airline suggestions....

carang

carang

Registered User
ok, i'm hoping to take my two kids to vancouver for xmas this year (sadly daddy cannot come, too). i have 2 options really as i could also fly into seattle...

i've flown so many different airlines over the years because i usually just go for the cheapest fares. there are a couple i swore i would NEVER fly again, but now that i'm searching for flights, i'm waffling. the cost is just so much less...

so, i'm looking at:

korean air-seattle ($21k for 3).... so, i can get 3 tickets on korean air (not bad, travelled them many times in the past). one stop in seoul for only 1 hour, so not bad.

china eastern-vancouver($15k for 3).. a LOT cheaper than korean air & goes to vancouver...but it has a 3.5 stopover on the way to yvr and a 5.5 hour stopover on the way back. our last experience with them was TERRIBLE. tiny seats, NOTHING for kids. no seat back entertainment, only chinese movies showing from a drop down tv above the seats that none of us could see.

philippine airlines- vancouver (price about $21-24k for 3)

air china-vancouver -- (about $18k for 3) have flown them before. seats tiny, seat back entertainment didn't work (on either flight!). nothing for kids....

cathay pacific-vancouver DIRECT--($25k for 3)

so, my question to you ladies is this: money IS an issue, but i'm not sure which should be my first choice...

the money i save by flying china eastern would almost be my spending money while away (around $10k if you compare to CX) BUT they suck and the flights will be a nightmare....

what do you all think?

*please remember, i pay for flights out of my own pocket. this is not paid for by any company.
** willing to accept donations for my travel fund, though! :haha:
 
gracey, do you really think it is worth the extra $10k? like i said, that would pretty much be our spending money....so, the trip would be so much more expensive if we did that.

i'm just wary of "wasting" the money as it's only 12-20 hours out of my life.
 
If you're traveling alone with kids, it's always better with direct, so go for CX. Plus with CX, there's inflight entertainment and that's really good to keep kids entertained.
 
my kids are 5 & 7 years old. they've done this trip many times. they also have their own small tablets with games, tv shows, movies etc on them...when i travel, i pack a plastic zip envelope with stickers, colours, paper, colouring pages, water colour paints, uno cards, connect 4 etc... so i keep them fairly well entertained.

i know that direct would be better (i've only ever flown direct once in 17 years!)...

what i need to know is this: is it REALLY worth the extra $10k?

how do you all make the decision? (and does whether or not your company pay for it affect the decision you make?)
 
Depends on what you're going for. If you want to have the most pleasant flight, I'd go with Cathay Pacific. If you're willing to "rough it" this is my assessment of the quality of the flight you'll likely have with each airline, arranged from best to worst below.

1. Cathay Pacific
2. Korean Air
3. Philippines Airlines
4. Air China
5. China Eastern

If I was in your position, as your children are older and could possibly be entertained with materials you bring on board yourself (Portable DVD players are getting cheaper and cheaper just check out the DSC Centres like something like this: http://www.dsc.hk/view_ecat.php?pkey=147021. VCDs aren't the most awesome quality but you can pick up boatloads of them for $20 HKD in HK) you could just take the cheapest flight (the difference between China Air and China Eastern, as you know is insignificant) and pocket the money in savings and then do more fun stuff while you're in Canada.

While traveling with small children (still in diapers) I would want the best flight that I can afford for comfort because it's enough stress to deal with crying babies and all that.

But, with older kids who can self-manage, just consider it a really long road trip where you need to pack your own amenities. Don't expect much but definitely spend that $10K in Canada on things more worth your money.
 
carang said:
my kids are 5 & 7 years old. they've done this trip many times. they also have their own small tablets with games, tv shows, movies etc on them...when i travel, i pack a plastic zip envelope with stickers, colours, paper, colouring pages, water colour paints, uno cards, connect 4 etc... so i keep them fairly well entertained.

i know that direct would be better (i've only ever flown direct once in 17 years!)...

what i need to know is this: is it REALLY worth the extra $10k?

how do you all make the decision? (and does whether or not your company pay for it affect the decision you make?)
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As I said, I think that paying $10K more for the direct flight is only really worth it when you have small children whom you physically have to carry yourself or transport from place-to-place. Older children are a totally different scenario altogether.

And yes, definitely, whether the company is paying or not has a huge influence on our choice. This summer we're going back to the States and my employer is footing the bill. Of course we did have limitations on how much we could spend (no first class for us) but I did tell them that I wanted a specific flight route and would not settle unless I could have layovers in the certain cities I wanted (also no direct-flight option available for us because of where I live). So, there are actually only two carries that fly that specific route and I chose the one that is most comfortable for me.

But...if it had been coming out of my own pocket, well...let's just say we wouldn't be traveling at all this summer as it's way too much for us to spend at peak season. But, I would have been taking the cheapest route and that isn't really so much determined by carrier for me but where we have layovers and for how long. So, we'd likely have 3 really long layovers (4-8 hours each) but now we have 2 short layovers (2 hours each)--thanks to my employer footing the bill.
 
thanks, thanka. i was hoping you would answer!

i may go for the korean air. the stop over is short, basically off of one plane and then get on the next... just enough time to stretch the legs and let the kids have a run.

it's not the most expensive, but it's not china eastern, either! i REALLY don't want to fly china eastern unless it's absolutely necessary.

as i said, the kids have the tablets so games/movies all-in-one (and only $700 each!)

thanks, guys! i just couldn't bring myself to spend so much on cathay...
 
carang said:
thanks, thanka. i was hoping you would answer!

i may go for the korean air. the stop over is short, basically off of one plane and then get on the next... just enough time to stretch the legs and let the kids have a run.

it's not the most expensive, but it's not china eastern, either! i REALLY don't want to fly china eastern unless it's absolutely necessary.

as i said, the kids have the tablets so games/movies all-in-one (and only $700 each!)

thanks, guys! i just couldn't bring myself to spend so much on cathay...
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Korean Air will be good to you. :) Have a wonderful trip!
 
air china-vancouver -- (about $18k for 3) have flown them before. seats tiny, seat back entertainment didn't work (on either flight!). nothing for kids....

