With airfares going through the roof, trying to secure a return flight to London without getting a mortgage is now a challenge.

 

Maybe we are being penalized in the Philippines compared with other SE Asian countries.

 

What does it cost to fly from other SE Asia cities to London?

 

Using the website Kayak which shifts through all the different flights and fares on a given day, I found these flights from Manila, Hanoi, and Bangkok to London.

 

Avoiding the school holidays, I decided to fly out to London Monday, October 3rd and return on Monday 17th October 2022.

 

The website calendar showed these dates as having lower fares.

 

So, people say avoid traveling at the weekends as well.

 

 

First, I checked if I lived in Manila what would it cost to fly to Heathrow.

 

The cheapest flights were with Etihad via Abu Dhabi at $934 but the total flying time over both legs was whopping 42 hours!

 

Unfortunately, there were no direct flights available.

 

If you flew out of Hanoi the best price was $1,106 but with 62 hrs. travelling. Faster was Thai Airways via Bangkok at just 26 hrs. travelling at $1,193.

 

For expats in Thailand the cheapest fare was via Zurich at $763 return but that is if you are prepared to endure 52 hrs. travelling from A to B.

 

Emirates via Dubai came in at $999 with a total of 28 hrs travelling time.

 

So, if you want to spend up to 14 hrs. sleeping rough in an airport transfer terminal you can save a bit but it does not seem worth it.

 

Perhaps flights will become less busy in October or November before the Christmas rush so you could risk it and wait.

 

Unfortunately flying from the Philippines turned out to be a bit more expensive than from Thailand.

 

Join our 3 x a week Philippines News, Travel and Expat information newsletter and keep up to date. https://aseannow.com/newsletter.php

 

 

 

I think that if you did a "good" search you would find many flight options with much shorter total travel time. There will be multiple options for a shorter transit to the second or third leg through the connecting airport. Probably different costs though. Do your search properly before posting such drivel!