Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sean2406]

Just sorting my flights to Korea from next week, flying from Manchester.

Basically 3 options:

Emirates - my preferred choice as I've never flown with them but heard great things, get 30kg allowance too. Down point is that the �560 flight has a 7 hour stopover in Dubai, which is a pretty long time to be stuck in an airport!

Qatar - flown with them before to Hong Kong, brilliant, but only 23kg. Anyone flown with them lately? What is it like, entertainment, room etc? Only a 2 hour stopover.

Etihad - not heard anything about them until they sponsored Man City. Basically the same situation as the Qatar flight but a bit cheaper (not that I'm paying, getting reimbursed - public school with Gepik/Korvia)

Then a little more expensive (�700) direct from London is Asiana, which I just seen is another 5 star airline?

Any advice?

[ttompatz]

Since you get reimbursed (up to about 820 quid) why not take the direct (non-stop) flight.

Asiana is not bad for a long haul. Planes are decent, food is OK, F.A.s are nice, polite and cute.

Personally, I wouldn't spend 7 hours in an airport and juggle airplanes to save the government �140.

.

[sean2406]

Thanks for the reply.

You can only fly direct from London. As I live in the North of England it makes it quite pointless to avoid having to wait somewhere else, just to treck down to London. I may aswell just fly from Manchester and change in Dubai/Doha.

I'll probably end up just flying with Qatar.

The thing with the price is my Dad is paying for it until I get reimbursed, so I don't wanna make him spend too much, even if he is getting it back within 30 days (+ whatever it takes me to transfer back to the UK).

[Lazio]

Flew Qatar 2 years ago and can't complain about anything.
They are usually in the top 5 of the "best airline" list, that should suggest something. The planes are newish, food is excellent and the service is good too. Only downside is Doha airport which is more like a third-world country's airport. It's too small for the traffic it handles. I wonder if there is any extension going on or they are planning in the future. They must since the airline grew quite fast and more and more destinations are served so they will need a large and nice terminal building.
You have personal screen with your own choice of music, movies etc. Actually, I do have another complaint: on the Doha-Vienna leg they used A320 (or 321) aircrafts which is too small for a 5 hour flight. (no personal screen on these) Although I'm sure that to Western Europe they fly with wide-body planes.

[b-class rambler]

I think with Etihad you can get 28kg baggage allowance. Yes, it's officially 23kg, but if you join their frequent flyer scheme (which costs nothing to do so) they let you have an additional 5kg allowance.

Never flown with Etihad, so don't know what they're like. I did notice on one airline review website that they got excellent feedback for business class, but much poorer feedback from people who'd travelled economy. I've also heard that Abu Dhabi airport is a lot less well developed than Dubai.

With Emirates, you'd fly on the new A380 aircraft from Dubai to Seoul and they are pretty nice, even in economy. Emirates fly more than once a day between Manchester and Dubai and you could possibly do that leg of the journey too on an A380, depending which flight you selected from Manchester.

If I was in your shoes, I'd probably go for Emirates. 30kg will be handy for when you're first moving to Korea and Dubai is a decent enough airport to transit in. And couldn't you get a shorter stopover there for not much increase in the price? I've never flown to/from Manchester with Emirates, but most of their connections to UK regional airports seemed to me to be doable with no more than a 3-4 hour stopover.

[sean2406]

Thanks for the advice.

Decided to go with Qatar in the end. The better timed Emirates flight was an extra �160. I'm not too fussed, from what I remember with Qatar (that was in 2006!) and from what I've read then they are great.

Besides, it's only transport!

I only really remember 2 things about Doha. 1, I got off the plane at around midnight their time (actually, must be the same flight this time) but was in September, and I just broke out in sweat. 2, there was decent fried chicken in the airport!

Also, it is the only airline I ever slept on (a full 7 hours from Hong Kong to Doha), so that will help!

[tiger fancini]

Have you looked at KLM/Air France? They fly out of Manchester. Air France normally has a 2/3 hr layover in Paris, then direct to Seoul in about 10.5 hours. Occasionally the long haul flight is operated by Korean Air too, which is nice.

[sean2406]

[teacherbunny]

I have flown to and from the UK by many airlines but in my opinion Emirates was the best..
Ethiad was ok..
Turkish airlines is quite good also..
Lufthansa was bad

both turkish and lufthansa have 10 hour flights so it can be tiring..

Ethiad and Emirates were split half way and were easier to deal with..Usually there is a 3 hour wait when transfering planes..

Emirates by far had the best service..

And all these leave from manchester.

[modernseoul]

British Airways fly in direct to London and the prices one of the cheaper options now. Personally I've flown via Japan (Asiana / BA) and via UAE (Etithad) and the only down side to both was the waiting for a connection.

[ed1980]

could you go via dubai and get a longer layover ?? say 12 hours - then you can have a look at dubai too