Recommendations for flights

Hi All

DH and I are sailing on our first Asian cruise next April (2016). I know its early, but I want to get the jump on the best airlines and flight prices as possible. Does anyone have recommendations on airlines they had a good experience with and (generally speaking) what average flight costs are? We are flying from Charlotte to Singapore and then from Tokyo back to Charlotte.

Thanks!!

I just booked with Delta, using miles. Got Jacksonville, FLA to Tokyo, Hong Kong to JAX for 80000 miles each. In dollars it was $1400 pp (for October/Nov 2015).

Delta has a direct flight from Atlanta to TYO.

I always check using Kayak for low fares.

Flying coach or economy/plus or business class, any preference for legacy US carrier like Delta as mentioned above via ATL? The other major gateways are DFW, ORD, JFK and of course, LAX and SFO - pro's & con's especially on the outbound, as a delay or flight cancellations would NOT be good - time for trip interruption insurance !! Do you have a TA that can help you with booking ? US Air has the most flight connections out of CLT - regardless, you want the ticketing in each direction to be on a single ticket stock (airline alliance and/or partner carrier, i.e. AA with CX (Cathay Pacific) or UA with OZ (Asiana) since your are likely going to be making 2 or more connections to get to SIN (Singarpore). Same on the return but at least delays can be dealt with better being homeward bound.

Do you plan to sightsee in Singarpore before/after your cruise or just arriving the day before?

For example, CLT to JFK with a 6 hours layover on US, then JFK-TPE on Eva Air, non-stop (B777-300 service, better seat width & pitch in economy over US carriers) with a 2 hour layover then TPE-SIN nonstop. One-way fare looked reasonable this Spring on a quick lookup. Returning from Tokyo, fly to TPE (Taipei) and connect non-stop to JFK, clear immigration/custom & rec-check luggage, final segment JFK to CLT

The other routing with Singarpore Airline or Lufthansa (partnership with Virgin Atlantic) is to fly eastbound via Europe, connect in Frankfort or London, then another non-stop direct to SIN. Return from Tokyo would still be over the Polar route across Alaska/down via Canada - caution about this is some of the flights to Europe are flown on narrow-body and small jets these days (B757's) hated by most FF travelers, as with an unexpected strong headwind, need to make an unscheduled fuel stop along the way with potential for missing the connecting flight.

;)

Lots to think about, isn't it :cool:

If you want to go via Singapore to Hong Kong then its SIA Singapore Airrines USA to Singapore then second leg up to Hong Kong also with SIA . Direct from USA you can fly with CX Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong..

We were very happy with Singapore Airlines. We traveled to Singapore from San Francisco and returned to San Francisco from Hong Kong. In Jan the average price was $1000 RT. Singapore airlines had more leg room than any US based airlines (economy) that we've traveled with before. The service was exceptional, seats were comfortable and each seat with inflight entertainment.

If you want to go via Singapore to Hong Kong then its SIA Singapore Airrines USA to Singapore then second leg up to Hong Kong also with SIA . Direct from USA you can fly with CX Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong..

Singapore SQ1 from SFO will make a brief (refueling) stop in Hong Kong on the way to SIN.

Sometimes up to half the passengers will get off and it'll fly empty to SIN.

The bad thing about SQ1 is it leaves SFO at 1 or 2 AM (or later with DST).

For the OP, the most challenging part is getting to major US gateway airports for the airlines mentioned - CX or Cathay Pacific is our primary TPAC carrier of choice from JFK with 3 daily flight, 2 non-stops. Singarpore Air without a question or doubt is THE airline of travelers worldwide - they've discontinued the non-stop EWR-SIN flown in all business class configuration. Lately, fares on some USA & some Pacific routes are down nicely and helped by lowered fuel prices & adjusted surcharges - too far out for 2016 as they reserved the rights to impose additional charges if their fuel costs go up.

Lowest one-way economy special fare, JFK-SIN on Eva Air (Taiwan) is as low as $600 USD one-way for this mid-April (no mileage credits awarded).

Challenge - getting out CLT, their home airports to JFK/SFO, etc. or even from "nearby" ATL or Atlanta, GA with Delta being the dominant carrier. Chicago is another gateway for Cathay with a daily non-stop to HKG, and easy/plenty of flights continuing to SIN - American Airlines or AA would be the domestic alliance partner to book flights on, and as long as it is on a single itinerary & e-ticket stock issued, they would be "protected" in case of MX or WX (mechanical or weather cancellation) but still - possibility of missing the embarkation & needing to catch up with the ship. Thus, travel & trip interruption to protect the "investment".

