Bits: use Virgin miles on East Coast trains, £1000 business class to Asia starting in the UK

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• Alex says:

  31 Jul31 July 05:59

  TK actually runs a proper J class cabin on their short haul aircraft (proper squishy armchair seats; none of this convertible 3-3 stuff) which I’d say is more than adequate for the 4 hour hop to Istanbul. If couples I’d even go so far as to say it’s preferable to the staggered style EY or EK seats. And TK catering (both in the air and on the ground) is the best I’ve ever experienced at a Business Class metric.

  • James says:

    31 Jul31 July 07:59

    Also note that TK are increasingly flying the A332 to MAN, substituting the regular A321 whenever advance bookings are good. If you’re flexible you could get flat bed all the way if you hunt around a bit.

• James67 says:

  31 Jul31 July 06:34

  Following the EY 30% off Tuesdays and Wednesdays a couple of months back this is the second time this summer we have seen UK to south and east Asia hit the £1200ish mark in J. Typically the cheapest fare is about £1350 rtn with China Airlines from regions via AMS but they are hardly a mainstream carrier and the cheapest fares usually only available on their AMS-BKK fifth freedom route. May be wrong but I think they also only have angle flat seats at best. Given these fares were available in the summer, this bodes well for low season offers. When combined with pssible cuts and/or elimination of APD and continued growth in regional ME3 options it seems promising that the sub£1k fares from the regions may become more common, oarticularly if oil costs remain low.

• Erico1875 says:

  31 Jul31 July 06:58

  What is great is we now have Qatar, Turkish and Etihad all competing for Eastern routes from Edinburgh.

  • Alan says:

    31 Jul31 July 07:05

    Indeed – great news 🙂 Plus KLM flights to AMS for either onward connections with them or an ex-EU BA!

    • James67 says:

      31 Jul31 July 07:58

      I find CPH a little better as SAS have very competitive one way fares including bags. Eayjet and Norwegian also currently fly the route and Ryanair about to start too. I hope SK don’t get squeezed out due to peoples ignorance about LCCs. What Edinburgh needs now is a daily AY flight to HEL on their own metal for connectiins to north Asia and Japan.

      • Alan says:

        31 Jul31 July 14:05

        Good point re CPH and agree re SAS. OSL is also an option on Norwegian from EDI, excellent fares (~£2k in CW) to Oz with BA from there pretty much year round at present.

  • CV3V says:

    31 Jul31 July 09:42

    Options out of EDI are now very good. Its a shame that Emirates have such a monopoly at GLA with the 2 flights per day, and speculation of going to 3 flights per day, they even have their own lounge now. It is a great service, but EK dont offer these bargain fares!

    • James67 says:

      31 Jul31 July 16:02

      What I find surprising is that so far none of the ME3 have tapped into the potential of Scotland-Canada/USA fifth freedom flights.

      • callum says:

        31 Jul31 July 20:04

        Why is Scotland particularly suitable above the rest of Europe?

        Not to mention they can’t just fly anywhere they want. The odds of them being granted the right to fly Scotland to US are non existent. Scotland to Canada doesn’t seem a particularly exciting market for them and similarly, the odds of getting such rights are close to nill.

        • James67 says:

          31 Jul31 July 22:58

          Well there was a time when there were direct flights from Scotlabd to Halifax, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver so demand must be there A few years back most would have argued no market east-bound either but now all three ME3 carriers operating and reportedly looking to increase schedules.

        • Alan says:

          1 Aug1 August 01:36

          Agreed. Also it’s not that they’re particularly suitable over anywhere else, more just that they already fly from EDI/GLA so it would offer an interesting additional routing. If Scotland get rid of APD I’d imagine there would also be interest to many in the North of England!

• Andy says:

  31 Jul31 July 07:48

  TK’s Istanbul lounge is probably the best lounge I’ve ever been in – huge, stylish, excellent food, brilliant facilities for children and great showers. And their IST-BKK service on the 777 is also excellent – flat beds, great food.

• Andy says:

  31 Jul31 July 08:46

  Business class on an A321 on Turkish Airlines:
  https://www.google.co.uk/#q=turkish+airlines+a321+business+class&imgrc=X-v8hnctop933M%3A

• Daniel says:

  31 Jul31 July 09:01

  The point to remember as well with using Qatar for example is BA Tier Point Status 4 x 140 TP is something that can easily push to Silver, whereas TA belong to Lufthansa Miles & More which for example for me is useless (still have quite good stack of points I cannot redeem for anything really…(maybe UA flight to states at some point…)

  • callum says:

    31 Jul31 July 20:09

    They don’t “belong” to miles and more… My preferred star alliance scheme is United’s – Guatemala to Ecuador with a stop in the Galapagos Islands for 10k miles quite possibly being my best value redemption ever.

• Mark says:

  31 Jul31 July 10:06

  Rob, how long did it take East Coast point conversion to arrive in Virgin Flying Club account? Mine are taking a while…

  • Rob says:

    31 Jul31 July 10:23

    It did take a couple of weeks at least – but they did arrive. It was such a small number I didn’t really track it.

  • James67 says:

    31 Jul31 July 11:07

    First time I tried it failed and they were returned to EC. Second time I tried it took exactly a week.

    • Rob says:

      31 Jul31 July 11:42

      Same happened to me – they said there was a security breach so all transactions had been reversed.

      • James67 says:

        31 Jul31 July 12:48

        That’s same message I got but I think at IT glitch was likely the real reason. Seems to be eorking now though and still some time before the deadline.

        • Mark says:

          31 Jul31 July 13:45

          Mine have been in transit for two weeks so hopefully will emerge soon…

        • James67 says:

          31 Jul31 July 14:52

          Send them a message but don’t be surprised if rge answer has nothing to do with the questions you ask!

• Fadi says:

  31 Jul31 July 10:50

  I’ll be in that IST lounge in a couple of weeks. Only heard good things. Not sure anything can compare to Al Mourjan though.

  • Brian says:

    31 Jul31 July 12:25

    You mean nothing can compare to the soullessness and dead feeling of Al Mourjan? Wouldn’t surprise me.

    • James67 says:

      31 Jul31 July 12:53

      I too was unimpressed, it just felt like an extension of the normal terminal space. Have never been in IST but my partner has high regard for both the airline and the lounge. As far as lounges go I still fink Thais spa trumps the lot.

      • Brian says:

        31 Jul31 July 13:16

        Yes, it’s huge, no doubt has great facilities and a wide range of dining options. But zero character and the staff – unlike those on the planes – are as soulless and dead-eyed as the place itself.

    • Waribai says:

      31 Jul31 July 16:16

      Yes, must admit, I was expecting great things. Nice and shiny but I thought the atmosphere was lacking a certain jnsq. Might just have been because I was there over Xmas!

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