UK Japan flight. Cost effective. Anyone used Air China / Asiana / Juneyao?

[ZenNudist]

Has anyone travelled on these budget airlines? Would appreciate help getting to Japan without taking forever and costing £5-6k.

Trying to book for 2 adults and 2 tween/teen DC for next Easter. Ideally would go Manchester to Tokyo and then Osaka Manchester but will go from Gatwick or Heathrow If its cheaper and might change itinerary and return from Tokyo if it saves enough money.

I can fly Air China from Gatwick but the journey back is a 7 hour layover in Beijing. I accept I'm not going to get quick AND cheap though I'm leaning towards the Chinese Airlines as the flight times are shorter which will be more bearable.

What could I do for 7 hours in Beijing? Hire a sleep pod maybe and rest.

Asiana (Korean) has some good flight times. Doing it all in 1t hours from London.

Juneyao is also good going from Manchester but I'm a bit scared the planes will be crap!

I'm not over precious about flights. I fly easyjet and Ryanair all the time. I really need to keep costs down but would appreciate mumsnetters experiences!

Friends did Asiana and said it was great. Good service, nice food. Very efficient transfer, gates were set up next to eachother so you didn't have to run through the airport.
They stopped in South Korea for a few days on way back and enjoyed that too.

I like the idea of going to South Korea on the way home. I've heard good things about Asiana. Apparently the food is nice and on a proper plate!.

I really like air China flight as its a) cheap and B) short. I don't like flying long haul and it'd stop in shanghai on the way back but I'm sure I could get a sleep pod.

Off to look at Asiana flights.

We've booked with Asiana to go next Easter. The online reviews were okay and the money saved was hard to argue with. We have a quick layover each way, so no taste of Seoul for us, but I rather like the idea of Korean food on the flight, just to make things a bit more interesting!

I've flown with Air China to Tokyo via Beijing and was fine,crew were lovely and plane was clean and not too uncomfortable so was bearable. We flew direct back from Beijing and again no problem at all. The airport is quite a way out and. Very busy with heavy traffic so we were told to allow plenty of time to get there so 7 hours stop over I'd suggest not leaving the airport

I flew with Cathay Pacific both times with a stop over in Hong Kong (and stayed 2 or 3 nights in way out and just 2hours on way back)

Family member has flown with Air China a few times and had no complaints,

Asiana is a 5* airline not a budget airline......

I didn't know Asiana was a decent airline. I know Cathay Pacific is and I was tempted by the outbound flight from Manchester via HK but its longer and more expensive and they don't seem to have a good inbound flight.

Air China is not a budget airline either, it’s the national carrier. It’s fine and certainly better than China Eastern. Cathay is much nicer- excellent entertainment system and food also pretty good.

We're just about to book Asiana direct to Seoul, few days there then we'll either get the ferry from Busan or a cheap local flight. Those airlines don't come up on sites like Skyscanner but they're about £100 pp.

I need to research the ferry as it goes past some beautiful looking islands, I'm hoping we can stop at one for the night.

My ds flew with with air China or China air (one of them) in the lowest class and cannot recommend it enough - cheap as chips!

@DuringDinnerMints we caught a ferry from Fukuoka to Busan and on our way back we went on the Panstar "cruise" from Busan to Osaka. Smooth and easy both ways but the overnight "cruise" was some good downtime in a busy schedule. Let me know if you go for this option and want more info - I couldnt find much guidance on the internet.

Sorry to derail!

I've done Air China to Japan via Shanghai, it's absolutely fine - the flights are subsidised by the Chinese government as it's their national carrier so tends to be cheaper. Food was edible enough and you got plenty of it. I think flight times are shorter as they can use Russian airspace.

Warning though, Asian airlines tend to have warmer plane temperatures so just be prepared for that. I like a cool flight but I found using Air China absolutely fine otherwise.

Air China is fine.

China Eastern is no frills but the flights were half the price of every other carrier so we could live with it.