Good question .actually for myself I do that flight regularly and just hack it in cattle class .but on this occasion I will have another pax who will need to recline fully for part of the trip .hence my inexperience with booking business . Great tips from all the above though I really can't afford 2 full cost business out of my own pocket
I was gutted when they stopped. I got one of the last HK-UK flights and pretty much the entire Business cabin was complaining about the route being stopped. The staff seemed pretty sad about it too.
I have still to find an airline that meets AirNZ's standards in Business in terms of price-quality for HK-UK flights. I'm not a Cathay fan (too expensive usually) and although I like Emirates, the food isn't as good as AirNZ and the service is rather wooden. Sad
Next time I go back to the UK, I'm definitely going to check out Cathay's ex-TPE fares. That's a great tip, thank you! I find connections at TPE pretty seamless so should be stress-free. Actually I might also check out Eva Air via TPE since I'm Star Alliance Gold and I was pretty impressed with a recent HKG-TPE-DPS flight with them.
Agree about Virgin. Their service levels seem to have really declined over recent years. And let's not even get started on BA!
I have been flying business class on Turkish Airlines in recent years to Europe and find it quite good, good food, great connections and reasonable prices.
Yes - one advantage of TPE is that its extremely quick to get through. Flew through there twice in the last week, both times came back on the same plane I arrived on (much to the confusion of the crew) AND had time in the lounge. No stress! Takes about 5 minutes or less from one plane to the next if you need.
In the end settled for cx via Taipei 38K( vs 68K ex HongKong)for one adult one child return business class Adelaide .that's a huge saving.thanks for the tips .interestingly Malaysian via kl works out about the same as cx via tpe .times didn't suit me though . One puzzling thing was the departure hk to tpe flight (econ. )was cheaper with a return ticket than if I just bought one way.
About check in bags . Can I check them all the way through to Adelaide from hongkong ? or do I need to collect them in tpe and then check in again at tpe for the return to Hong Kong and on to Adelaide .my hk to tpe arrives in tpe about 3 hours before the flight back to hk/Adel .there was another flight with only 1 hours wait in Taipei but that seemed cutting it rather fine(not been to tpe in 20years though )is that reasonable ?actually the less time for me in tpe the better as have kid in tow
Last edited by hongkong7; 30-09-2013 at 05:51 PM.