Book flights direct with airline or via broker?

You'll be lucky if there are seats!

Every time that I fly (so far, maximum of 6 hours), I bring my pc with me full of films and series but I never really watched a full movie on the plane though I watch few episodes of The Inbetweeners. Unfortunately, the last time, the old lady beside me kept talking to me & even asked me to take picture of the clouds as I was by the window. errr

Your girlfriend will be fine.

Yes. That's exactly what it means. I posed a review of the flight here.

http://www.british-filipino.com/ind...ilippine-airlines-manila-london-flight.11225/

Jesus H / OMG - sitting with a tablet on your lap on 15 hour flight of attrition instead of happily grazing the options on a seat-back screen seems very much sub-optimal!

So much for flagship carriers seeking to proudly represent their nation.

I better tell Kris to pack a few powerbanks!

The HK option looked at first blush the poorer option - entailing a 5 hour stopover and taking 18 hours.

Oh well - can't change things now!

G

Hope so Joi!

Ah well, the outcome at the end will hopefully be worth it Free to use computers scattered all round HKIA should everyone be using the charging points, nice airport.

I am a former Hong Kong resident and a former employee of the company that controls Cathay Pacific so I must declare an interest before pronouncing it unquestionably the best airline in the world today, flying out of the best hub airport...

Kayak and Skyscanner may save you a few pounds but I always got an uneasy feeling when using them. What if something goes wrong? You probably wouldn't get much sympathy from the airline.
I guess many of us have been on the PAL 15 hour flight, that proves it's love haha

PAL is a great airline to fly domestically but I would never, ever fly PAL internationally. I've always flown KLM from my local regional airport

Doing the last fly-by of their Boeing 747 in HK today:

http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-.../memories-fly-cathay-pacifics-last-747-flight

Gosh, that was a wonderful thing to read. Thank you for the link.

I did notice though that British Airways are running the Airbus A380 from London to HK.

http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/flight-information/airbus-a380

If you search on the BA website, you can see that if you book a ticket from LHR to MNL then you can fly a BA Airbus A380 from London to HK and then a Cathay flight (or a Philippines airlines flight - no thanks) from HK to MNL. The price wasn't bad either.

I'm tempted to try that next time.

I am an A380 enthusiast, so that is tempting. I don't know why Cathay have not bought the 380, but at a guess it could be because it does not have a lot of cargo space. I wish they would buy some, as I think given their volumes on the HK/Europe sectors they could use them.

Yep when i first flew with CP they only flew out of LHR so there was a codeshared BA shuttle from MAN to LHR, likewise for the return leg. They've since extended and also go from Gatwick as well now.

Yeah it could be. It's surprising but the A340-600 can hold 831 more cubic feet of baggage than the A380-800. Perhaps the passenger numbers don't warrant it or their existing fleet is too new or something..

Don't they use different passenger / cargo configurations within the same aircraft type.

I know that KLM uses both:

• 747-400 with 408 passengers.
• 747-400 combi with 268 passengers but a lot more cargo.

Most likely a lot more complicated than taking a few seats out and replacing with a few more cargo bins, perhaps they have to move other bits around so that the plane is correctly balanced.

My wife's processed visa application is being delivered to her in Iligan City next week, hopefully with her visa included.

I the meantime I've been checking out flights to Manila and will probably opt with Emirates as usual, as return flights are £485 so not bad at all.

The Philippines Airlines flights I'll need to book from Manila to Cagayan will be done separately (because it's cheaper than booking from Manchester to Cagayan).

For the wife then I just need a one way ticket from Manila to Manchester, but this would cost a whopping £628 when converted from dollars.

Therefore, it would be far cheaper for me to buy two return tickets from Manchester to Manila, and although the wife's seat would be empty on the way out to Manila (I get two seats to myself!) we'd be together on the way back to Manchester.

Seems like an easy way to save money then maybe a little too easy - so does anyone know of a reason why the much cheaper return ticket can't be used in this way?

If not, everyone booking a one way flight for their Filipina partner/wife could simply book a return flight instead.

I've contacted Emirates via their Facebook messenger account which they've responded to on other occasions.

Crazy as it seems, my Fiancé already booked our flights today thinking the nearer the Christmas, the more expensive they'd get.
2 Flights MNL - HKG via Cathay then HKG - LHR via Virgin for the total price of 2,518.88 GBP (2 adults + 1 infant).

I hope this wouldn't create a bad luck to the visa application. And even though we can rebook them, I'm more pressured than ever!

this is what we are thinking of doing next spring when my wife flies out to bring her son back----so i'm very interested in seeing more replies and info here.

Cheeky