Wasn't sure where to put this thread after looking at the sub forums so just put it here. Flight price total: £450 (from memory, maybe £435) Flight itinerary: Heathrow (terminal 4) 26th December 2013 - 07:30am - AirFrance --> Paris, France - ChinaSouthern -> Guangjhou (Canton), China - ChinaSouthern -> Manila, Philippines (terminal 1) 27th December 2013 - 04:35pm How that part of the journey went: Heathrow --> Paris (flight left and arrived on time) Was confusing (maybe just for me as it's first time on a trip with more than one flight). I was waiting for a gate to show ChinaSouthern checkin, only to find that actually I was flying with AirFrance. All ChinaSouthern passengers had this problem. We could not self serve as our tickets had to be changed to AirFrance. After this, as the ChinaSouthern passengers were about to board, there was another problem (god knows what) and we all had to wait behind the counter as they did stuff on their computer letting us through one-by-one. This gave me a chance to meet some Filipino families though, so not all bad. Paris --> Guangjhou (flight left and arrived on time) No problems here. Paris is one of the best airports I went to. Flight was 12 hours, there abouts. Food wasn't terrible, but was very Chinese so wasn't my favourite. Only fed two small meals on the 12 hours flying. Guangjhou --> Manila (flight left and arrived on time) I had a fairly long layover here, but as I was going through customs a guy said there's an earlier flight I can catch. So I was only here for an hour or so before leaving for Manila. I met a Filipina on the plane who'd spent the last 30 years living in Aus. This was lucky as the airline lost my bag somewhere on the trip here, so the lady I met, Eva, said I could have the bag delivered to her house as I didn't have a fixed address for my stay. Bag was possible lost due to my earlier flight, and it not being changed. The flight that was meant to arrive in Manila at 04:35pm in fact arrived early, at 04:20pm. Airline said they would pay up to $200 worth of clothes that I might buy to replace clothes I needed whilst my bag was lost. Manila, Philippines (Terminal 1) 7th January 2014 - 08:35am - ChinaSouthern -> Xiamen, China (this was a stop over, not connecting flight) - ChinaSouthern -> Beijing, China - ChinaSouthern -> Amsterdam - KLM -> Heathrow (Terminal 4) 8th January 2014 - 09:00am Manila --> Xiamen/Beijing (flight left and arrived on time) No problems here. Stop in Xiamen was not on the itinerary, but was pretty short and not a problem. Back in the same seat as was on from Manila --> Xiamen for Xiamen --> Beijing. In Beijing there was an 8 hour layover. They told us they would put us in a hotel, which they did, the Phenix Hotel. Was more of a pain than anything. Got a free meal,but other than that was pretty boring. Me and another passenger took a shuttle-bus back to the airport which was much nicer. Beijing --> Amsterdam (flight left and arrived on time) No problem on flight. Only fed two small meal in the 12 hours of flying. Amsterdam --> Heathrow (flight left 35 minutes late) Other than the plane being 35 minutes late (due to the cabin crew arriving in late from their previous flight to Amsterdam), this was fine. Baggage come through quickly. Overall, this journey was fine. Main issue was a lack of food on the longer flights.
That is really dirt cheap as I fly from Manila to Heathrow 2-3x a year. Is that the best possible times for the flights or are there flights with shorter stopovers? Also, how much baggage allowance did you have?
I'm not sure about best times to book etc, this was my first time going to Asia. I was told my another traveller to brows flight in incognito windows as some websites track how often you view the flights, so putting them up as you look more desperate. But not sure how accurate that is. I think booking months in advanced and taking so many connecting flights/long layovers was the main reason I got them cheap. ChinaSouthern was fine to fly with, but in no way luxury. Edit: reread your post. The flight times were long. You can get much shorter flights now.
Nope, I went to Sagada/Banaue and bought clothes up there where I didn't get receipts on the market. They didn't give me $200, but would refund a maximum of that amount if I had receipts.
Yeah, I usually fly Etihad and that takes about 17-18hours but more than triple of that price. PAL flights takes 14hours I think but then the baggage allowance is only 20kg and paying for another 20kg excess would be more expensive than flying via Etihad where I have 40kg allowance. My brother was able to claim roughly the same amount when we flew to Germany and all of our luggages were left somewhere along the way. He was in flip flops and shorts and Berlin was still freezing cold that waster so he bought everything and made sure he would maximize the allowance. Should you be back in the Philippines and need a tour guide/company, me and my husband would gladly help.
Thanks, forgot to mention the baggage allowance was one hand luggage (max 5kg, but everyone's was way overweight by sight, including mine, and they didn't weight it), and then one luggage luggage, max weight 23kg.
Over the years I have flown an enormous amount of times. But the one time my baggage was lost was on a 5 day trip to Houston. I had gone over for a meeting. All I had to wear on arrival was what I had travelled in. Fortunately the airline also gave me up to that kind of sum for replacement clothing. It didn't get me a lot but it helped. The good news was that I did eventually ( a few weeks later ) get my baggage back as it never actually left the UK.
To be honest it was a blessing that the bag was lost. I brought over far to much stuff. I would have had to lug that thing about all over the mountain province of Sagada... Next time I go, and I hope the girl is going to let me come during April, I know to take minimal luggage. Things are so cheap as well that I can literally buy anything I need, any time.