JFK is our home airport and need plenty of time to transfer terminals and airlines, not to mention long security lines at peak period for TSA checkpoints (and, absolutely do NOT fly into LGA & go overseas from JFK, or vice versa on the return unless you have a 6 hour+ transit window) Lastly, most of those flights on Korean, Japanese & similar Asian carrier's single daily nonstops -as noted - leave around midnight to 2 AM - so, plan on eating dinner at the airport's food court (or lounges, if ...)

Very helpful post. We are looking at JFK to HKG / SIN to JFK for the Celebrity Millennium in November. At the moment, our preference is Eva Air for the cost, schedule, & alliance. Glad to hear that they are a decent airline as I have no experience with them.

Go to seatguru dot com to checkout the airline's aircraft configuration - CX has the advantage of a slightly wider coach seat on their Boeing 777-300ER for long haul @ 18.5" wide by 32" pitch. Eva Air has 18.3" width by 33" pitch - both of them Asian carriers with better inflight services and decent choice of catering - reheated food for that 15 hour *SIGH* flight in the main cabin, and, often superior in-flight entertainment (IFE)

Compared that with legacy US carrier like AA, DL & UA with their 777 services, 17" seat width and 31" pitch/limited reclined space - one begin to understand the reasons for many travelers to select them. With the recent & further de-valuation of airline's Frequent Flyer's mileage programs, it's worth even LESS to fly some just to accrue more "points"

Local TA who does a lot of Asian bookings often have access to & deals for these flights and offer special pricing while helping with e-ticketing & pre/post-cruise hotels, etc. - just make sure to check out their "credits" (references & history, etc.)

Thank you to all! Our primary consideration is price, but we are willing to spend a little extra to have some comfort on such a long trip. We also would like to avoid O'Hare at all costs, as I've heard enough horror stories that I get nervous just thinking about it!! Honestly, not too crazy about having to go to JFK either, because I hate going due North to go due West! :p

I have also heard great things about Cathay Pacific but I will also check out Singapore Air. US Air has direct flights to LAX from CLT, so an option might be to fly to LAX the day before and stay at a hotel, then fly to Singapore from there. We do plan to get there one day before so we can have a little time to see it and/or cushion for delays, etc.

Somewhere around $600 - $1200 pp was what I figured the cost was going to be, depending on what airline and how good of a deal we can get, and now we will keep our eyes open!

Still too early to price out best flight options & prices to Singarpore & return from Tokyo for April 2016, wait until May or about 11+ months out (or, with the help of your preferred TA/experienced frequent flyer, etc.) or web surfing on the major/popular sites, and, directly on your "short" list of airline websites. You are basically looking at 2 one-way trips, outbound with a (possible) stopover @ LAX.

Flights to/from Asia actually don't fly "westward" across the Pacific, they fly north in what's called the "polar"routes near the North Pole, hugging the Canadian landscape before coming back down toward Japan, Beijing, Hong Kong, etc. toward Singarpore - depending on prevailing wind & weather patterns, etc. - on the return, it's generally closer toward the Alaska coast & down thru Canada airspace to reach either the West or East Coast. Whether you are flying from the East or West Coast or out of O'Hare, it's basically 15 to 16 hours sitting nearly upright in the "main" cabin.

I see one exception, Singarpore will ticket you with its partner, JetBlue to NY's JFK's Terminal 5, switch to Terminal 1 with several hours layover, flyonward on A380 (AirBus jumbo double-decker) non-stop to Frankfort, Germany and then non-stop to Singarpore, and the one-way fare is currently priced about $850 p/p for late April 2015 (cannot get a quote for 2016 yet) - travelers around the world ranked Singarpore Air as among the best / No. 1 carrier and it has an excellent safety record, in-flight & customer services being the best. There's ample time between flights in case of minor delays and the airline will be responsible for the connections if you are delayed when ticketed together.

