What are people's experience of trips requiring layover (or connecting) flights when there is no direct flight to or from their destination?

[CatConcerns]

I'm in the early stages of trying to plan a holiday to Japan. It won't happen for at least another year. It is my understanding that the only direct flights to Tokyo from the UK are from Heathrow. I assume this is also the case for other long-haul destinations. In my case, I live on the other side of the country from Heathrow, so I would be traveling from Manchester Airport. The only flights to Japan from MCR are non-direct, or connecting flights. I've also seen them referred to as "layover flights". For example, there are flights that go from MCR to Dubai, then you get off the plane at DXB and board another plane onwards to Tokyo Haneda.

I would personally much prefer to have a direct flight without needing to change planes, just as I do when travelling on trains, but that wouldn't be possible due to my geographic location. I've only ever been to destinations where the departure and return flights were direct flights. I am wondering if anyone on MN has experience of trips where they have needed to change flights on a journey (whether on the departure flight, return flight, or both). What do you do in the airport while waiting for the next onward flight? I was looking at the layover flights on Skyscanner, and there is around a 10-hour wait at the airport between arriving in DXB and the arrival of the next onward flight to Tokyo. I'd have some anxiety about things possibly going wrong during the changeover. I know things can go wrong with direct flights, but I've got this idea in my head that adding extra flights to the equation increase the chances of things going wrong - especially if the flights are with different airlines.

I'm aware that this is all moot at the moment with the current events taking place in the Middle East, but I'd like to know in the hope that things will calm down a bit by next year, and air travel in that area will return to some level of normalcy.

I would travel from Manchester to Heathrow . I did a direct Heathrow to Tokyo with BA in Oct and it was great , I felt fine on arrival and continued on with my trip . With a long stopover or in fact any stopover I would have been exhausted.

I'm going to Japan today, and even though we are flying from Heathrow we still need to change in Korea. I have done changes lots of times, it's normal. You can't fly direct to places like Costa Rica, Bali and Cambodia, so you have to have a change. I always fly with the same airline so it's a continuous journey with one ticket.

Usually I opt for a 2ish hour change so there is no hanging around. They changed our return flights so now we have a 10-11 hour layover at night. We have requested that the airline provide us with a hotel which they have agreed to. It works out quite well, we will get to have a decent sleep between flights, and also get to go to Korea for dinner, which is pretty good to just go to Korea for proper Korean BBQ 😁🍖

You can fly direct to Japan!!! No need to change anywhere if leaving from Heathrow. I’m assuming it’s a financial choice or a different city in Japan.

@CatConcernsYes, of course you can fly down. Just double check arrival and departure terminals. Allow transfer time if different terminals. It’s much easier to fly direct to Tokyo.

Could you see it as part of your trip to travel to Heathrow and stay in a hotel overnight?

The OP might not have much choice but to do that.

I think ATM all bar one of the LHR>HND non-stoppers with either BA or JAL (operating in part as BA code shares) are early"ish AM departures, a flight down from MAN on the morning might well not be a viable connector to those...

Of course those timings are subject to change.

when I lived up Notf I used the BA Manchester to LHR shuttle flight, does this not exsist anymore?

It sort of still does though the shuttle term got dropped a while back.

There's maybe (not checked) a flight on average every two hours southbound, I think on current timings the earliest might leave MAN with enough time to connect to the morning LHR>HND (Haneda) but there wouldn't be too much wriggle room for delays...

Finnair would be far more convenient than connecting in Heathrow. It’s a smaller and less complex airport, and they fly to both Osaka and Tokyo from Helsinki. That opens up the possibility of a more convenient open-jaw flight. We had a 1 hour connection in Helsinki and had time to spare to eat.

It's not necessarily more convenient.

If you fly BA MAN > LHR and then connect with the BA5 (LHR-HND, BA aircraft) it's a straightforward airside connection at LHR T5...

So just a change of floors in the one terminal from arrivals level to departures level going via the flight connections facility.

It is more complex if you go BA MAN-LHR then use JAL onwards to HND because then there is a terminal change involved, but even so it's still a connected booking if booked as such with transfer between the terminals by airside bus.

Have you ever changed planes in Helsinki?

You don’t have to go through any flight connections facility. You just get off one plane and you’re in the departure area for the next. There is no changing floor and the gates in the non-Schengen area are all really close together.