If Air China flies direct, I would go for Air china. I wouldnt concern too much about 5 & 7 years old. I personally this IPad can be more entertaining for them. Just worry about the battery life span.
 
I would probably take Korean. My friends in Shanghai hate China Eastern as well. They bring their own meals, everything. I've had good experience with Philippine Airlines and their entertainment system is fairly reasonable. If you want to go cheap, I would take Air China and stock up on iPad and portable DVD. My children have never been awake the whole flight, maybe half so on a long haul they just need to entertain themselves for 6 hours or so which is doable. Even if you save $4000 it's still $4000 and if the layover isn't bad, it's still worth it.

We have the same issue, and try to find the middle of the road between the absolute worse and the directs. There is no direct to my parents anyway, so that gives a lot more options.
 
I would definitely "rough it" in that situation with children as old as yours. As thanka2 said, if the children were nappy wearing and needed to be carried then the extra $10,000 would be worth it but not now. I would probably go with the cheapest in order to have the most spending money and really enjoy the trip while in Canada and just build yourself and the kids up by saying that "the next 24 hours will be really tough but it will be over then and we can enjoy ourselves!"
Maybe try to book the cheapest, but ensure you are flying at night time for most of the flight so that the kids can just get on the plane and sleep.
Exciting times for you all to go somewhere where Christmas actually feels like Christmas, instead of here where people are on the beach and shopping malls!
 
amyH, after spending hours upon hours thinking about it last night, i think i've decided to rough it. at less than $15k on china eastern, i just can't bring myself to spend an extra $6k on airfare in order to fly korean.

i figure that even if i pay for a hotel in hk (flight leaves @ 730am, so we'd have to leave our house @ 430am) we'd still be $4000 up and have that much extra for fun stuff in canada... that's more than a day of skiing in whistler!!!
 
I would just make sure the packing is done a few days in advance so that the day before you leave you have nothing to do. Get your husband or helper to take the kids out for the day so you can spend the day in bed reading/watching tv/surfing the net in pure relaxation.
Think of worst case scenarios for the flight and assume that they will all happen so that you can be mentally prepared and hopefully it wont be so bad so that you can be pleasantly surprised!
 
First off, congratulations on going back to Canada for a visit. I know you miss your Mom.

Second, Personally I would sleep at home and skip the preflight hotel. You might get 1-2 more hours of sleep, but I think people sleep better in their own beds so though less the quality of sleep will be better.

How old are your children? Unless they are under 3, I would imagine they can be well behaved on the flight with enough entertainment and snacks.
 
I think at the end of the day, it's how much you can afford. I would probably go with Korean... sounds like a decent compromise. Btw, I have heard bad things about Cathay - the seats on many flights being very uncomfortable - so don't feel too bad about missing out on it. Imagine how pissed you'd be if you forked out that extra dough and found yourself uncomfy the whole flight.

I'd go for the most comfortable option in my/your budget and sacrifice on spending on the trip. Anyway it's a holiday visiting family I'm assuming so your expenditure can be simple. But that's because I always find long flights tiring and uncomfy (and I've flown great airlines, though always in economy) and end up exhausted on arrival. I'd imagine it would be harder with kids, even older kids.
 
The only other thing I would add to think about, is what if you are delayed at HK, and miss your connection. Will they hold the plane, and how long until the next connecting flight? Does it mean staying another 24 hours to get the next one, or do they have, say, 6 options per day. My in-laws frequently take connecting flights and seem to 50% of the time miss their connections and get to stay in hell-hole airport hotels for the night (then make a huge fuss and get credit towards next flights, must be why they do it as they can well afford direct!). Just a thought...
 
erina320 said:
First off, congratulations on going back to Canada for a visit. I know you miss your Mom.

Second, Personally I would sleep at home and skip the preflight hotel. You might get 1-2 more hours of sleep, but I think people sleep better in their own beds so though less the quality of sleep will be better.

How old are your children? Unless they are under 3, I would imagine they can be well behaved on the flight with enough entertainment and snacks.
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the problem is the flight is 7:30am. we would have to leave our place around 3:30-4am to make it in time to check in.... hence, a hotel room.
 
burrcl said:
The only other thing I would add to think about, is what if you are delayed at HK, and miss your connection. Will they hold the plane, and how long until the next connecting flight? Does it mean staying another 24 hours to get the next one, or do they have, say, 6 options per day. My in-laws frequently take connecting flights and seem to 50% of the time miss their connections and get to stay in hell-hole airport hotels for the night (then make a huge fuss and get credit towards next flights, must be why they do it as they can well afford direct!). Just a thought...
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i've never missed a connection, ever. the cheapest option has a 3.5 hour stop over in shanghai and returning it's a 5.5 hour stopover. ick!
 
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