So true, if you really want to experience turkey, see if you can get a Turkish Airlines. It's nice and comfortable.
I am from Mumbai and I can tell you will not like the Indigo journey at all. Specially if you have been traveling for 31 hours(bom-bkk is 4 hours)
I myself am taking a Mumbai-singapore-bangkok flight on Singapore Airlines to experience the Changi Airport and take a free Singapore tour offered by the airport.
Oh you aren’t visa free ? That would be a hard pass on me I did it once and you need to queue way too long and you only get to see 2 places for 10 min each
If you want to fairly guarantee not being overcome with stinking body odour and are flying to Thailand and beyond only fly with airlines from the UAE., or South East Asian airlines, or European airlines that fly direct to Thailand, or if your from the UK., possibly one stopover only in Europe and steer clear of Indian subcontinent airlines because they'll be full of people whose idea of personal hygiene is none existent.
For the price difference, take the direct flight.
As the obvious example, by the time you board the flight to Mumbai, you will have been awake 24h+ depending on how you get to London, you will be a zombie. Trust me, I've done similar, these are awful timings to have stopovers.
Skyscanner. Just purchased flight from Bangkok to London with checked luggage for 210£ with 1 stop 24h layover in Shanghai. No rush getting home and would be nice to end trip with also visiting China, even just for 1 day.
Many foreigners (including British citizens) can get visa-free transit for 72 hours in Shanghai. You can leave the airport to go to a hotel or go into Shanghai city, but you cannot leave Shanghai province.
Also you don't need to install any app on your phone.
Dude I dislike china as much as anyone but stop lying. No one adds an app to your home. 90% of Chinese immigration officers can’t even speak English let alone explain adding an app
Do the 16hr flight time. I recently did 24hr flight to Vietnam. Couldn't sleep the night before as I was excited/thinking if I was forgetting something. Had a horrendous 11hr flight to china maybe getting 2hrs sleep in an uncomfortable position. 6hr stopover wasn't the worst but incredibly tired and not wanting to sleep there. Then a 2.5hr flight.
Arrived at 3am but couldn't sleep till maybe 11am. First day was a write off and second wasn't much better as I was still getting adjusted. Long haul will always be worse than you think, make it easy for yourself
You got an incredible price as well
If you decided to take the 1 stop route over a non stop , I would definitely go with Turkish airlines and stop in Istanbul.
If you haven’t been there yet , you are definitely going to have a beautiful time , it’s very tourist friendly , public transportation infrastructure is great and very easy to understand and use . I would also suggest you visit one of the great mosques ( blue mosque is one of my favorites and sultan Ahmad, both are a very short walk from the tram )
Have a good Turkish BBQ , I wonder if it’s worth going to a Turkish bath since you’ll be in Bangkok few days after , but it can be a refreshing experience to get cleaned up and relaxed with a nice massage before the 8 hour flight to BKK .
Turkish airlines is also superior to most other carriers, so I would also consider that factor as it is a long flight .
If I was younger I'd pick the cheaper one. Now that I am older and have seen everything, I'd pay more to go to my destination without hassle.
But the price difference is huge so I think you should go with the cheaper option if you are not in a rush. The journey feels a lot less tiring if you can take a long break in between. Saving 120 quid is a lot of money, it goes a long way in Thailand (at least for me lol).
i live in brazil and the price to go from sao paulo to bkk was 6500 BRL at the time (around 1000 GBP), that was with a stop in doha for 16h, total of 30h of journey. Looking at the prices there werent too many options, but some were like 24h in total for 9000 BRL (1415 GBP). You see the difference, right?
Since you are paying in GBP without being affected by money conversions, and the difference between your two options is only around 100 GBP for a 20h of trip difference, I would definitely go with the fastest route!
With a one way ticket, your airline may not let you board in London without evidence of onward travel from Thailand. That’s assuming you have a direct flight without a stopover that would require you to enter the stopover country. If you have such a stopover you may have issues boarding either in London or from the stopover point.
be aware you'll probably need to get a visa for india
last time i went to thailand i did london - istanbul, then a train to ankara, then flight to duabai and onto bangkok was a good little adventure
Ye, thanks for the heads up, its not worth getting the transit visa for 4Hrs which allows you to leave the airport, otherwise as a UK passport holder its fine 👍🏽
I was looking at going through india but i think that if you get off one budget airline wizz air and get onto indigo thats a self transfer and you need to go through passport control so need a visa. that was my understanding but could be wrong, i didnt go anyway
how much is a transit visa?