The minimum connection time there is 35 mins (vs. 60-75 mins at LHR). It’s a dream of an airport for connecting flights.

Flying between London and Sydney/Auckland several times a year means I do stop overs all the time. It’s perfectly normal as long as you book a through ticket. Never missed my connecting flight either. Stopover have been anything from 1.45 to 10 hours. If 10 hours I book an airport hotel for a nap and a shower. Singapore has a rooftop pool for a dip for example.
Otherwise 4/5 hours is fine to stretch your legs have a bit to eat etc. I’m often in business though so get to enjoy the airline lounges and I always hope for a longer stop over!

@Takoneko

Err, yes, I've been to HEL and yes, I have changed planes there...

If your only aim or criteria is absolute minimum connection time (MCT) sure Helsinki wins but there might well be other factors to consider.

Whatever the factors objectively a LHR T5 internal transfer MCT is only 60 min and isn't difficult or onerous....

Flew from Manchester to Tokyo via Shanghai with Juneyao air. It was seamless. Their feedback suggests that there might be a language barrier but but the staff were super helpful and professional. ( and let’s face it their English was a million times better then my mandarin ) Flew the return trip from Hakata via Shanghai, and again, no issues at all

@notimagain That’s true. it’s not especially onerous at LHR.

I still stand by the fact that being able to fly open-jaw (i.e. into Tokyo and out of Osaka or vice versa) is far more convenient for a Golden Route trip though. That’s not an option if OP goes via Heathrow without adding an additional HND connection, which is not ideal given the unpredictable nature of customs and immigration lines at HND.

Agree that for a tour the ability to open-jaw is a plus, sadly the days when BA served several of the Japanese cities direct out of LHR is long gone.

Sadly so.

Airfrance also fly to Osaka but I’ve heard enough horror stories to know that I’d rather chew off my own arm than catch a connecting flight in CDG.

This is really, really common and whilst long layovers are a PITA it’s your call on cost vs time.

Having transited through Dubai 3x in the past between 4-6 I would now pay more to avoid it. It’s such a dull airport with woeful facilities to spend time in.

I would happily spend time in transit in Singapore if it save me ££ because it’s a very well set up airport.

In your shoes I’d be looking for a quick hop from Manchester to London, Amsterdam or any other Western European or Scandinavian city and then direct to Japan from there.

Defiantly make sure you follow the advice of pp that it’s all one booking so you are covered if there are issues.

Japan is an incredible place to visit, have a great time.

Finn air via Helsinki is worth checking or other european carrier.
Recommend taking less luggage out to Japan (easy to wash clothes as hotels and apartments often have washing machines) People also often buy stuff to bring back so you need to allocate some space for this.
We easily filled an overhead cabin sized bag and are not big shoppers.

I believe Singapore has airside hotels too though I’ve never used one.

What is it today with all those posters over explaining stuff?

Yes, non-direct, connecting and lay-over are synonyms, and yes, it means you go to another airport first and from there you continue to your destination. Or to another stop-over, sometimes people need to use three or four legs flights.

It is actually possible to change trains while travelling on the rails as well.

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As was said, it's crucial to buy the whole route together. Different airlines don't matter, they work together in coalitions. If an airline sells the whole route together, they will be responsible for finding alternatives if the connection doesn't work out because of delays on their side.

I’ve used one once. Now DH and I in the pre DC days because it’s saved us a small fortune. It was just like a Premier Inn style room (albeit internal, no windows which we didn’t notice with the curtains drawn) and absolutely fine. Because we were in transit between flights on the same booking we didn’t have to collect checked luggage.

I think the geography wouldn’t help OP though in this case.

What happened??

We missed a connecting flight due to late arrival on inbound @Janey90 took us all our time to rebook flights because the whole of Schipol was delayed, didn’t have time to even enquire about what to do with the hold bags but by some miracle it must have matched them to our rebooking and they made it onto not one but two flights to our destination!!

We have transferred on long-haul flights in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar. Give or take the Iran thing I would do it again without hesitation. Those airports are set up for transit, even if it's sometimes at odd hours of the morning, and they are very efficient. We had 1½ hours at Abu Dhabi on our trip to Kuala Lumpur and it was more than enough, even if we did have to go through security again and it was the old-style machines (laptops and liquids out).