If you connect via LAX, Eva Air has the lowest fare now with the LAX-TPE nonstop (Taipei) and connect to SIN non-stop (another 4 hours.) Surprisingly, Singarpore Air is only slightly more with a brief stopover/connection thru Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific is much higher (by $150 USD one-way) nonstop to HK and connect to SIN. US carriers pricing is much higher & given a choice, we don't deal with UA, AA, DL, etc. with international flights. Most of these flights depart around 1 AM (out of JFK, LAX and also from SFO) so it's possible to not travel a day ahead for an extended layover - not much to do @LAX unless you have family/friends or other sights to see. SFO sometimes run into problems & delays with fogs, usually in the morning but ... (LAX, not so much & better)

If you don't travel much on these TPAC flights, might want to consider arriving 2 or 3 days earlier, to adjust to major time zone changes & resulting jetlag - will be "worst" on the return home afterward. With upwards of 30 hours and 2 stops en route, will be tired after landing & worst if you spend the next 2 to 4 days sleeping on a cruise as the body is fighting jetlag. Ease yourself gradually after arrival, rest and see that city, then, transition to the cruise - that would be the strategy we adopt ... ;)

*

On the return, NRT to CLT - that looked to a "challenge" in coming up with good prices what a quickie search, apart from Air Canada's pricing & connections. These are tasks that we would likely ring up our reliable local TA knowledgeable about TPAC travel & have them work up a good set of prices and bundle it together.

OP,

In addition to the excellent advice you have received, here are my suggestions:

1. Check the seats on any option you consider on seatguru.com. To give you an example: Emirates economy is 31 inches in pitch and 17 inches across, while Qatar is 32-32 inches in pitch and 19 inches across. Both airlines would take you to Singapore, but one is more comfortable than the other, particularly on a very long flight.

2. In addition to all the options offered by other posters, check out flights from Houston's IAH. Korean, All Nippon (ANA) and EVA have recently added routes to that airport. All are excellent and EVA will begin to fly its Hello Kitty plane from IAH later this year -- look up the photos online, it's a riot! Cathay Pacific and United also fly Transpacific routes from Houston, so there's competition and availability. And it's only a short flight from Charlotte.

3. Arrive a couple of days before your cruise so that you can be sure to be there when the ship sails and you can see a bit of Singapore. I like to do my own, but because we knew our brains were going to be fried from all of the hours on the plane, we took a standard half day tour (offered on Viator) and let someone take us to the important sights in town without having to even look at a hop on hop off bus schedule. That was a great decision. We also took the nighttime tour to Chinatown and the Quays, which was fabulous, and visited the Gardens by the Bay by ourselves the next day, before boarding our ship.

4. Consider getting a Thermarest seat for the plane -- we got the regular square seat, which looks a bit big, but there's also one for planes but that one has velcro. You only need to blow it up a little bit. It will make getting up to stretch and take a little walk easier.

5. Consider stopping halfway if you have the time. Last time, we chose a 26-hour layover in Tokyo instead of the regular 2-hour layover (between flights that were 14 hour and 7.5 hour long). Went into the city, visited a couple of our favorite spots, and started to feel sleepy by the time we boarded our 6pm flight to Singapore. In a previous trip, we chose to spend a day in Doha, Qatar, before facing the 14-hour flight home.

6. If you fly on United (which was not as bad as we expected), consider the Economy Plus seats for the longest segments. If you are not platinum or silver, pay for the Economy Plus fees when you book. These will go up as the departure date approaches and the plane fills up.

7. Consider sitting in the back of the plane. This increases your chances of getting an empty seat next to you. Or two.

Have a fantastic trip!

Another good airline is Virgin Australia. We flew from Sydney to Perth on VA. The standard tourist seats have great and unusual way that they recline, the best I have experienced.

Also, flight attendants are special.

Still too early to price out best flight options & prices to Singarpore & return from Tokyo for April 2016, wait until May or about 11+ months out (or, with the help of your preferred TA/experienced frequent flyer, etc.) or web surfing on the major/popular sites, and, directly on your "short" list of airline websites. You are basically looking at 2 one-way trips, outbound with a (possible) stopover @ LAX.

Flights to/from Asia actually don't fly "westward" across the Pacific, they fly north in what's called the "polar"routes near the North Pole, hugging the Canadian landscape before coming back down toward Japan, Beijing, Hong Kong, etc. toward Singarpore - depending on prevailing wind & weather patterns, etc. - on the return, it's generally closer toward the Alaska coast & down thru Canada airspace to reach either the West or East Coast. Whether you are flying from the East or West Coast or out of O'Hare, it's basically 15 to 16 hours sitting nearly upright in the "main" cabin.

