Finnair, Austrian Or Lufthansa - Uk (Or Eu) To Bangkok - Any Observations?

[SantiSuk]

I fly regularly from the UK (Manchester for the last 18 months) to Bangkok. For the last 4 years the cheapest of the decent airlines has been one of EVA or the Middle East airlines.

I have been looking for a flight coming out here on 24 July from Manchester (yes - I know - school holidays make this a crazy time on pricing, but I cant come any earlier) and going back on 24 September; give or tale a couple of days. I find that three of the Continental European airlines are popping up in my hunt as substantially cheaper (around GBP 750) than the usual big 3 Arabs (Qatar/Emirates/Etihad). I'm quite happy about that as all three would give me a nice long overnight sleep, which I miss when a desert-people-processing-factory is placed halfway in my itinerary.

Its the first time that the continental flag carriers have come up as competitive on price in over 50 return flights between the UK and here. Shows how far the Middle East airlines have come I think (or is it some Arabian holiday period?). Perhaps it also shows the desperate state of non-German European economies.

Does anyone have any comments on good or bad, based on recent (say last two years) experience, of Finnair, Austrian or Lufthansa. Some of the connection times are very tight (30 minutes in the case of Austrian on one leg) but I know that airlines generally manage these if you are booked through - but maybe you know different?!

[Thanks - but I dont need you all to find me a cheaper flight from LHR - that costs me a lot more to get to in cash and time and I dislike that airport, so I add 100 quid to the cash cost of any LHR flight when comparing it to one from user-friendly Manchester].

[Superdude]

2 years ago I flew with FINNAIR and I was well pleased with the service in the air as on the ground.

The people on the ground are very helpfull and friendly. The transfer time was about 1 hour and goes smoothly. On my flight I didn't had any delay and the plain landed in BKK 30 minutes before the scheduled time.

So in my opinion if you could go with FINNAIR and the service is still the same I should say "Go for it"

[citizen33]

I flew economy with Finnair just over a year ago and it was fine. The plane wasn't very new but it was clean and the service was good. Looking back further I really don't have anything bad to say about the airline. Several years ago I was on a flight from London to Helsinki that was delayed so that the onward connection was missed, and they put everybody up overnight in an Helsinki hotel with no fuss. Another time - probably 10 years ago - i was given the chance on the return journey to change from the BKK-Helsinki flight to the BA BKK-LHR flight (I think they code share and there must have been more free seats on BA), and I was very happy with that.

[kuripot]

I flew Lufthansa economy a couple of months back from Man-Fra- Singapore on the A380. The legroom was poor and the seats uncomfortable compared with the middle east airlines I have flown in the past. Service however was reasonable but nowhere near as good as Qatar (had poor service on Emirates last year on HKG-BKK-HKG). LH was punctual on all legs and efficient in that respect.

[vera5212]

Have a look at the below website. It is giving valuable info.

I have used all 3 of them and noticed no big differences between Austrian / Lufthansa nor Finnair.

http://www.airlinequality.com/index.htm

Enjoy your stay

[SantiSuk]

Have a look at the below website. It is giving valuable info.

I have used all 3 of them and noticed no big differences between Austrian / Lufthansa nor Finnair.

http://www.airlinequ...y.com/index.htm

Enjoy your stay

Very useful thanks. Austrian 6 out of 10; Lufthansa 6; Finnair 7. By comparison Thai scores 7, EVA 7. Qatar (my favoured airline) scores 9. The EVA/Thai/Qatar ratings accord with my experience on the BKK route.

Oh dear - looks like I will have to think again or suffer cr@p entertainment (EVA is ok), poor food (Thai is ok) and inattentive or worse staff (Thai is good) if I opt for one of these 3 European carriers.

PS I live in Thailand, but go back every couple of months. As most regular BKK flyers know, its cheaper to set up flights on a return-to-the-UK basis, rather than book them from BKK.