Zurich or Vienna for quick stop to USA???

[moontang]

Are either one of these great stopover spots, for maybe three hours+?  How about Austrian Air?  Are any of the less popular stopovers better?  Easy, good bars and food...ambiance..thx.

Edited March 21, 2019 by moontang

[KhunBENQ]

47 minutes ago, moontang said:

maybe three hours+?

So you are basically asking about the quality of the airports?

Not going to the cities.

And you are flying westward to the US east coast?

 

I am asking because most US travellers go east through Asian stopovers (Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong etc.).

Edited March 21, 2019 by KhunBENQ

[moontang]

9 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

So you are basically asking about the quality of the airports?

Not going to the cities.

And you are flying westward to the US east coast?

 

I am asking because most US travellers go west through Asian stopovers (Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong etc.).

yes, going to a secondary airport outside of DC.  Looking at Star Alliance Partners...not really offering anything in the middle east, but plenty in Europe, and a few in Tokyo and PEK.  It's a lot more equal from the east coast.  Munich was good outbound, before.  London,not so much.   Always looking for good planes and airports....yes, just the airport, but you never know. 

 

Just gotta pay taxes...so if any of the euro airlines who are star alliance are better, price isnt an issue...but i avoid real high tax airports...except Swampy..Lufthansa is pretty solid.

Edited March 21, 2019 by moontang

[KhunBENQ]

Without having a detailed schedule:

Zurich airport is very overloaded with flights/has capacity problems.

Zurich one of the most expensive cities of the world.

Vienna airport relatively small. Not exciting but effective.

 

Schedule:

BKK to Washington (IAD) shows good connection via Vienna on Austrian.

But the return would mean half a day in Vienna.

You could only get good connection by combing with United or EVA.

[Nyezhov]

Frankfurt.

Stay a day...

and FKK.

 

[alex8912]

On 3/21/2019 at 9:17 PM, moontang said:

yes, going to a secondary airport outside of DC.  Looking at Star Alliance Partners...not really offering anything in the middle east, but plenty in Europe, and a few in Tokyo and PEK.  It's a lot more equal from the east coast.  Munich was good outbound, before.  London,not so much.   Always looking for good planes and airports....yes, just the airport, but you never know. 

 

Just gotta pay taxes...so if any of the euro airlines who are star alliance are better, price isnt an issue...but i avoid real high tax airports...except Swampy..Lufthansa is pretty solid.

I see Turkish air is one and they often have cheap flights but not sure if they fly to ( I think you mean Dulles nr DC?) but I’m sure to Reagan. Istanbul has a brand new International airport that should be fully opened now and it’s exactly 1/2 way between BKK and DC ( each flight about 10 hrs) not sure why you are stuck on star alliance but  other airlines always offer better fares than the European airlines to East coast USA and have better airports and better service and not a lot of old yucky crew. Also the Asian Airports/ Airlines are better too. I usually only fly from Boston and before NYC but DC should offer flights on Emirates, Qatar, Turkish , maybe Etihad, Cathay , JAL, Korean etc. If you fly a lot from DC to BKK I personally would rather have cheap flights on better airlines that connect through nicer airports and that does not seem to be Star Alliance.  

What do you mean by real high tax airports?  I don’t get that. 

Edited March 24, 2019 by alex8912

[moontang]

I am using frequent flyer miles, of which I have many with United.  40 k miles, and I only pay taxes and airport fees.  So that can be as little as 160 THB, going from DC to BKK, in Dubai, or as much as 3200 going back, through London.  Even seen 6300 going from BKK to DC on a Delta partner, through Guangzhou.  Departure fee is about 800 from BKK and that is high, but unavoidable.  I don't have to go to IAD, but then it would be ORD, as the only way to connect to Charlottesville.  Tokyo is fastest at 22:50 hours duration, but that is leaving at 6:45 am out of BKK....sheesh..and I wad very dissapointed with ANA last time, they had been great before, but now have many flights from BKK to nrt and it is a lot more like some crummy DC to LA flight.  Cathay is excellent, but that hkg to ord is a beast, and ORD sucks...always.  Cathay is an AA partner 

[JerseytoBKK]

On 3/23/2019 at 10:27 PM, moontang said:

I am using frequent flyer miles, of which I have many with United.  40 k miles, and I only pay taxes and airport fees.  So that can be as little as 160 THB, going from DC to BKK, in Dubai, or as much as 3200 going back, through London.  Even seen 6300 going from BKK to DC on a Delta partner, through Guangzhou.  Departure fee is about 800 from BKK and that is high, but unavoidable.  I don't have to go to IAD, but then it would be ORD, as the only way to connect to Charlottesville.  Tokyo is fastest at 22:50 hours duration, but that is leaving at 6:45 am out of BKK....sheesh..and I wad very dissapointed with ANA last time, they had been great before, but now have many flights from BKK to nrt and it is a lot more like some crummy DC to LA flight.  Cathay is excellent, but that hkg to ord is a beast, and ORD sucks...always.  Cathay is an AA partner 

If you're using *Alliance awards, then EVA/Austrian to VIE and Austrian to IAD is a pretty good choice. I did BBK-VIE-JFK/EWR twice in the last year. I like EVA for business class. Excellent service, my GF likes their pajamas, decent food, decent wines/booze.  VIE is small and the business class lounge is crappy, but Austrian has the best food I've had in business class (better than CX, JAL, QR and others) except their wine selection is poor. 

 

I just checked UA for award availability for a random date to see what they have for April 3. You can go Thai to PEK and then UA which I would avoid since UA transpacific isn't that good. Or go Ethiopian which some Youtube vids show that they're not bad and I would try them to experience something unique. Or go Austrian BKK-VIE-IAD. Or go Asiana BKK-ICN-LAX then UA to IAD. Since the Asiana flight is 2 stops, I'd probably stick to Austrian but haven't flown them in coach so don't know if their coach is worse than Asiana.

[JerseytoBKK]

Besides using award miles, do you monitor flyertalk for sales? IAD-BKK recently was just $536: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals/1956501-ua-nh-nyc-bkk-kul-jkt-536-a.html. Very recent post is DC to Myamar is $536.

 

[moontang]

I live in BKK..so those great sales almost never apply to starting from BKK. nor would they let you stay ten months.

[JerseytoBKK]

Use you miles to fly back to DC. Most FF award programs book 1 way. Then book your roundtrip from DC back to BKK. Some fares restrict length of stay to 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and sometimes a year.

[moontang]

yes, I had considered doing that before, but last time ANA did the 580 fare from IAD, it was for short stays only, and that is much more common.  Something to keep an eye on, though.  Might be zero miles on fares like that, too, another issue.

[moontang]

update:  eva-austrian to IAD....through Vienna, and Lufthansa to Thai in Munich coming back.  76 and 29 Dollars and 40K FFM miles (each).  Two hour layovers in Vienna and Munich (2:35)...had to try my damndest to avoid NRT_IAD....on UA and ANA...., which isnt terrible, but I am trying to improve on it.

Edited March 31, 2019 by moontang