Would you take this plane?

[Accy cyclist]

 

[Illaveago]

Can you nip outside for a fag, if not I'm out.

Yes. It's next to the outside loo at the tail.

 

[Globalti]

They must have done the maths:

1 - The flight must be cheaper than, or competitive with the cost of doing it in two legs, for example with EK over Dubai.

2 - The ticket price must cover the fuel and operating costs. In fact the operating costs will be little more than for Singapore to London, just with the addition of some extra fuel in between.

On my first ever 11.5 hour flight from Cape Town to Amsterdam, my South African agent gave me a little blue pill to help me sleep. She told me to take it, get comfortable, loosen my clothing, attach my belt and I would wake up 7 hours later. "What is it?" I asked. "Rohypnol" came the reply. Thinking this sounded a bit drastic I snapped the tiny pill in half and slipped the unused half in my trouser pocket. Took it and woke up seven hours later feeling a little groggy but a KLM coffee soon sorted that. Generally speaking though I don't think aircrew like drugged passengers in case there's an emergency.

 

[Globalti]

You mean operate them at a loss just to fill seats and feed passengers into their local network?

 

[classic33]

No landing/airport fees at a halfway stop to pay.

 

[classic33]

I'm not in New York. I don't want to go to Singapore. Apart from that it looks really tempting.

There's a service that does Singapore in 11 hours from Manchester, if you want.

 

[vickster]

Nope, about 12 or 13 hours back from Asia is as much as I can bear...in Club if work (or Premium economy at a push if holiday). Another 5 hours would be unbearable as I don't sleep on planes (even with a fiat bed)

 

[philk56]

I'm just heading out to Heathrow for my first nonstop flight from London to Perth, travelling economy. That's scheduled for 17 hours although they have been arriving early most days. I am reasonably cool about the length of the flight but may feel different by the time I emerge at the other end. Will hopefully report back tomorrow!

Well that was pretty painless. We took off slightly late but made up time so landed almost on time. The total length of the flight was about 16.5 hours. Didn't get much sleep but watched 3 decent films and listened to lots of podcasts that I had saved for the occasion. The seat was quite comfortable for economy, helped by having an empty seat next to me, and certainly bearable. Having been used to flying 380's over the last few years it was nice to have a much smaller cabin and seemed a much more civilised way to fly. Just a shame it's not a European plane! I'll definitely be looking at this option for my next trip over.