Who do i fly with?

[Slip]

Right looking for flights from May to mid June as I am going for 6 weeks...... Searched all the airlines and have narrowed it down to four based on connection times and price.

Cathay Pacific £584
Qatar £700
Emirates £597
Etihad £562


I have put them in order of what I think are the best. Out of all of them I have only ever flown with Emirates and I wasn't impressed with any of the 4 aircrafts I flew on when flying to Seychelles. The food was ok. However the in flight entertainment was below par. 3 of the 4 flights the earphones or the socket were faulty and replacements were crap, in the end I slept for most of the flights. Plus the return leg from Seychelles I pre booked a seat with leg room, but didn't notice until I got on the plane they had stitched me up and given me a different seat number on my boarding pass. I did notice a very tall bloke in the seat I had booked, so let that one ride as he needed it more than me!

Qatar is second on my list as I know they fly numerous times out of Heathrow and are hardly ever late leaving (I was contracted to do their cargo from Heathrow for 8 years! glad that contract ended!) They also have the best connection times and due to the numerous flights a day if I miss a connection I know it won't be long before another is due. Just the price is a bit on the high side.

Etihad not sure about. Reading a bit on the forums they are not really a preferred choice of a lot of you.


So over to the forum now.... Who shall I choose, or throw another name into the hat... But I did check a lot more and the prices were higher or bad connection times

[Ako Si Jamie]

I've only flown with Cathay from those four. If it was me I'd choose Etihad because they're the cheapest plus I'd like to see what they're like to fly with.

I'm not keen on Cathay's food, although I would use them again.

[Terpe]

Out of your 4 Cathay everytime for me

Singapore airlines is also great..........if you can get a promo.

You could always consider PAL......direct flight and wonderful cabin crew

[bigmarco]

That's a great price for Cathay. Take it

[raynaputi]

Qatar is second on my list as I know they fly numerous times out of Heathrow and are hardly ever late leaving (I was contracted to do their cargo from Heathrow for 8 years! glad that contract ended!) They also have the best connection times and due to the numerous flights a day if I miss a connection I know it won't be long before another is due. Just the price is a bit on the high side.

We just flew Manchester-Manila via Qatar last month, and they were crap. I'm not sure if you've read Keith's review about it when we got back to UK. Maybe it'll give you an idea. Just search here in the forum.

[Michael Parnham]

I've used Cathay & Qatar and found both good, you can add Singapore airlines to your list also good!

[stevie c]

Has to be cathay for me flown with them for the last five visits

[Slip]

Singapore I checked out but they were pricey at over £800.
Pal I checked out as well, they were £761 and to fly with them would mean leaving a day later then planned as they don't fly 7 days a week. Which would also mean returning 2 days later, which in turn would mean going back to work 12 hours after returning home and having 6 weeks out from work. Then going straight into 4x12 hour shifts. So although convenient the price is too high just for non stop flying. If I could have got it for around £600-£620 I may have added them to the poll and struggled at work for those shifts.

[London_Manila]

Cathay Pacific is a better airline all round and their routing is faster via Hong Kong

[SimonH]

Emirates is my preferred airline, not sure when you flew with them to the Seychelles but I would guess a while ago. Their inflight entertainment is probably the best I've ever come across.

[Slip]

Emirates is my preferred airline, not sure when you flew with them to the Seychelles but I would guess a while ago. Their inflight entertainment is probably the best I've ever come across.

I flew with them only in October 2011, so not long ago. Cant fault them for customer service and like I said food was ok. But for the price we pay you think they'd give you a pair of 99p headphones that work..... Once I could live with, but this happened to me on three flights out of the four... so I can't even say it was a one off.....
Still haven't ruled out using them again completely.... But Cathay Pacific seems to be the preferred choice so far.

[raynaputi]

I flew with Emirates on October 2011 going from Manila to UK. Everything was great with my experience. I also got to ride an A380 plane!

[Slip]

I flew with Emirates on October 2011 going from Manila to UK. Everything was great with my experience. I also got to ride an A380 plane!

Been on the A380 as well

But working at the airport and seeing planes all day long a plane is a plane in my eyes lol. Like a kid working in a sweet shop, great at first, but you soon get fed up of them

[SimonH]

I flew with them only in October 2011, so not long ago. Cant fault them for customer service and like I said food was ok. But for the price we pay you think they'd give you a pair of 99p headphones that work..... Once I could live with, but this happened to me on three flights out of the four... so I can't even say it was a one off.....
Still haven't ruled out using them again completely.... But Cathay Pacific seems to be the preferred choice so far.

I usually take my own decent pair of headphones with a airplane adaptor which you can buy for a few quid

[London_Manila]

I found going via the middle east a long slog just add up the total time you are spent flying
Dubai airport is very crowded and Emirates cabin staff were disjointed
A380 is great but you only get that to Dubai

[grahamw48]

I flew Etihad last year (from Manchester), and doing so again later this month.

They met my requirements ...ie... seat, food , drink, toilet. Other than that I just sit scowling at my neighbours so they don't try to talk to me, try to read, or I sleep until the seemingly interminable flight is over.

I hate those seat-back TVs, and people who think it's acceptable to lower their seatback into my lap.

[cheekee]

I fly with Cathay because of their good service to Cebu. I liked the food. Leg room was a bit of an issue for me. I found the return flight from Hong Kong to UK a bit cramped and I couldn't sleep. Going to invest in a nice travel pillow for 3 weeks time. Would like to try a trip on the A380 though, which cathay don't have at the moment.

The supplied headphones were rubbish though and I used my ones instead.