Suggestions on air travel to Asia from East Coast

[EllieinNJ]

I would love to do an Asian cruise but when I looked on EZ  Air, it was 6 hours from NY to SF and then 17 hours from SF to Singapore.  I do not know how I could possible do 17 hours on a plane.  Can anyone suggest another route with maybe a stopover for a day or two that would not incur more than 10-11 hours at a time?

[beg3yrs]

Try going the other direction. A stopover in Paris would be nice.

[JF - retired RRT]

53 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

Try going the other direction. A stopover in Paris would be nice.

Or stop in SF for a day or 2. You don't have to do it all at one time.

If $$ (and time) is no object: stop in SF, then fly to HNL and stop there, then finish the last leg. Of course, I have no idea how long it takes to fly from HNL to Singapore, but it might be worth checking.

Make your stopovers part of your vacation.

[DeeTO]

We stopped in Tokyo for a few days. SF to Tokyo 11hrs. Then Tokyo - Sing is 7-8hrs. 

Depending on time of year, in March Tokyo temps were 10C so gradual adjustment to Sing 30C and humid. 

[Mike45LC]

Stop over in Hawaii.  Two nights there, and then treat the next leg as a new trip.

[oskidunker]

Look for a business class sale..

[dockman]

HNL to SIN is at least 16.5 hours...there are no direct flights...go via seoul or narita....still a long trip from HNL

[EDDY0827]

Honolulu is the place for you. It's halfwayish. It will also allow your internal clock to catch-up.

[dockman]

SFO to SIN is 16 hours 20 minutes NON STOP....Hawaii while a very nice stop won't save you any flight time but actually makes for more travel time .

[tothemall&beyond]

40 minutes ago, dockman said:

HNL to SIN is at least 16.5 hours...there are no direct flights...go via seoul or narita....still a long trip from HN

We flew FLL to ATL to Seoul to SIN. The flight from ATL was over 14 hrs. Then 2.5 hr layover in Seoul. Then 6 hr flt to SIN.         

Our friends flew from Orlando, FL and San Antonio, TX. They both went via Narita. We all had very long travels (over 30 hrs with layovers) with at least one very long leg. No way to avoid a long leg somewhere if flying from east coast.

Edited June 4, 2019 by tothemall&beyond

[beg3yrs]

I looked at some of the flight times going east from the East Coast and you'll cut down on the total travel time.

[EllieinNJ]

51 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

I looked at some of the flight times going east from the East Coast and you'll cut down on the total travel time.

Recommendations?

[SeaDog-46]

There are multiple options from US east coast to far east.

Quickest & easiest are through Gulf states flying - Emirates [Dubai],  Etihad [Abu Dhabi] & Qatar.

All fly modern planes & have superior service from what you would get in USA.

Quick lookup on www.skyscanner.com  - for August 2019.

JFK to Abu Dhabi [AUH] with Etihad - dep. 20/22:55  -  21/20:00 @ Abu Dhabi.

Lay over 1hr. 50mins.

AUH to SIN  dep. 21/21:50 - 22/09:50 @ Singapore.

All for around US$475  [conversion from A$] one way.

See 2014 route map for Emirates - current would most likely serve more ports.

 

[waltd]

If you can find an AA flight and book Premium Economy  you will be extremely comfortable  and you will be paying a lot less then Business or First Class.   We flew to Tokyo on the 787 Dreamliner..  Love that plane.   Amazed how fast the flight seems when you are comfortable. 

[beg3yrs]

It's pretty simple to check yourself. Simply look at routings from JFK to SIN. Sea Dog 46 put up a nice graphic which although dated, gives you an idea of where you might layover. There used to be a non-stop on Singapore Airlines but I'm not sure if it's still going. You also said you didn't want such long flights and a layover of even a few days would be nice. The shortest distance between JFK and SIN is going east. Take a look using your dates and preferences. I'll bet depending on the airline, you can get routings through Paris, London, Munich, Rome besides the Middle East.

[GeezerCouple]

11 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

I would love to do an Asian cruise but when I looked on EZ  Air, it was 6 hours from NY to SF and then 17 hours from SF to Singapore.  I do not know how I could possible do 17 hours on a plane.  Can anyone suggest another route with maybe a stopover for a day or two that would not incur more than 10-11 hours at a time?

 

Any chance you've accumulated frequent flyer awards points?

 

We've found them amazing for international ultra-long-haul in premium seating.

 

We've been able to get F tickets, using a service (several are listed on FlyerTalk).  The cost is very reasonable given the comfort.

We managed to get two F seats on JL from East Coast to Tokyo non-stop!  So I thought, "Hey, this is easy!"  NOT!  So we turned to a service, and we ended up with 2 CX (Cathay Pacific) F tickets from Hong Kong, and we spent 3 days there "en route" home.

These were ~14+ and 15+ hours each, and... well... especially that F in CX!  Wow.  I would have been happy to keep going, truely.  DH also thoroughly enjoyed the flight, but was happy to get off.  It wasn't just that we "put up with the flight"; we *enjoyed* it.

 

We had a bit of flexibility on dates each direction, which made it much easier.

 

J would be much easier to get than F.

 

We use both Amex MR points and AA points, so that's two different airline networks.  (AAdvantage points work best on AA partner airlines, rather than on AA itself, or so it has turned out for us.)

 

GC

[fbgd]

There are a lot more options than you think...sounds as though you're trying to get from NY to Singapore.

