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Comparing Europe vs Asian Carriers

Posted by (SF Bay Area, CA, USA) on

My Parents and I are taking a trip next Month to Jontiem near Pattaya and a 14 Day Private Guided Tour of Viet Nam.

I found us tickets on Korean Air from San Francisco to Bangkok for $553 and Vietnam Air to Hanoi for $88 with the return on Philippine Air from Saigon for $473.

Our tickets come with free seat selections and 2 free checked bags plus 1 carryon and 1 personal item. On Korean Air it's. a 777-300 with a 3-3-3 configuration which is rate.

Korean Air has very generous legroom and seat recline and meals.

I heard good things about Viet Nam Air. We get a hot meal on a 2 hour flight in Economy unheard of in today's flights.

Phillipine Air also has good meals and service. It's nice to see they don't charge for the window and my Parents don't mind a middle seat vs paying for 2 aisles.

All deaf assignments are in good locations.

Have you experienced any of these airlines and how did you enjoy it?

Posted by
73 posts

It's been a while, but I have flown Korean Air multiple times and I really like the airline. I don't remember the seat pitch but I do remember liking the meals (they always had a Korean menu and a western menu - I ate the Korean food). I would happily fly Korean Air again. I do not have any experience with the other airlines you mentioned.

Posted by
11175 posts

We enjoyed our round trip flights from LAX to Narita, Japan on ANA, a Japanese airline.
Everything was excellent from booking our tickets and on to the flights. Food was good; we chose Japanese.

Posted by
357 posts

It's been a few years since I flew Korean Air, but I enjoyed the food and snacks and we got amenity kits in coach. If I remember right, the seatback doesn't recline, the seat itself slides forward.

I would gladly fly them again.

Posted by
6788 posts

IME, generally speaking, Asian airlines always provide better passenger experience than North American or European Airlines (assuming equivalent class of service - that is, a basic economy ticket on an Air Asia flight is not going to be better than a business class flight on Swiss...). Sometimes just a little better, sometimes a lot better - it's hard to generalize beyond the above.

Korean Air is good, I'm looking forward to an upcoming trip on KE. No experience with "Viet Nam Air" (I assume you mean Vietnam Airlines).

Posted by
226 posts

Thanks for your replies. I think from now on when flying to and from. Europe I'll go via ICN from SFO!

Posted by
14539 posts

Hi,

For years the one Asian carrier that enjoyed a high reputation was Singapore Airlines. You might want to look into that one.

Posted by
322 posts

I’ve been lucky to fly Singapore airlines a few times, and their service was so much better than European or American carriers, but unfortunately living in Atlanta, I think I would have to go to Asia to get to Europe. But if you’re going to Asia book with them!

Posted by
15096 posts

Thanks for your replies. I think from now on when flying to and from. Europe I'll go via ICN from SFO!

You're kidding, right?

Let's say you're going to London. A non-stop flight from San Francisco to London is about 10.5 hours. A non-stop flight from ICN to London is about 10.5 hours. But you still have a 12.5 hour flight from SFO to ICN.

Posted by
1556 posts

Singapore airlines does fly JFK to Frankfurt and also from Houston to Manchester and then continues to Singapore. I have taken the former flight as well as some other SQ flights to Japan, Manila, and Sri Lanka

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