Thread: Singapore to Europe flights (SQ excluded)

I have been nonreving to Thailand and HongKong lately.
Be prepared with a lot of ZED tickets, as it is not very common to exchange ZED tickets with different destinations and city pairs, even if it is exactly the same fare and taxes. Asian agents are not usually familiar with these procedures, some of them know the rules, but everything can happen.

Employees there are very very focused on revenue passengers, and not really prepared to list, check-in, accept, and change flights at any moment and any counter. Mainly they will have special desks which such STAFF CHECK-In counters, that will put you on the standby list, and will make you to come back aproximately at the time of the flight initial close out. At that moment they will tell you if you have been accepted, and will print you out a boarding pass. Then you will have to get into the terminal, security, customs, and then your flight.

I have always thought that it is impossible to know if any revenue pasenger is missconnected or lost at that stage, so issuing standby boarding passes to be able to accept someone at the gate is the best. But they do not want anyone to disturb asking for a seat at the boarding time. I am absolutely sure they leave the gate with open seats all the time.

How can they know if someone who did online check-in is at the airport 50 minutes before a flight?

It happened to me both times that when they put me on the standby list and make me to come back to know if I have been accepted, they retain the ZED coupon, so if you want to try to standby at any other counter of airline with the same coupon, you just simply can not. Once I asked for the ticket, and they told be that I had to be taken out of the standby list if I retained the coupon with me.

Does anybody have a clue about why do they do that? It has never happened to be in Europe or USA.

I just simply finish with the problem issuing as much tickets as companies flies somewhere, even if it is the exact same ticket, because Asian airlines do that all the time!

So I would be prepared with a lot of different tickets to be able to deal with all of them.

The nice face of the deal is that they are so kind and good onboard, that they worth a try.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Arlauckas @ Feb 21 2010, 11:29 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Hi!

SE Asia airports are a huge challenge for the non rev PAX. Every single flight tends to be overbooked. In a nutshell....it is a nightmare. Stand by lists can easily reach 20 people. Dead easy.

I want to go to Indonesia for 3 weeks...and as far as i could understand Singapore and Kuala Lumpur (to a lesser extent) are the best gateways to get to Jakarta.

How difficult can it be to leave Sinagopre on a Friday/Saturday night flight to Europe (regardless the final destination)? SQ flights excluded - I am not willing to fly ID75.
Any advice?

US colleagues are welcomed to share their stories (SIN to US) too. Is it difficult too?[/b]

Arlauckas : As a Star partner, TP should have some generous concessions with Star carriers, the same as us.
Typically, when I am heading to the Far East, I use HKG as my gateway with LH. One I don&#39;t want to fly coach if I can help it and BKK is a difficult flight to get on.
LH serve HKG from both FRA and MUC. I try and fly via MUC where possible.
Alternatively, BKK is also served by LX, OS & SK - all 3 should offer C class ZED&#39;s.
A new C class ZED Low agreement we have is with TK, TP should be the same. They also serve HKG and BKK.
Flying with a Star carrier should place you just above their own employees in terms of priority, at least, that&#39;s our agreement.
I have not been successful with LH in C class to SIN, quite possibly because the couple of times I tried it, were during the Christmas season.
If you make it to HKG : CX or GA to JKT. BKK onwards with TG/GA. SIN onwards with GA. Our agreement is also ID75 with SQ.
Check SilkAir though, our agreement is ID90 and I used them once from SIN/HKT.

Good luck !

Well, if you ask me I&#39;ll tell you to fly from KUL as thats where I&#39;m more familiar with.

But I think SIN has better connection to Europe, while KUL has better connection to Indonesia (if you consider Airasia (AK)). Do bear in mind AK&#39;s terminal is in another end of the runway away from all airlines (LCCT - low cost carrier terminal). Their tickets are cheap, probably same price as your ZED or a few dollars more but if you can bear the pain of hauling your bags from 1 terminal to another (the rickety bus ride cost you 1 EUR and takes about 10 min from 1 end to another) , Taking it is one of the best option as they are frequent and flies to many indonesia destination.

I know KL flys KUL-CGK but not frequent. No one takes it, so they sell super cheap and as a result, quite full at times.

MH has plenty of flights to CGK, so does AK. Question is which Indonesia destination you want to go? I wouldn&#39;t recommend Indonesia internal budget airline considering their safety record.

Europe via LHR or FRA should be ok as you&#39;ll have BA and LH options on top of MH

Yes, the standby procedures mentioned above are correct. I normally hold spares so that I can be listed on multiple airlines. BUT if you are really nice and talk to them nicely, they would give you an indication whether you&#39;ll have a chance and if you should stay listed. I was in NRT and listed on a pretty full CX and I wanted to pull my ticket out to go to NH (which is in another terminal), but just as I was about to pull it out, the lady told me that the situation has changed and now I&#39;m quite high chance and I should stay listed. And having said that, in Asia, if you know the right people, your odds can be pretty high

Thank you all!

I have been to Asia before (Thailand, S.Korea and Vietnam). Actually, i returned from Saigon 2 months ago. So far so good. Thai/Asiana/Lufthansa...superb! Thai once accepted a LH ticket (BKK-FRA). Hassle free.

YC...i have changed my mind -> KUL to be my way out to Europe/Middle East.

SIN is definitely a no-no.

a) I can fly DPS-KUL cheaper than DPS-SIN (Air Asia).
SIN flights off to Europe are a living hell. I can easily stay there for a couple of days...

KUL

a) I dont have half of SIN options...but apparently my chances to get on board are higher.

I think it will difficult to go to Europe non stop anyway...thats why i will be taking a QR ticket to Doha. Seems to be the wiser option.

Will it be problematic for LH to accept a KL ticket...or MH to accept a ZED ticket from KL (our agreement with MH is ID90...)?

Last but not least...what about cargo freighter airlines? Is it a realistic option? I learned that some people have done it before...

Indonesia plan – From Jakarta to Bali by train/bus

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mrs767er @ Feb 22 2010, 10:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Indonesia plan – From Jakarta to Bali by train/bus


Now that&#39;s ambitious!! I envy you--Bali is wonderful!!
If you make it to Ubud--get the roast pig at Ibu Oka--it&#39;s so worth the $3-4US (with iced tea!)[/b]

Agreed. Way too ambitious for me. i&#39;ll risk my life and fly their local budget airlines.

I think MH has zed agreement with KL but not TP I think, I&#39;ll have to check.

SIN landing rights are expensive, KUL landing rights are cheap only if it lands on the cheap end of the runway (i.e. Airasia&#39;s low cost terminal, which looks more like a market than an airport)

Picking a station with more option would be my choice. Going non-stop might be a wiser choice. Just to let you know there are a lot of passengers between KUL and middle east, ie DXB AUH Doha etc etc summer period is peak for them to visit malaysia.

I love planes and airports...but while on holiday i prefer to take the bus/train...just to be different

I think i am back at the starting point. I am puzzled whether to choose KUL or SIN to fly off to Europe. I have 2 month to think about it. In the meantime...i am trying to establish a trend regarding the best routes from KUL, SIN, CGK to Europe. I have a very nice spreadsheet...and i am going to feed it with flyzed figures (inbound + outbound: only Fridays/Saturdays ) for the next 2-3 months.

Hopefully....i will be able to make the "less" risky choice