Bkk - Dc

[british8230]

Hey Guys,

Does anyone know how long a direct flight from BKK - Washington DC will take?

cheers

[Soju]

There are no direct flights to Washington DC that I'm aware of. I think the fastest would be to take Thai Airways non-stop from BKK to New York JFK, then catch one of the many shuttle flights from there to DC. BKK to JFK is 16 hours, 55 minutes.

[Buckwheat]

I always fly NW....BKK to Narita to Detroit or Minneapolis to DC

19 hours including layovers on the way there....22 hours coming this way because of headwinds.

[Soju]

I always fly NW....BKK to Narita to Detroit or Minneapolis to DC

19 hours including layovers on the way there....22 hours coming this way because of headwinds.

How the heck do they do it in 19 hours including layovers? The flying time alone for BKK-NRT-MSP-BWI is 6h:0m-10h:45m-2h:25m for a total of 19h:10m. Add to that layovers and it should be close to 23 hours.

[british8230]

Thanks for that guys so it between 16-19 hrs, good point on direct flights my new company in the states will arrange this but again thanks for the heads up!

[Soju]

Thanks for that guys so it between 16-19 hrs, good point on direct flights my new company in the states will arrange this but again thanks for the heads up!

No, the 16h:55 minutes is nearly 17 hours and that's just to JFK. Add on your connecting time, including clearing immigration/customs at JFK, then the flight to DC and you're probably at 20 hours using the route, or nearly 23 hours for the NWA route proposed by Buckwheat (unless he's using some special high-speed flights that I don't know about). I don't think there's any way you'll be able to do it in 19 hours unless you get lucky in JFK and have a really good/tight connection. 16 hours is simply impossible.

[british8230]

Jesus thats a long flight! so not sure how I will last on that!!

Once again thanks for your reply.

Cheers

[Soju]

Try to get your company to spring for business class. It makes the flight much more bearable and hopefully easy to sleep through a good portion of the flight, and keep you entertained with a personal video screen for the remainder. Or split the trip up in multiple shorter segments and spend a day at each stop-over to recover. No easy solution to flying half-way around the world.

[Buckwheat]

I always fly NW....BKK to Narita to Detroit or Minneapolis to DC

19 hours including layovers on the way there....22 hours coming this way because of headwinds.

How the heck do they do it in 19 hours including layovers? The flying time alone for BKK-NRT-MSP-BWI is 6h:0m-10h:45m-2h:25m for a total of 19h:10m. Add to that layovers and it should be close to 23 hours.

1 layover in Narita...one layover in Detroit or Minneapolis.

Why don't you Northwest Airlines and take a look...that way you won't lose any sleep over the flight times

[Soju]

I always fly NW....BKK to Narita to Detroit or Minneapolis to DC

19 hours including layovers on the way there....22 hours coming this way because of headwinds.

How the heck do they do it in 19 hours including layovers? The flying time alone for BKK-NRT-MSP-BWI is 6h:0m-10h:45m-2h:25m for a total of 19h:10m. Add to that layovers and it should be close to 23 hours.

1 layover in Narita...one layover in Detroit or Minneapolis.

Why don't you Northwest Airlines and take a look...that way you won't lose any sleep over the flight times

I did. That's where I got those times from - directly from NWA's website. In adding on the layover times, I come up with a total of 22 hours, 27 minutes via Minneapolis or 22 hours, 32 minutes via Detroit.

[lomatopo]

The TG direct non-stop flight BKK-JFK does not operate every day.

UA have added daily direct, non-stop NRT-IAD, and an easy connection from their flight BKK-NRT. So one-stop service, with ~ 2 hour layover at NRT. You would depart BKK at 06:45 and arrive IAD at 15:25 on the same day, so ~ 19 1/2 hours wheels up to wheels down.

Going to the east coast I often fly BKK-FRA (on TG or LH) and then LH or UA for FRA-IAD. Given the right flights this often represents the shortest elapsed door-door time for me.

[Soju]

The TG direct non-stop flight BKK-JFK does not operate every day.

UA have added daily direct, non-stop NRT-IAD, and an easy connection from their flight BKK-NRT. So one-stop service, with ~ 2 hour layover at NRT. You would depart BKK at 06:45 and arrive IAD at 15:25 on the same day, so ~ 19 1/2 hours wheels up to wheels down.

Going to the east coast I often fly BKK-FRA (on TG or LH) and then LH or UA for FRA-IAD. Given the right flights this often represents the shortest elapsed door-door time for me.

If the flight left at 06:45 and arrived at 15:25, that would be 20 hours and 40 minutes. But UA shows the flight leaving at 07:55 and arriving at 15:25 which is the 19 1/2 hours you stated.

[britmaveric]

IAD to NRT, NRT to BKK is best you can do! (save about 4hrs, 22hrs???) Best bet is JFK direct with TG, but still need take a flight down to DC.

Edited November 16, 2006 by britmaveric

[NovaBlue05]

I flew from Dulles in DC to BKK on Korean Air last April. One stop in between....a 3 1/2 hour layover in Soeul, SK to change planes. It was the only airline I found with only one stop. 14 hours to Soeul, switch planes and about 6 hours to BKK. They were also the cheapest. I will likely take them again this spring from DC. I know that KA flys from DC to BKK twice a week

[Soju]

IAD to NRT, NRT to BKK is best you can do! (save about 4hrs, 22hrs???) Best bet is JFK direct with TG, but still need take a flight down to DC.

Huh? Your post doesn't make any sense to me. Save 4hrs, 22hrs? I assume you meant 4hrs, 22mins, but save compared to what? Certainly not via the direct JFK-BKK flight on TG. IAD-NRT-BKK is 22h:30m, including the NRT layover. IAD-JFK is 1h:14m and JFK-BKK is 17h:00m on TG, resulting in 18h:14m flying time, so even with a 2 hour transit time at JFK, you'd still only be at 20h:14m. You say the UA flight via NRT is "best you can do", then say the TG JFK flight is "Best bet". What's the difference between the two as I'm really confused being you seem to be calling both of the "best".

Anyways, the OP asked about BKK to Washington, not the other way around, so it should be noted that if this is a round trip to include Washington to BKK also, then the TG flight becomes even better with regard to total flying time, as the other options all have significant differences in flight times based on if your going with or against the prevailing winds. The TG flight uses a polar route, flying basically north/south without hardly any east/west movement, and being the JFK and BKK are nearly equidistant going either east or west, (173° vs. 187°), their flying times going or coming are virtually the same (16h:55m vs. 17h:00m). All other airlines that I'm aware have much more east/west movement and thus are much more affected by the winds.

But the bottom line is that it's an awful long time any way you cut it, and lots of things to consider besides simply flying time. Departure/arrival times are important to a lot of people, and with that the traffic conditions getting to/from the airport. Also which DC area airport is most convenient. Whether it's best to clear customs/immigration at JFK or in DC. If you can stand a single long 17 hour segment, or prefer to have it broken into smaller segments. Etc.