What airline to choose

[DAKLING1987]

For my next trip to Thailand in December there is quite a few airlines offering the same price with similar layover durations on the same dates (give or take a day or two) I will be flying from Manchester economy class. I have multiple options to choose from I'm just wondering what everyone's opinion is on what they'd choose and why. 

Qatar 

Emirates 

Ethiad

Turkish airlines

Swiss air 

are my choices. All of my previous flights have been with Qatar air apart from once with Thai airways. I enjoyed my flights with Qatar and Thai airways but thinking of a change. Anyone reccomend?

[Luv2Phuket]

Given the current turmoil involving Qatar and the neighboring countries, I would suggest avoiding them for the time being (at least until the situation is resolved)

[Rambuttri village]

Qatar are my favourite airline. Superb airline great IFE, great customer service from friendly air crew, fill your boats with as much drink as you like and now a new modern airport. This is backed up with Skytrax Airline passenger reviews and ratings. Qatar score 8/10 Vs Emirates 6/10.

Second choice would be Etihad.  Would avoid Turkish not a great fan of the airport in Istanbul

[westie1]

I love emirates. Three upgrades to business class in the last year

nout wrong with that. 

For me, it's duration then price. I could get some great deals with long layerovers. Fuck that. Cuts into my mongering time 

[stephens07]

I preferred emirates myself , then Qatar and Etihad .
Not flown with any of the other airlines .
Wifi is cheap on emirates .
If you want it add £40 to your etihad flight but only about a tenner on emirates .
All 3 are decent airlines with good connection airports . Qatar been by far the best. Smaller but so well organised .
Get this £385 a flight flagged up 29th may . Went to book 1st June £456 from Manchester on Qatar .
So holding out now , for a better price .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[docbunsen]

On 6/8/2017 at 10:37 PM, Roving Rover said:

  Would avoid Turkish not a great fan of the airport in Istanbul

What is the issue at the airport ? I  have a flight booked with turkish airlines later in the year so any info would be great .

[Gone-east]

1 hour ago, docbunsen said:

What is the issue at the airport ? I  have a flight booked with turkish airlines later in the year so any info would be great .

Atatürk is fairly modern and the facilities are not too bad. The main issues are that its very busy and the other passengers might not be the type of people you would chose to spend time surrounded by.

[docbunsen]

1 minute ago, Gone-east said:

Atatürk is fairly modern and the facilities are not too bad. The main issues are that its very busy and the other passengers might not be the type of people you would chose to spend time surrounded by.

very tactfully put !  im on a business ticket so hopefully it will minimize those issues. 

[Gone-east]

34 minutes ago, docbunsen said:

very tactfully put !  im on a business ticket so hopefully it will minimize those issues. 

I was referring to the other passengers inside the airport.

[docbunsen]

Just now, Gone-east said:

I was referring to the other passengers inside the airport.

yeah i know . hopefully get straight into the lounge in a quiet corner away from the hustle . cheers

[par47]

Emirates 1st choice, Etihad 2nd, avoid the others.

[ZRHuser]

You should have a look at Oman Air too. Oman Air started service out of Manchester in May. You get very good prices from them. They use Dreamliners and A330. Short layovers in Muscat too. 

Stay away from Turkish, they do have too many incidences. Not a safe Airline imho.

[mbamber]

55 minutes ago, docbunsen said:

very tactfully put !  im on a business ticket so hopefully it will minimize those issues. 

I believe the Business class lounge is very good unless it is full.

[docbunsen]

4 minutes ago, mbamber said:

I believe the Business class lounge is very good unless it is full.

if i survive the flights i will let you know !

[jpmelville]

Nothing wrong with Turkish or the Istanbul airport. Service is top notch and the planes are fairly modern too. Food was above the average and they have a steady drink flow too

[rog555]

On 2017-6-9 at 10:48 PM, stephens07 said:

I preferred emirates myself , then Qatar and Etihad .
Not flown with any of the other airlines .
Wifi is cheap on emirates .
If you want it add £40 to your etihad flight but only about a tenner on emirates .
All 3 are decent airlines with good connection airports . Qatar been by far the best. Smaller but so well organised .
Get this £385 a flight flagged up 29th may . Went to book 1st June £456 from Manchester on Qatar .
So holding out now , for a better price .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I thought Emirates was great last year. 

But I flew recently and they have chosen to break a good service.  For economy they now charge quite a lot extra to select a seat.  Or wait till checkin opens and select.   