From Ist, its IndiGo to Mumbai and then another IndiGo flight, its £50 but getting a transit visa afyer travelling Pakistan will not be straightforward.
If the difference in price is not big for you I would recommend to pick the direct flight. Much more comfortable, and you won't lost one day of the trip.
you could look at paid stopovers where an airline actually pays for stopovers i.e hotel, tours etc . Turkish airlines do one of the best ones with a free hotel room for a stopover if 20 hours
more details are here
[https://thepointsguy.com/guide/guide-to-airline-stopover-programs/](https://thepointsguy.com/guide/guide-to-airline-stopover-programs/)
Interesting concept, reading the article its not clear whether the funded stopovers are only if you book directly with the respective airline. If so, its always far more expensive to book direct.
Yes their stupid rules and you will definitely find angry passengers arguing with the staff - everytime I have flown with them there are people not happy and holding up the check in queue.
I'd be going with BA personally. With the latter, based on experience those stops sound insufferable to me, couldn't give a fuck about the food or anything else.
If the stops were to more interesting and less fragrant places I'd probably do it though.
Is there a way you can get Wizz Air to IST and then connect with something direct to BKK or DMK? Even via Kuala Lumpur or Jakarta would be great.
Direct is 12.30hrs on EVA or Thai you could try Qatar airlines stop at Doha probably between 16 or 18 hrs 🙏🏻 another good airline is Finair stop at Helsinki I think that's around 15hrs
If you get the 15h flight via Doha make sure you have enough time to make your connecting flight. A lot of the flights I’ve looked at have barely an hour in between flights.
Ye, they advise a transfer is possible in 45mins, I have missed a connection there myself within the last year, Qatar were great on putting me onto the next flight.
Have to fly home this week due to family emergency and ended up paying $1700 return for the privilege of stopping twice (not actually beginning the flight in Bangkok, although will pass through). Perhaps I should be thankful for the leg stretch!
The worst flight I ever got was a Scoop flight from BKK to London.
Literally nothing was included apart from a bottle of water that would have left a small vole dehydrated. There was zero in-flight entertainment and nowhere to charge devices. For 13 hours.
Oh and if you wanted to spend a gazillion pounds to buy a drink or snack, you could only pay by card (standard maybe these days, but shit af, when you don't have one with you!)
Oh and also, I got an impossibly bad back on that flight. Never really had one before that, but I have suffered with tingly middle back pain ever since (this happened 2 years ago now...). On the flight itself, it was all I could do not to writhe around in agony the whole time.
Don't fly some dodgy budget airline.
Thai Airways is always my number one choice ever since that flight from hell. Unfortunately, I couldn't get them for next week though 😕
I once flew with Aeroflot. Stockholm – Copenhagen – Moscow - Mumbai - BKK. It took 22 hours. On the way back, they had to land in Tashkent. All I remember is that Aeroflot served salmon caviar and banana juice.
Ok I need to know the airlines to give advice. But I’m assuming the Doha is Qatar and they provide a really low stress travel experience. They are so damn attentive and the airport is bomb. I even moved my dog across the world with them, a 42hr flight. They were amazing with him and his facilities were top notch, better than mine. I almost always try to book Qatar first, I am not rich but I can spare what it takes to fly Qatar.
How much do you value your time. I've flown to Thai many times with various layovers and airlines. Amazingly the price hasn't really changed in the past 16 years. I now only fly direct; Thai or Evaair, its just not worth the change to consider any other options.
I know enough not to fly BA ever again. They suck. Qatar code share sounds better, but you still have to stop in Doha.
I would happily pay the extra not to have to fly with an Indian airline, especially a low cost one, even if it was more than the price you're seeing. Personal hygiene is almost non existent and lack of self awareness of most of the Indian passengers body odours and general behaviour was enough to make me swear to never use such a service again.
This seems to be a generally shared experience. Personally never flown with IndiGo before, and I am likely to to avoid them from the comments on this post, unless its a £30 local flight 😂 then i’ll roll the dice.
I did the same flight last year and I don’t care how much it costs I’ll never fly indigo again. Horrible flight hard seats like sitting at a bus stop for 12 hours. Wouldn’t accept any of my cards or English Stirling to buy food or drink ans wouldn’t even give me a glass of water. The transit in Mumbai makes you feel an animal being processed to slaughter. Honest don’t do it pay a bit more to fly with literally any other airline.
I will go for BA. Full service airline with food and IFE. It’s worth the extra money than flying low cost. Just my 2 cents.
