 to 18 as they are the best located for service etc., row 11 is the very worst on the plane and you get the stink from the toilet as it's directly adjacent to the toilet door!!

It's the A350-900 for 3 of the legs (MAN-HKG, MEL-HKG & HKG to MAN), the HKG-MEL leg is on a 777-300ER.

Seat allocation is free & i have reserved in order of the legs, 15K, 11K (777-300), 15K & 18K. It's as you'll know a 1-2-1 configuration on both aircraft types, so i'm not precious which row i choose & can change any to go a little further back. A couple of the legs had the front row being bassinet rows so i chose a couple back from those as the entire row was taken so i assumed a family may have booked those & although i've flown numerous times with my young children, i'm not a fan of flying with other peoples babies

I'll be sure to head to the Pier Business Lounge when connecting both ways. Thank you.

[w8pmc]

WyrleyD said:

I think you'll be happy with your choices. Our preferred seats on the 777 are 11A & 12A and 15A &16A on the A350 (mrs in 11A/15A and me in 12A/16A as we both prefer the left side of the plane for some reason).

Took your advice (thank you) & have changed all outbound seats to 16K & return to 18K. Likewise have a preference, but it's the right side of the plane for some strange reason.

[w8pmc]

Ridealong said:

You would have got tier points if you had booked via Expedia and if you are a member of Nectar a paltry 200 points, I'm a BAEC member too and got my points after a couple of days after each flight (LHR - HKG - BNE - HKG - LHR).
Also you could of selected your CX seats as well.

I was at the Pier last Feb and is an excellent lounge, it is split into 2 lounges, the left entrance/exit has the Showers, Food hall
(International cuisine), Coffee cart and on the right entrance/exit has Noodle bar/Dim Sum, Tea house and Bar
The only down point is that it is at gate 65 which is quite a walk after security, for my flight to Brisbane and flight home to LHR the gates were the opposite side of the terminal.

The Bridge is nearer if pressed for time at gate 35 which is just as good but not as big IMO.

I have not used the Wing or the new built Deck (smallest of the CX lounges) of which are both closer to security than the Bridge and Pier.
You also can use the Qantas lounge if you wish, but I'm sure everyone will tell you to visit a CX lounge.

bks, that's £120 wasted then. Just spotted something online saying Tier points may not be awarded or could be reduced if booking through a Travel Agent & in my infinite wisdom i decided Expedia were a Travel Agent

Good point about the location of the Lounges & i will bear that in mind. I've no idea which gates i'll be arriving/departing from in HKG, but i do have a 3hr layover, so should be OK for time to visit the Pier. I'm assuming security in HKG won't be too much of an issue as i guess being Business they have some sort of priority line?

[w8pmc]

WyrleyD said:

HKG security is very quick to get through, the only "lost" time is travelling around the terminal as it's vast but there are moving walkways that speed things up if you walk briskly along those but it still takes 15 mins to get from security to the Pier Business Lounge. When you get to the far end of the walkways from security the Bridge Lounge is immediately in front of you, turn right towards Gate 65 (it's between 62 & 64) and walk for a few minutes and you'll pass the Pier First Class Lounge on the left and just after you'll come to the Pier Business Lounge also on the left and down the escalator.

Thanks

[w8pmc]

Ridealong said:

I don't know if they have changed the T&C's, but I got my tier points in Jan 2017 and Feb 2018, both CX flight bookings were via Expedia which were cheaper than on the CX website.

I got 140 tier points for each leg a round trip = 560 TP.

If you have only just booked see if you can get the difference in price back from CX (price match/promise), click on the link below.

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_IN/hidden-page...

Hopefully that £120 was paid by BA AMEX card to get 120 Avios points.

I've read very good reviews about the Wing, so if you are pushed for time (delayed in MAN) the Wing (Gate 1-4) and the Bridge (Gate 35) could be your best option unless your gate is near the Pier (Gate 65).

The flights were paid for using my BA AMEX.

I'll leave the booking as is now i've selected my seats & got all the various confirmations & tickets, knowing my luck i'd lose the booking if i swap to Expedia

With a 3hr stopover both ways i may even get time to try out all 3 Lounges in HKG. Will aim for the Pier, but looks as though i'll not feel like i've lost out if i end up in one fo the other Lounges.

[w8pmc]

Why is booking flights nowadays such a feckin lottery?.

After weeks of investigation & looking at pretty much every option for this MAN-MEL trip, Emirates send me an email today notifying me they have a sale with 20% off Business Class fares, booked before 10th Dec & Travel before the end of March/April 2019. With this discount they now come in £300 cheaper than the CX flights i've booked.