Long haul you want to select a seat at time of booking and forget it.  

Then their web site was down when I tried to checkin.  Finally Dubai airport terminal I was at seemed in need of upgrade now.  

I will try another airline. Thaiair planes were old looking to me.

[mbamber]

4 minutes ago, docbunsen said:

if i survive the flights i will let you know !

Here is the 2016 skytrax Business class top 10 in the world. Was tempted last year.

http://www.worldairlineawards.com/Awards/best_business_class_airlines.html

[mancity09]

Qatar all day

[DAKLING1987]

2 hours ago, ZRHuser said:

You should have a look at Oman Air too. Oman Air started service out of Manchester in May. You get very good prices from them. They use Dreamliners and A330. Short layovers in Muscat too. 

Stay away from Turkish, they do have too many incidences. Not a safe Airline imho.

Yes Oman air is another option. Didn't cross my mind when I seen it but if they're using Dreamliners on all flights out of Manchester I might consider them!

[Just Browsing]

very tactfully put !  im on a business ticket so hopefully it will minimize those issues. 

 We used to fly our TPS (3rd Party Suppliers) Business on Turkish whilst we took the likes of Emirates, SIA etc... and the joke was while we were enjoying "Lie Flat", they were enjoying "Stand Up", I.e the seats didn't recline anywhere near as far as the airlines we were using, but they were 1/2 the price & hey, we only had an obligation to fly them "Business" ;) 

Completely different story nowadays & heard very good things about TAs Business Class, check out www.seatguru.com for the best seats to book for your flight [emoji106]

 

 

Edit: OP, was a massive fan of Emirates (& a Gold Member) for many years but 2 incidents with them saw me delayed for 24 hours each time...

 

The final straw was when their "Customer Service" (use the term lightly) hoped them upgrading me to Business went someway to compensating me for the inconvenience...

1 - No, I still missed the F1 finale

2 - I upgraded myself (43,000 miles) you cnuts as I had to go straight into the office (showering/changing in the toilets there).

 

IMHO they've gone sh1te since they started code sharing with Qantas (Price went up, Service nose dived) so are on my airlines to use if cheap or convenient list... Have to say I did love my last trip Singapore to Manchester with Qatar

 

 

 

[taylor1975]

My last 8 trips have all been with qatar out of manc airport.

now emirates are charging for advanced seat booking, i'll probably never use them again. Thy used to be my first choice.

[Just Browsing]

My last 8 trips have all been with qatar out of manc airport.
now emirates are charging for advanced seat booking, i'll probably never use them again. Thy used to be my first choice.

Yeah forgot that one, what is it again? $40 US per leg (I.e $80 each way) or something silly...

Despite my response above, I do always book my parents on Emirates when they come see me in Singapore (it's the Airline, airport transfer they're used to/are comfortable with) & mum insists I book their seats in advance so she knows she has an aisle seat, seem to remember it cost me an extra $320 for the 2 of them last time (normal seats, not Exit rows)

[Gone-east]

15 hours ago, ZRHuser said:

Stay away from Turkish, they do have too many incidences. Not a safe Airline imho.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinrivers/2016/01/21/why-you-can-safely-ignore-airline-safety-rankings/#2372e9b73a77

[blue1878]

In recent years I have flown with Etihad a lot of times but last year I flew with Emirates (From Manchester) and was very impressed with the flights.  So I am flying with them again this year.

When I flew with Emirates last year there seemed to be extra leg room on there flights than Etihad.  The food was good.  And there seemed to be a bigger selection of inflight entertainment on Emirates.  And one thing that I was made up with was that they handed out the immigration cards at the beginning of the flight between Dubai and Bangkok.

And emirates like Etihad have a number of flights between Manchester and Dubai.   And Dubai and BKK

So this year I take off from Manchester at 08:45 and with only a 2 hour 50 minutes stop I get to BKK airport at 07:35 the next day

And on my return journey I take of from BKK airport at 20:35 and with only a 2 hour 10 minute stop in Dubai I get back to Manchester at 07:00 the next morning

[Lancsman1976]

Out of those choices Emirates are a cut above on their A380's.  Qatar are OK but not a fan of their 787 in economy. Turkish are a bit pants really but acceptable if cheap. Have you priced up Austrian? I flew with them last week Man-BKK and had a good service at a very decent price.  Also Vienna was a pleasure transferring through, very quiet.