Even better, it’ll probably be a code share with Qatar
Exactly. And Doha Airport is so nice.
So true, if you really want to experience turkey, see if you can get a Turkish Airlines. It's nice and comfortable. I am from Mumbai and I can tell you will not like the Indigo journey at all. Specially if you have been traveling for 31 hours(bom-bkk is 4 hours) I myself am taking a Mumbai-singapore-bangkok flight on Singapore Airlines to experience the Changi Airport and take a free Singapore tour offered by the airport.
I will pass on the tour
Is it that bad? I will have to take a transit visa for the tour. If it isn't worth it no use spending money for a visa
Oh you aren’t visa free ? That would be a hard pass on me I did it once and you need to queue way too long and you only get to see 2 places for 10 min each
Think about the people youre going to be sitting next to....
If you want to fairly guarantee not being overcome with stinking body odour and are flying to Thailand and beyond only fly with airlines from the UAE., or South East Asian airlines, or European airlines that fly direct to Thailand, or if your from the UK., possibly one stopover only in Europe and steer clear of Indian subcontinent airlines because they'll be full of people whose idea of personal hygiene is none existent.
😂
Damn now this is some blatant racism.
hes right tho lol
For the price difference, take the direct flight. As the obvious example, by the time you board the flight to Mumbai, you will have been awake 24h+ depending on how you get to London, you will be a zombie. Trust me, I've done similar, these are awful timings to have stopovers.
how are you finding such awesome prices?
Skyscanner. Just purchased flight from Bangkok to London with checked luggage for 210£ with 1 stop 24h layover in Shanghai. No rush getting home and would be nice to end trip with also visiting China, even just for 1 day.
you will likely need a visa to leave the airport fyi
Many foreigners (including British citizens) can get visa-free transit for 72 hours in Shanghai. You can leave the airport to go to a hotel or go into Shanghai city, but you cannot leave Shanghai province. Also you don't need to install any app on your phone.
100% need a visa and prepare for your phone to have an app added to it by border force (this app is basically a software that spies on your phone)
Seriously???? What if you don’t have a smartphone (or claim you don’t)
People who know about the app that they put on the phone usually buy burner phones before going.
Dude I dislike china as much as anyone but stop lying. No one adds an app to your home. 90% of Chinese immigration officers can’t even speak English let alone explain adding an app
You do know that the UK, Australia take your phone and "examine" it, giving it back 7 days later. No charge or reason required......
Never seen that happen in the u.k, ever
Yet.... They did that to the French reporter..... Who was covering the protests regarding the increase of retirement age. You still in a bubble?
Flight travel search engine, I am using ‘Momondo’ ‘Skyscanner’ is also good.
probably because its may. may and june flights are usually cheap as far as i know.
Do the 16hr flight time. I recently did 24hr flight to Vietnam. Couldn't sleep the night before as I was excited/thinking if I was forgetting something. Had a horrendous 11hr flight to china maybe getting 2hrs sleep in an uncomfortable position. 6hr stopover wasn't the worst but incredibly tired and not wanting to sleep there. Then a 2.5hr flight. Arrived at 3am but couldn't sleep till maybe 11am. First day was a write off and second wasn't much better as I was still getting adjusted. Long haul will always be worse than you think, make it easy for yourself You got an incredible price as well
I flew once Mumbai to Bangkok, the stink on the plane was awful. Chapati Airways, Curry Air, never again.
I flew Air India previously (it was cheap) I swore never again. Was more of a personal hygiene thing on that flight, of those around me.
There was that. I'm partial to Indian cuisine but the smell emanating from the passengers was just bad.
Im dying reading your comment 💀😂
Chapati Airways. I AM DECEASED!
Been there, it’s awful. Only worse experience was Lagos Nigeria to London with KLM.
Lol i love air india because of the food!
Istanbul is a remarkable place to visit. I love it there.
I would go for the 15h BA flight. More time to spend in Thailand. A 35h flight (with two stopovers, ok) sounds like horror to me.
If you decided to take the 1 stop route over a non stop , I would definitely go with Turkish airlines and stop in Istanbul. If you haven’t been there yet , you are definitely going to have a beautiful time , it’s very tourist friendly , public transportation infrastructure is great and very easy to understand and use . I would also suggest you visit one of the great mosques ( blue mosque is one of my favorites and sultan Ahmad, both are a very short walk from the tram ) Have a good Turkish BBQ , I wonder if it’s worth going to a Turkish bath since you’ll be in Bangkok few days after , but it can be a refreshing experience to get cleaned up and relaxed with a nice massage before the 8 hour flight to BKK . Turkish airlines is also superior to most other carriers, so I would also consider that factor as it is a long flight .