I see one exception, Singarpore will ticket you with its partner, JetBlue to NY's JFK's Terminal 5, switch to Terminal 1 with several hours layover, flyonward on A380 (AirBus jumbo double-decker) non-stop to Frankfort, Germany and then non-stop to Singarpore, and the one-way fare is currently priced about $850 p/p for late April 2015 (cannot get a quote for 2016 yet) - travelers around the world ranked Singarpore Air as among the best / No. 1 carrier and it has an excellent safety record, in-flight & customer services being the best. There's ample time between flights in case of minor delays and the airline will be responsible for the connections if you are delayed when ticketed together.

If you connect via LAX, Eva Air has the lowest fare now with the LAX-TPE nonstop (Taipei) and connect to SIN non-stop (another 4 hours.) Surprisingly, Singarpore Air is only slightly more with a brief stopover/connection thru Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific is much higher (by $150 USD one-way) nonstop to HK and connect to SIN. US carriers pricing is much higher & given a choice, we don't deal with UA, AA, DL, etc. with international flights. Most of these flights depart around 1 AM (out of JFK, LAX and also from SFO) so it's possible to not travel a day ahead for an extended layover - not much to do @LAX unless you have family/friends or other sights to see. SFO sometimes run into problems & delays with fogs, usually in the morning but ... (LAX, not so much & better)

If you don't travel much on these TPAC flights, might want to consider arriving 2 or 3 days earlier, to adjust to major time zone changes & resulting jetlag - will be "worst" on the return home afterward. With upwards of 30 hours and 2 stops en route, will be tired after landing & worst if you spend the next 2 to 4 days sleeping on a cruise as the body is fighting jetlag. Ease yourself gradually after arrival, rest and see that city, then, transition to the cruise - that would be the strategy we adopt ... ;)

*

On the return, NRT to CLT - that looked to a "challenge" in coming up with good prices what a quickie search, apart from Air Canada's pricing & connections. These are tasks that we would likely ring up our reliable local TA knowledgeable about TPAC travel & have them work up a good set of prices and bundle it together.

This is great information, thank you. I had no idea that the flight would actually head north instead of west, so this makes the layovers in Chicago make much more sense. We also try to avoid American airlines if we can, but we will check out Singapore Airlines for sure.

On the way back, to be honest, I'm much less picky, so we'll just see what becomes available. We definitely want to stay an extra day in Tokyo before we fly out, so we'll see what happens!

OP,

 

In addition to the excellent advice you have received, here are my suggestions:

 

1. Check the seats on any option you consider on seatguru.com. To give you an example: Emirates economy is 31 inches in pitch and 17 inches across, while Qatar is 32-32 inches in pitch and 19 inches across. Both airlines would take you to Singapore, but one is more comfortable than the other, particularly on a very long flight.

 

2. In addition to all the options offered by other posters, check out flights from Houston's IAH. Korean, All Nippon (ANA) and EVA have recently added routes to that airport. All are excellent and EVA will begin to fly its Hello Kitty plane from IAH later this year -- look up the photos online, it's a riot! Cathay Pacific and United also fly Transpacific routes from Houston, so there's competition and availability. And it's only a short flight from Charlotte.

 

3. Arrive a couple of days before your cruise so that you can be sure to be there when the ship sails and you can see a bit of Singapore. I like to do my own, but because we knew our brains were going to be fried from all of the hours on the plane, we took a standard half day tour (offered on Viator) and let someone take us to the important sights in town without having to even look at a hop on hop off bus schedule. That was a great decision. We also took the nighttime tour to Chinatown and the Quays, which was fabulous, and visited the Gardens by the Bay by ourselves the next day, before boarding our ship.

 

4. Consider getting a Thermarest seat for the plane -- we got the regular square seat, which looks a bit big, but there's also one for planes but that one has velcro. You only need to blow it up a little bit. It will make getting up to stretch and take a little walk easier.

 

5. Consider stopping halfway if you have the time. Last time, we chose a 26-hour layover in Tokyo instead of the regular 2-hour layover (between flights that were 14 hour and 7.5 hour long). Went into the city, visited a couple of our favorite spots, and started to feel sleepy by the time we boarded our 6pm flight to Singapore. In a previous trip, we chose to spend a day in Doha, Qatar, before facing the 14-hour flight home.

