Thanks I see that now. When you look at these routings, do you consider the transfer times at the connecting airports? For example that flight on the 17th Oct leaves you only 45 mins to transfer in ICN. While that's doable (especially as your onward flight is on the same carrier) that would be a risk I would consider carefully. Any slight delay to the initial flight and you could easily miss that connection. That would probably mean (at best) another 5 hours or so hanging around the airport. At worst you could be overnighting in the airport.
Also, some airlines (like CX) close the gates as early as 20-30 minutes before departure times. If that's the case with Korean Air then that's a seriously tight connection. All things to consider!
A couple of years ago, I flew from Hong Kong to Britain. I had to stop over at CDG airport in Paris. The transfer time was about an hour. I knew which gate I had to go to. The gate was supposed to close 20 minutes before departure. 40 minutes could be more than enough. I still worried a little bit, because I wasn't familiar with the airport. My logic was that the airline came up with the transfer time. It should work out somehow.
If a flight delay happens, it would be the airline's fault. I would demand their staff to arrange me the next earliest flight possible. If the worst comes to the worst, they would have to pay for my stay at the airport hotel. It is because the responsibility lies on the airline. With that being said, I would make sure that the transfer time is around an hour during booking.
Last edited by laidback chap; 10-03-2016 at 08:21 PM.
My worst experience was in Ibiza. It was harmless, but it caused me a little bit of inconvenience. I was supposed to fly from Ibiza to Athens. Btw, I flew with easyjet. There were no staff once you entered the departure area. The flight got delayed three times. At one point, I thought the flight was about to be cancelled.
Yes I'm pretty sure that on a one carrier routing the airline would take responsibility for a missed connection (that was it's own fault due to a delayed departure or whatever) and either put you up in a hotel or put you on a later flight. My point is that my holiday time is valuable. I wouldn't want to waste a couple of hours waiting for a later flight, let alone stay overnight in a random airport hotel. If there was a significant chance of that happening, I would rather pay a little bit more, especially if travelling with family.
Then again, if I was young and single with time to burn, I guess it wouldn't be that big of a deal.
I bought a Korean Air ticket for my elderly father to visit from New York. On the return journey the New York leg of the flight was cancelled so he was stuck in Incheon for 14 hours. I won't do that again to anyone just to save US$175 or whatever.
I just booked a flight to New York last week for HK$7700 ($8300 including tax) for July. The Summer is high season so expected to pay a bit more. After doing the usually online searches including for Mainland airlines in Ctrip surprisingly booking direct from Cathay was the cheapest even against some layover flights. I was surprised because last year it was over $10k for this time of year. Flying via Tokyo on ANA turned out to cost more than the Cathay quote.