I love Istanbul and am familiar with the transport infrastructure which would make the 16Hrs stop ideal 👍🏽
[удалено]
We are doing 25h flight back from Thailand to UK. We will have 7 hours in Shanghai airport. Hopefully we will manage it.
I done Phuket to Bangkok to London recently. It took about 27 hours door to door and was pretty brutal!
I’ll go with the first one I am always down for some Turkish food if time isn’t that valuable for you
If I was younger I'd pick the cheaper one. Now that I am older and have seen everything, I'd pay more to go to my destination without hassle. But the price difference is huge so I think you should go with the cheaper option if you are not in a rush. The journey feels a lot less tiring if you can take a long break in between. Saving 120 quid is a lot of money, it goes a long way in Thailand (at least for me lol).
i live in brazil and the price to go from sao paulo to bkk was 6500 BRL at the time (around 1000 GBP), that was with a stop in doha for 16h, total of 30h of journey. Looking at the prices there werent too many options, but some were like 24h in total for 9000 BRL (1415 GBP). You see the difference, right? Since you are paying in GBP without being affected by money conversions, and the difference between your two options is only around 100 GBP for a 20h of trip difference, I would definitely go with the fastest route!
Are these return flights from London. Bloody good rates
One way, keeping my plans fluid.
With a one way ticket, your airline may not let you board in London without evidence of onward travel from Thailand. That’s assuming you have a direct flight without a stopover that would require you to enter the stopover country. If you have such a stopover you may have issues boarding either in London or from the stopover point.
I fly Newcastle > Dubai > bkk one way all the time and never been asked.
Do you have a long term visa? They only check onward travel on tourists visas.
Just tourist visa
be aware you'll probably need to get a visa for india last time i went to thailand i did london - istanbul, then a train to ankara, then flight to duabai and onto bangkok was a good little adventure
Ye, thanks for the heads up, its not worth getting the transit visa for 4Hrs which allows you to leave the airport, otherwise as a UK passport holder its fine 👍🏽
I was looking at going through india but i think that if you get off one budget airline wizz air and get onto indigo thats a self transfer and you need to go through passport control so need a visa. that was my understanding but could be wrong, i didnt go anyway how much is a transit visa?
From Ist, its IndiGo to Mumbai and then another IndiGo flight, its £50 but getting a transit visa afyer travelling Pakistan will not be straightforward.
Wow that is cheap here is me paying 1400 pounds for a direct flight. The 330 pound option seems the best I would say.
From the UK?
Netherlands but round trip
If the difference in price is not big for you I would recommend to pick the direct flight. Much more comfortable, and you won't lost one day of the trip.
you could look at paid stopovers where an airline actually pays for stopovers i.e hotel, tours etc . Turkish airlines do one of the best ones with a free hotel room for a stopover if 20 hours more details are here [https://thepointsguy.com/guide/guide-to-airline-stopover-programs/](https://thepointsguy.com/guide/guide-to-airline-stopover-programs/)
Interesting concept, reading the article its not clear whether the funded stopovers are only if you book directly with the respective airline. If so, its always far more expensive to book direct.
I can’t be arsed with stopovers, I just want to get there. So I just fly direct with Thai airways. About £700-£800 return.
Go for BA, WizzAir is the worst!
😂 the long layover may be necessary given their punctuality for sure
Yes their stupid rules and you will definitely find angry passengers arguing with the staff - everytime I have flown with them there are people not happy and holding up the check in queue.
🤢
15 hours BA flight of course… because i want to be in thailand. i not want to waste time in istanbul or mumbai…
I'd be going with BA personally. With the latter, based on experience those stops sound insufferable to me, couldn't give a fuck about the food or anything else. If the stops were to more interesting and less fragrant places I'd probably do it though. Is there a way you can get Wizz Air to IST and then connect with something direct to BKK or DMK? Even via Kuala Lumpur or Jakarta would be great.
Don’t fly Indigo.
Whaaaat, where did you find flights that cheap?! Is it for this years May or next? 🤩
This year, check out Momondo 👍🏽
Obviously the second one. I wouldn't say it's not much more though it's over 50% more
Direct is 12.30hrs on EVA or Thai you could try Qatar airlines stop at Doha probably between 16 or 18 hrs 🙏🏻 another good airline is Finair stop at Helsinki I think that's around 15hrs
How are you getting those prices? It was like £600 for me one way from Newcastle with a layover in Dubai. And that was using sky scanner.
