Business class £800 approx

[Marky 0]

China Air are offering business class seats UK to BKK at around £800.

 

Only problem - China Air have a poor safety (crashing) record.  If you are OK with that and want a relaxing flight as opposed to a nightmare journey in Economy it might be worth a ring to 0870 066 0099

[Guest]

Paul,

 

I used Travelbag in Knutsford to get the China Airlines deal for travel in November.  The Far East business class guy is called Matthew Rammell on 0870 900 1353.

 

The flight cost £782 incl tax from Manchester and includes the full business class package (meals, drinks, use of lounges etc) except that you only get 20 kgs baggage allowance.  A small inconvenience I think.

 

The only thing that I don't like about it is the overnight return flight, I prefer the daytime flight.  It means hanging around all day and early evening but I am sure the Soi 7 Beer Garden caters for exactly that situation.  ;D

 

You are also able to pre-allocate your seat 90 days in advance of the date of travel which is a bonus!

 

Regards,

 

Tom

[gerald 0]

Is that a non-stop flight or is they a stop over ... if so were! ... thanks

[Guest]

It is business class only in name and I do not rate it above EVA deluxe,  with the layover in Amsterdam and having to fly economy on the leg to Amsterdam for me it's not worth it.

I would rather fly non stop on EVA deluxe than go with China Airlines business.

 

As always only my humble opinion,

 

Richie

[Guest]

Richard,

 

Thanks for your response and much-valued advice.  :)

 

The benefit of the China Airlines flight comes into its own if you are flying from regional airports i.e. to connect with EVA I still have to fly from MAN to LHR  economy to connect.  There is no difference for me transitting through Amsterdam as opposed to Heathrow (except that most of the airport staff in Amsterdam speak excellent English).  I take your point if you are a suvverner, I would opt to fly direct as well.  

 

As for the flights being business in name only, that is not true.  I admit that I was a little sceptical at first but I got my agent to check out the fine detail of the offer and it does add up.

 

It is worth noting that EVA advertises Evergreen Deluxe as having business class style seating - a subtle difference from business class seating.  Evergreen Deluxe offers a configuration of 2-4-2 in in the main cabin whilst business class with most airlines, including China Airlines, offers 2-3-2.  The difference is obvious.

 

In the absence of any first-hand advice from the board I based my choice on the opinions expressed in various web sites plus the first-hand personal recommendation of my agent who I have been using for approx 5-6 flights per year for the last 5 years.  It may turn out to be crap,  :-[ but nothing ventured, nothing gained!

 

My very humble opinion........ 8)

 

Gerald,

 

It is via Amsterdam, non-stop AMS-BKK.  I believe East Midlands is one of the regional Airports that you can use to connect.....  I will check it out and let you know.

 

The flights are daily and the timings of the AMS-BKK-AMS legs are:

 

Dep AMS - 1425, Arr BKK - 0650 (next day)

 

Dep BKK - 0225, Arr AMS 0940

 

Hope this is of some use.........

 

Regards,

 

Tom

[TURBO 1]

The only problem with flying via Amsterdam is that they have a very poor record for losing baggage , according to an English guy who Gerald & I met in Pattaya . He works for KLM , the Dutch airline , in Amsterdam airport . They have even lost his luggage on a simple return flight to the UK so I dread to think what would happen going to LOS .

 

Derek

[Guest]

Turbo,

 

You are right what you say about the history of lost baggage at Schipol.

 

The baggage handling system was unable to handle the number of bags going through in the peak summer months.  There were 1500 more bags per hour going through than the system could handle.  This peaked in 2000 when 80 bags per 1000 were misdirected, compared with an industry average of 5-20.  There were no problems outside the peak summer season.

 

However, every cloud has a silver lining.  A new baggage handling system was phased in throughout last year effectively doubling the capacity of the old system resulting in Schipol now having the most advanced baggage handling system in Europe and all these lost bags, as you pointed out, are history.  :)

 

Just as a precaution though, I'll make sure that I carry all my Fetherlite in my hand baggage!!  

 

Regards,

 

Tom

[Guest]

Tom,

I fly EVA business not deluxe but on my next flight I'll look at deluxe for you. You still fly economy on the connecting leg so cannot use the lounges in the UK plus the safety record on China plus the reputation of Amsterdam baggage handling which has been ongoing for several years makes China one to swerve for me.

 

Regards,

 

Richie

[rober15 0]

i've flown china airlines 3 times (economy once,business twice) and have found them just as good as klm

as for baggage allowance i was allowed 30kg last time but i think this was a mistake

i've also had problems getting into the dynasty lounge at bangkok and had to argue my way in but apart from that it's money well spent

[Guest]

Richard,

 

I have previously always flown EVA deluxe or Thai but two recent incidents prompted me to look again at the options.  Firstly, I missed an EVA flight because of the late arrival (3 hours) of the British Midland feeder.  That in itself was not a problem as my insurance paid out.  What was a problem was EVA's customer service staff who wrote and told me that since they were a Taiwanese airline normal UK consumer rights did not apply to them and that they were not signatories to the revised IATA recommended terms and conditions of carriage.  Secondly, on my last trip the only alcohol served was wine with the main meal - this wasn't a one-off as all reference to alcoholic drinks had also been deleted from their menu cards.  I'm not one of those characters who goes overboard on the free booze, far from it, but I did enjoy the G+T shortly after take-off; to me, that is when my holiday begun.

