Dublin-Shanghai : Best /\Worst Airline to fly with?

Hmm_Messiah

I have flown previously with Air France (Shanghai ) and KLM (Beijing) before

but looking at flights for January on skyscanner and trying to pick the best option - where there is not much difference between carriers

I read somewhere here than BA was not a good experience , but for the life of me I can't find the post. So just wondering any ones experience of best/work options
Am looking at AirFrance, KLM, BA, Turkish Airlines,Virgin and SAS and Finnair pops up

Best try book next day or two
thanks for all the help

BuffyBot

There isn't all that much to differentiate between them.

Bear in mind "bad" is subjective, and you're more likely to read a negative review online than good ones - because folks love to moan, but they don't always talk about the hundreds of times things go right.

Pretty much all the airlines you have listed are perfectly fine in my experience. Pick the one with the price, service and timings that suit you best and go from there.

killbillvol2

Hmm_Messiah wrote: »

I have flown previously with Air France (Shanghai ) and KLM (Beijing) before

but looking at flights for January on skyscanner and trying to pick the best option - where there is not much difference between carriers

I read somewhere here than BA was not a good experience , but for the life of me I can't find the post. So just wondering any ones experience of best/work options
Am looking at AirFrance, KLM, BA, Turkish Airlines,Virgin and SAS and Finnair pops up

Best try book next day or two
thanks for all the help

I've flown with all those airlines to Asia. Very little difference in economy class. Best airport to transit, Helsinki, worst, CDG. Best food, Turkish /Finnair. But that's just my opinion. They're all fine, go with the cheapest.

VG31

BuffyBot wrote: »

Bear in mind "bad" is subjective, and you're more likely to read a negative review online than good ones - because folks love to moan, but they don't always talk about the hundreds of times things go right.

Exactly, and hence why sites like Skytrax are not really an accurate indication of how good an airline is. You have to see which airlines have less negative reviews than others as people are much more unlikely to leave a review when a flight is good or adequate. There are a few exceptions however like Luxair.

Hmm_Messiah

I have flown before with Air France/ KLM, and Aeroflot even - I think on this occasion I am just more concerned with a smooth flight than a bargain

Can I ask 1 additional question ( which I once knew the answer too )

IF I buy a flight thro say lastminute etc is it still a real return ticket? I think not
Eg I can see a return flight for € 437.00 BA & Air China


The cheapest on BA own site is € 505.00 and they do not give this exact flight option ( e.g China Air is not listed as a partner etc)

So does that mean (1) it is not 1 return flight but actually separate flight s( and impacting if missed the connection etc? (2) that the baggage allowance might not apply - e.g BA's is bigger but it looks to me like BA would only be proving the Dub-London parts


Sorry if I am not too clear

BuffyBot

What do you mean by "real" ticket?

Travel agents will often be combine flights from different carriers. Airlines have what are called interline agreements which allow for bookings to be made across various airlines/bags to be transferred between them etc.

Airlines generally only stick to selling seats on their own and alliance/codeshare partner airlines direct to the public as they get a bigger cut out of the cost. There would be little benefit to BA offering a competitors flight Air China flights on their site as it might a) lessen traffic on their own services and b) end up with them giving Air China the bulk of the money you pay.

Baggage allowances on tickets mixing carriers generally follow the "most significant carrier" rule, i.e. you get the allowance of the airline operating the larger portion of the trip (in this case Air China).

fits

Im a fan of finnair and helsinki is a good airport to connect in. (although undergoing renovations right now)

Hmm_Messiah

yes I understand about the codeshare etc , what I was thinking about is where you can see something like " partly operated by" - eg if I look at Air France for those days it shows its partners flight . I wouldn't expect BA to show all other flight s, but I am not clear on if there is an agreement

By " real" I meant there is something in my memory about a flight in the past bot been seen as a one booking/ return flight or something ( sorry at work so struggling to recall the exact phrase) so the check in desk would only supply 1 part of the ticket, and STRONGLY advised not to book again as if if failed to make connection etc etc not there problem, . Of course this could also be just the girl at desk saying " just book with us"

In any case it looks like BA's flight might be overall better despite 70 euro more - the larger baggage allowance means could get maybe 10 kilos of stuff over to China that would other wise have to get over some other way

thanks

Hmm_Messiah

fits wrote: »

Im a fan of finnair and helsinki is a good airport to connect in. (although undergoing renovations right now)

yes - they offered good flights over but a long long delay connecting on way back - I think 12 or 16 hours for my dates

BuffyBot

There are agencies out there which will book two unconnected tickets as one itinerary, however I can't think offhand of any of the majors (lastminute etc) who do so.

If a larger baggage allowance is an important factor, then having BA might be the way to go in this case. The more expensive fare may be less than any excess baggage charges.

schemingbohemia

I notice you didn't have Lufthansa as an option there. Found them great (despite poor online reviews) when we flew to Tokyo last year.

whomitconcerns

Don't go via CDG. That's the key advice so far. I have flown to shsnghai and Beijing with BA and klm and all great. Changing planes in CDG will challenge anyone's sanity....