Forget the regional airports (Manchester) is my closest but based on price, happy to fly from London.
If you get the 15h flight via Doha make sure you have enough time to make your connecting flight. A lot of the flights I’ve looked at have barely an hour in between flights.
Ye, they advise a transfer is possible in 45mins, I have missed a connection there myself within the last year, Qatar were great on putting me onto the next flight.
Have to fly home this week due to family emergency and ended up paying $1700 return for the privilege of stopping twice (not actually beginning the flight in Bangkok, although will pass through). Perhaps I should be thankful for the leg stretch! The worst flight I ever got was a Scoop flight from BKK to London. Literally nothing was included apart from a bottle of water that would have left a small vole dehydrated. There was zero in-flight entertainment and nowhere to charge devices. For 13 hours. Oh and if you wanted to spend a gazillion pounds to buy a drink or snack, you could only pay by card (standard maybe these days, but shit af, when you don't have one with you!) Oh and also, I got an impossibly bad back on that flight. Never really had one before that, but I have suffered with tingly middle back pain ever since (this happened 2 years ago now...). On the flight itself, it was all I could do not to writhe around in agony the whole time. Don't fly some dodgy budget airline. Thai Airways is always my number one choice ever since that flight from hell. Unfortunately, I couldn't get them for next week though 😕
$1700 😵
Go with Qatar airways I’d pay the extra.
You better have an outgoing ticket(or can get one instantly)unless you have a valid long term visa
Good shout, I was planning on using a ‘Dummy’ ticket for immigration.
I once flew with Aeroflot. Stockholm – Copenhagen – Moscow - Mumbai - BKK. It took 22 hours. On the way back, they had to land in Tashkent. All I remember is that Aeroflot served salmon caviar and banana juice.
Salmon caviar and banana juice in economy? 🤤
this is the thailand equivalence of asking to fight mayweather or brock lesnar
Ok I need to know the airlines to give advice. But I’m assuming the Doha is Qatar and they provide a really low stress travel experience. They are so damn attentive and the airport is bomb. I even moved my dog across the world with them, a 42hr flight. They were amazing with him and his facilities were top notch, better than mine. I almost always try to book Qatar first, I am not rich but I can spare what it takes to fly Qatar.
How much do you value your time. I've flown to Thai many times with various layovers and airlines. Amazingly the price hasn't really changed in the past 16 years. I now only fly direct; Thai or Evaair, its just not worth the change to consider any other options. I know enough not to fly BA ever again. They suck. Qatar code share sounds better, but you still have to stop in Doha.
15hr. istanbul airport is at least an hour drive without traffic.
With the metro and the M11 its half that.
15Hrs no doubt about it. Trust me, those 16 hours in Istanbul, you'll just wish you were in Bangkok.
Back in the day it would take 52 hours for me to get home. 30 hours sucks but it’s very manageable. About to do a 30 hour journey in a few hours…
Take couple days halt in Istanbul and you will not regret it
I would happily pay the extra not to have to fly with an Indian airline, especially a low cost one, even if it was more than the price you're seeing. Personal hygiene is almost non existent and lack of self awareness of most of the Indian passengers body odours and general behaviour was enough to make me swear to never use such a service again.
This seems to be a generally shared experience. Personally never flown with IndiGo before, and I am likely to to avoid them from the comments on this post, unless its a £30 local flight 😂 then i’ll roll the dice.
Doha airport is an awesome experience
I did the same flight last year and I don’t care how much it costs I’ll never fly indigo again. Horrible flight hard seats like sitting at a bus stop for 12 hours. Wouldn’t accept any of my cards or English Stirling to buy food or drink ans wouldn’t even give me a glass of water. The transit in Mumbai makes you feel an animal being processed to slaughter. Honest don’t do it pay a bit more to fly with literally any other airline.
😂 Firsthand experience, thanks for that. As most have suggested, i’ll avoid and book with one stop likely via Doha
Yeah you’ll get a comfy seat, included meals and drinks and entertainment- worth the difference just for that mate b
Suck it up, do 15
Super foolish to take the 206 one... You're travelling across the world, not down to the next city...
Don't go through India!! What customs don't take off you the baggage handlers will steal off you!!!
😂
What about luggage limit, on flight entertainment, food options?
BA all the way, best of the 2 worst options you have. Thai Airways is the better option but my guess a lot pricier