On the plus side i get Avios & BA Tier points with CX (will lead to Silver being achieved this Membership year), but on the downside the Emirates overall travel times are the quickest (albeit by only 1hr outbound d& 2hrs return) & all 4 legs would be on the A380 so i'd get the benefit of the onboard bar, plus i'd have got free Chauffeur transfers to/from MAN & MEL.

Rang Cathay to see if my ticket was cancellable given it was only booked in the last few days, but a £400 cancellation charge would be payable so net/net i'd be paying £100 more for Emirates

[w8pmc]

David Beer said:

I have to say I would never fly CP again, ok it was premium but awful. The food on the return flight I just said no thanks. Of course it is not based on the food, overall the service.

That's not great to hear. All other feedback above tended to suggest that Cathay would be the better option for this trip.

[w8pmc]

WyrleyD said:

Well, my last 10 flights to Asia/Australia/NZ have all been in Business Class with Cathay and have not had a bad one yet, there was a problem with the on-board catering for inter-Asia destinations a while ago but the supplier was changed and I haven't heard of any problems since then. If you want warts and all opinions then head over to Flyertalk here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-mar... I wouldn't be concerned if I were you, every airline has it's good and bad points/crews.

Thanks.

Issue was more that now Emirates have their Sale on & the price even with the CK cancellation is more or less the same, i was questioning myself if i should change carrier. Was a while ago when i last flew Emirates Business Class out of MAN & to be fair although was on the A380, the cabin (excluding the on board bar area), looked a little tired & the leg flight lengths are favourable on CK as can sleep on the first day with less worry for the 2nd day, whereas on Emirates the 1st leg is the shorter one.

Guess i'll just wobble my head & think of the BA Tier uplift to Silver, along with the Avios which i wouldn't get with EK.

[w8pmc]

Anyone in the know aware of when Cathay introduce the A350-1000 on the MAN-HKG route?

Cathay are saying it's Feb/March but can't give a date. Currently booked to be flying on the A350-900 for 3 of the 4 legs, with 1 being on the 777-300.

[w8pmc]

Testaburger said:

Having just flown it, it’s already the 350-1000.

The 777 flight you’ll be on will be a -300ER.

Excellent & thanks.

Clearly CP haven't updated their website yet as it still says A350-900.

The 777 flight is HKG-MEL so a fairly long leg, however not the longest & it's a day flight so shouldn't be too bad. Seat config looks weird as appears to be 2-3-2 in Business on Seat Guru & a seat rather than a lie flat bed, but the CP Manage my Booking shows 1-2-1, so i'm hoping it's the latter.

[w8pmc]

Testaburger said:

As an indentured servant of Cathay, I can mostly advise you to take their IT with a pinch of salt!

Yes, your MEL flight will be an ER, as mentioned, and therefore it’ll be 1-2-1.

If you’re not familiar, it is a very good product. The 350 version is essentially a modified version, with slightly nicer soft-touches and features. Also the routes to/from MAN will feature the new dining product which is far better - you place your order pre-flight, and they plate it up for you. Some options you can choose when you want to eat, too, and fill out a brekky card. So, I find the experience a good step-up.

Enjoy your trip!

Massive thanks

[w8pmc]

Testaburger said:

I think the Q Suite is the best in the biz, personally. Along with Singapore’s new long haul offering - the problem with Singapore is they use their regional product on some fairly long flights.

I’ve found (in only a limited experience) Emirates service excellent. My criticism is just that they have gone all BA and shoved several seats more in each row than the premium standard of 4. Deifinitelt a first world problem, of course, and as you say, the lounges, chauffeur etc combined with being a global connections juggernaut makes them a great choice.

Cathay’s UK flights, as mentioned are among the first to roll out the new dining product - which has long been the main criticism of the airline. The 350 product (and atmosphere- low cabin altitude and more humidity) is great. That’s Manchester and Gatwick. Heathrow’s 5 dailies are served by 777, so a slightly less refined package. That said, the new CX lounge in heathrow is excellent, as are the HKG ones.

Be interested to see how you get on. As an employee I probably shouldn’t say this; but some flights to/from Heathrow are operated by London-based cabin crew, and I find their service and demeanour superior to the HKG based crew.

Thanks & will do.

No idea on the crew set from MAN whether it will be UK based or HKG. Also spotted last night that CK don't have their own Lounge at MAN so they use The Escape Lounge in Terminal 2. Given this is a general Premium Lounge that can be paid for to use for any flight, i guess it's extremely busy?

If reading other replies correctly, The Pier is the Lounge of choice at HKG?

Edited by w8pmc on Friday 8th February 09:04