 

As I said, my decision to fly China Airlines may prove to be a mistake,   there again it may prove to be a gem.  :)  I'll let you know......

 

Keep on smiling,  ;D

 

Tom

[Guest]

Hey Tom,

With China's safety record you might not be around to let us know  :'( (BTW both EVA and China are Taiwanese so why does one have an appalling safety record and not the other ??) and as a teetotaller free drinks do not bother me all I want is a nice , safe , fast comfortable flight.

 

Stay lucky,

 

Richie

[Guest]

Richie,

 

Look on the bright side - if it does crash chances are I'm not going to give a stuff if my bags are still in Amsterdam!    Do you know if there is any truth in the rumour that the Gideons produce the in-flight magazine?

 

Sorry to hear you're off the booze;  :-/ by choice I hope.  If you are around Pattaya in Nov I'll share a few nam soms with you

 

Stay chilled,

 

Tom

[Guest]

Gerald,

 

The CI flights are available with connections from either East Midlands or Birmingham.

 

Regards,

 

Tom

[Marky 0]

Well I would say that Tom is right that it makes sense for Northerners to go on China as we have to either go economy via Amsterdam or Heathrow so that makes little difference.  I can see the Southerner's point though.

 

Those I have spoken to who should know about these things say China is genine business class with lounges etc and (tellingly) an additional 10" seat pitch over Eva Evergreen Deluxe.

 

As for safety record, I bet that statistically flying with China is still safer than (eg) going London to Manchester in a car or (these days) a train.  Still a poor safety record is a poor safety record and unwelcome.

 

I found out about China after booking Evergreen deluxe for which I actually paid £870.  Is this dear?  So this time Eva, maybe next time China.

 

Bad news re restricted free booze as I also like to get a few down my neck on the plane.  Helps to relax this nervous flyer.

 

Anyway I'll report back from my trip commencing in FOUR DAYS!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest]

Paul,

 

You are travelling in the airlines high season so what you paid for Evergreen Deluxe, relatively speaking, is not expensive.  You will pay the same over the Xmas/New Year period.  Outside these periods,  the price for Evergreen Deluxe ex Manchester via either Heathrow or Amsterdam drops to circa £625 incl taxes.  That is not quite true, what happens is that more seats are made available in more heavily discounted booking classes which attract more booking restrictions.  There are very few seats, if any, offered in those classes during the high season.  Hope you followed that.  :-[

 

Regards,

 

Tom

[thomas 0]

see your comments, I am a 3rd-class user with CI.

 

always flighing AMS-BKK with CI (and back, of cause), about 4 times a year (sometimes less, sometimes more). From a 3rd-class user-view its this:

It-s o.k., I flew thai, ltu, many arab-companies with many stopp-overs. Once they robbed me in (forgot the country, near india). I saw a lot of airports, small ones and bigger ones. Sometimes I had a lot of time on these airports. But until I only fligh with CI, I got a "frequent-fligher-card", I had upgrades many times, also flew 2nd class many times and 1st class once (upgrades).

Of cause, 1st is better than 3rd, but I look for the price, now, it-s about 600€ (3rd class). For a "normal" tourist, thats just great! Sometimes, the meals are good, sometimes not. Coffee and tea is horrible.

In the first class they can brew fresh, well-tasting hot coffee, never knew that before...

CI makes also advertisement with theire wine-card. (In 1st-class). Never checked it, because I don-t like wine as I don-t like any alkoholic drink druring the flight, so no idea if you have to pay for your (alcoholic-)drink in 2nd or 3rd class. I always got an orange-juice for free.

(Shure, 3rd-class, you have to ask for it 2 or 3 times, but sooner or later it comes).

But is it that why i want to pay more money?

No!

Always I got some peanuts (if I am hungry and there are turbulances and the service is off) and a bottle of water.

 

In 1st and 2nd the seats are more comfortable, thats, why I like that.

 

Did you ever check the "tv", never figuered it out, how that works. Think its just out of order in 1st and 2nd. O.k., u can play some games with that screen, but a whole movie? Did someone ever try it?

Therefore the headphones in the 3rd never work well.

 

Its better to have one (or two) empty seat beneath you in 3rd class, than u can lay the legs up and just sleep.

Thats really better than every food, every tv, every wine, every coffee, every tea, every snack any airline in the world can offer you.

 

thomas

[Marky 0]

Thanks for the info - always a pleasure to see posts from the waving cat.

 

Will report back on Eva when I can.