 

SQ have an EWR-SIN non-stop but also an A380 that flies JFK-FRA-SIN. I flew this in business class last month and it was excellent. (I live much closer to JFK than EWR). Overnight to Frankfurt, walk off the plane and into the Lufthansa lounge for 45mins or so and then back onto the same aircraft with a fresh crew for the 12hrs to SIN. No security at FRA so very easy. Whist SQ's business seat isn't as state of the art as it once was it's still extremely comfortable and the service and food on SQ is second to none, frankly.

 

If you don't want non-stops then all the major Middle Eastern airlines offer one stop services and the same for the European airlines.

[FlyerTalker]

And FWIW, the distance from JFK to SIN via FRA is only about 700 miles longer than the non-stop.

 

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=jfk-sin-fra-jfk

[EllieinNJ]

Wow!  Lots of cool options.  Never would have guessed to go east instead of west.  Let the planning begin.

[Globaliser]

16 hours ago, EDDY0827 said:

Honolulu is the place for you. It's halfwayish.

 

To add to the map already posted by FlyerTalker, using Great Circle distances:-

• JFK-SIN = 9,537 miles
• JFK-TYO-SIN = 10,057 miles (+5.5%)
• JFK-FRA-SIN = 10,245 miles (+7.4%)
• JFK-HNL-SIN = 11,694 miles (+22.6%)

[Zach1213]

14 minutes ago, Globaliser said:

 

To add to the map already posted by FlyerTalker, using Great Circle distances:-

• JFK-SIN = 9,537 miles
• JFK-TYO-SIN = 10,057 miles (+5.5%)
• JFK-FRA-SIN = 10,245 miles (+7.4%)
• JFK-HNL-SIN = 11,694 miles (+22.6%)

 

Not only that, but HNL-SIN doesn't take in to account that there is no nonstop, so in essence you'd be flying JFK-HNL-NRT-SIN or something similar, adding nearly 1,000 EXTRA mileage on to your JFK-HNL-SIN routing.

 

Hawaii is just about the worst choice for a stopover on this trip.

[Gardyloo]

Going east from North America (over the Atlantic instead of the Pacific) also makes flight times shorter as you're typically assisted by tailwinds (which become headwinds going west.)  

 

Finnair (member of Oneworld, partner with American and British Airways) flies from New York to Singapore via Helsinki, with flight segments of roughly 8 hours and 11 hours respectively.  (JFK-HEL-SIN is 9878 miles as it follows a more northerly route.)  

 

Finnair frequently offers good prices in business class on this route; usually around US$2900 from JFK, US$2500 from Toronto or Montreal (if you can get to Canada cheaply.)  They also offer a free stopover in Finland in each direction; if you haven't been to Helsinki you'll probably find it to be a terrific city.

 

This is also a case where having some sort of some multi-year "master plan" might be useful; see my thread on round-the-world travel - https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2664295-about-round-the-world-air-tickets/ - in this regard.

 

[Corby114]

My family flew to Singapore in December 2018 for our Holland America fifteen night Westerdam sailing to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. We flew On Singapore Airlines from JFK to Frankfurt, Germany. The first flight segment was seven hours followed by a two hour layover at Frankfurt. The second, longer segment from Frankfurt to Singapore was twelve hours. The A380 was very comfortable and I was able to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. They served us two lunches and two dinners on the nineteen hour flight. The cruise was so nice that we have all ready reserved another trip to Singapore in January 2020. That cruise will be an eight night voyage on the Norwegian Jade to Malaysia and Thailand on January 5th,2020. The return flight is an extra hour on both flight segments. 

[sambamama]

I was lucky enough to fly JFK to Hong Kong on Cathay in their suite (17 hours) and then on to Singapore on Singapore Air in Business (4 hours). If you have loads of points, the suite is Amazing-you will never notice being on a plane that long. Hong Kong is a cool place to stop over, too. Give yourself time in Singapore-you could stay a week and not seee it all-the subway is very easy to use there! 

[GeezerCouple]

8 hours ago, sambamama said:

I was lucky enough to fly JFK to Hong Kong on Cathay in their suite (17 hours) and then on to Singapore on Singapore Air in Business (4 hours). If you have loads of points, the suite is Amazing-you will never notice being on a plane that long. Hong Kong is a cool place to stop over, too. Give yourself time in Singapore-you could stay a week and not seee it all-the subway is very easy to use there! 

 

Yup, CX F suites are amazing!

As I mentioned above: 

 

"...These were ~14+ and 15+ hours each, and... well... especially that F in CX!  Wow.  I would have been happy to keep going, truely.  DH also thoroughly enjoyed the flight, but was happy to get off.  It wasn't just that we "put up with the flight"; we *enjoyed* it."

 

We were headed to Japan, and took JL F outbound, which was also terrific.  But we had heard about CX F, and wanted to try it.  So we arranged our return through Hong Kong, and then spent a few days there.  But if one wants a nice layover, those CX F lounges are the place to be!

 

Our next "goal" is Singapore Suites, in those double beds, the new ones with the windows and easy chair.  We just need to find a trip to take that uses that routing.

 

Another F seating worthy of mention is LH's F in a 747.  We were fortunate to have 1A and 1B, so we were sort of in the "V" at the front of the plane (pilots are on upper deck).  There were no other passengers in sight, unless we looked backward.  We joked that the narrow doors between us on the front wall were "our private jet pilots"   Of course, that was only the "linen closet" for the bedding mats and duvets, etc.  But it was a very interesting place to sit and sleep.

 

We've been having a ball with these awards, and the difference in points between J and F is really not that much, not when using AAdvantage points for partner airlines.

GC