 

6. If you fly on United (which was not as bad as we expected), consider the Economy Plus seats for the longest segments. If you are not platinum or silver, pay for the Economy Plus fees when you book. These will go up as the departure date approaches and the plane fills up.

 

7. Consider sitting in the back of the plane. This increases your chances of getting an empty seat next to you. Or two.

 

Have a fantastic trip!

Thanks! Stopping somewhere in the middle is a great idea. I hadn't really thought of that, but it makes a lot of sense!

We definitely plan to get into Singapore early so we can see the sights. DH and I feel that we may never get to a place again, so we make the most of it while we are there. Who can say what the future holds?

PS - googled the Hello Kitty plane - what a riot!

I apologize for this shameless plug for my national carrier (Singapore airlines). Here are some videos of my flight experience, if you wish to see what the flight experience is like.

SIA in Economy - London to Singapore (Boeing 777) [the burger you see was at a restaurant at London Heathrow]

[YOUTUBE]9DQ1rE2-T8Q[/YOUTUBE]

SIA in Business - Singapore to London (SQ 322, Airbus A380)

[YOUTUBE]r9ocU6H2bWc[/YOUTUBE]

Very helpful post. We are looking at JFK to HKG / SIN to JFK for the Celebrity Millennium in November. At the moment, our preference is Eva Air for the cost, schedule, & alliance. Glad to hear that they are a decent airline as I have no experience with them.

Flew EVA airline from TPE (Taipei Taiwan) to Bali (DPS). The whole routing was IDA (Dulles Washington DC) to SFO (San Francisco) SFO to TPE (stopover for 3 nights) TPE to DPS and cruise Bali to Osaka Japan and then home from Tokyo to IDA Washington. We did the whole trip on one economy ticket from UNITED (EVA is star alliance and had good availability) on points I earned from various credit cards and other deals. 75,000 each. We then paid to upgrade on all but the EVA flight to economy plus for about $125 each flight over pacific and less for US flight. EVA economy plus was much more expensive.

EVA was a very comfortable flight on plane that was clean and modern. Food was as good as most airlines (chicken and rice probably). Enough English spoken that no problem. Most cities of Asia available from TPE.

If you can spare a day for sightseeing in Taipei --DO SO. Very interesting place and there are some wonderful museums and public squares and night markets. We enjoyed touring with Christine Wu and her husband and had a wonderful additional city to our itinerary.

Singapore Air among top 2-3 lines in world. Skip domestic lines for long flights. I was told to stay away from China Air.Sin does Star Alliance.

Emirates Airlines will begin round trip service to Singapore via Dubai in September, 2015 from Orlando International Airport. Watch for specials on introductory business and first class tickets. Book a stopover in Dubai to experience this city also. We were able to book business class tickets for February, 2016 at a very reasonable price several months ago during a 3 day special.

Thank you lluvcruising2, we will be flying Singapore air in business class to and from Singapore in November. Really looking forward to my flight now. Do you get pyjamas to wear when you go to bed and is there a good amenity pack?

We especially enjoyed the food moves. All hail the king!

Libby

Emirates Airlines will begin round trip service to Singapore via Dubai in September, 2015 from Orlando International Airport.

Isn't it more accurate to say only that Emirates is starting Orlando-Dubai? There's nothing special about specifically getting to Singapore from Orlando. Once you've got to Dubai, you can fly on to anywhere on the EK network.

This thread is primarily about flights to and from Singapore. Emirates is one of the few airlines that offer flights from the east coast of USA to Singapore with only one connection.

Emirates is one of the few airlines that offer flights from the east coast of USA to Singapore with only one connection.

There really is nothing special about EK's "round trip service to Singapore via Dubai" from Orlando, which (as I have said) is a misleading statement anyway.

We are booked on Celebrity Millennium in February, 2016 leaving from Hong Kong. We have CLT-DFW, DFW-HGK on the outward leg and SIN-HKG, HGK-DFW, DFW-CLT on the return. All on American Airlines. Price was about 1100 pp. Hope that's useful to you.

Ed

No, there are many such airlines. And they come after the direct flights from the US east coast to Singapore.

 

There really is nothing special about EK's "round trip service to Singapore via Dubai" from Orlando, which (as I have said) is a misleading statement anyway.

Its special to us and people living in Central Florida might be interested. That is why I posted it.