Europe & Back without sleeper flights?

[dairyfloss]

Hi Folks,

My mother has tasked me with an interesting one... and I'm about halfway there, but looking for advice or further thoughts on it.

My step-dad has quite severe snoring & sleep apnea, and so needs to sleep with the support of a breathing apparatus, lest the pilots think they might have picked up an additional engine along the way!

Unlike their road warrior of a son/step-son, they are looking to set off on their first big overseas holiday to Europe, and are trying to do as much of it as they can on daytime flights, so that step-dad can just stay awake in the air, rather than try and deal with the whole process around the machine, or snoring, or whatever else is of impact to them (and others within a 10 metre radius).

They don't mind too much where in Europe they start, and I have found that SQ can cover them with daytime flights inbound to LHR from SIN (where they'd prefer to set off from Asia), but how about other options, and particularly on the return journey.... I don't know of and was not able to find anything that fits the brief. Realistically, with their budget it would need to be economy, but they may stretch to Y+ for an overnight segment if it means he can set up his gear, etc. J is probably out of the question.

What do you think might make this as comfortable for them as possible, given the aforementioned limitations?

Thanks in advance,
Matt.

 

[Mattg]

Flying from Europe to Australia, they would almost certainly have to make 2 stops along the way, one in the Middle East somewhere and one in South-East Asia. And all flights would need to be morning departures. If you can find three flights which meet those criteria you should be fine.

An example of a workable combination of flights would be:

London (or elsewhere in Europe) to Dubai on QF10 (1pm departure) or an EK flight with morning departure.
Stopover in Dubai
Dubai to Kuala Lumpur on EK342 (10:30am departure, evening arrival in KUL)
Stopover in Kuala Lumpur
Kuala to Sydney on MH141 (9am departure, evening arrival) or the 10am Air Asia flight. They could also continue with Emirates to Melbourne on EK408 (mid-afternoon departure).

Emirates and SQ flights to Singapore from Dubai or anywhere in Europe are all overnight, but Qatar Airways offers daytime flights from Europe to Doha and a daytime flight QR938 DOH-SIN. From there they could fly Singapore Airlines to Australia.

Going the other way is much easier and potentially only requires one stop. I've personally done SYD-SIN (overnight), SIN-DXB-MUC - all day time flights on QF/EK. There's also SQ, JL, CX etc.

 

[markis10]

In a similar vein a few years ago there was a request on a Done 4 RTW no overnight, it was possible.

 

[Mattg]

Here's another option I didn't think of before:

London to Dubai
Overnight in Dubai
Dubai to Perth on EK424
Overnight in Perth
Perth to Sydney

 

[OzEire]

Is the breathing 'machine' allowed onboard ? I have no idea if it is the size of a laptop or a suitcase, or if it contains compressed gas cylinders; but some medical gear is permitted onboard.

But perhaps your folks just don't want the hassle, which is understandable.

 

[Limewood]

in and out of HKG too, Cx have excellent daytime flights both ways.

 

[Mattg]

in and out of HKG too, Cx have excellent daytime flights both ways.

Aren't all of the Europe to Hong Kong flights overnight?

 

[dajop]

It also depends on how you define "overnight". The European departures that leave for Asia late morning, whilst overnight in the sense that they arrive in Asia in the morning (arriving airport time), actually reach Asia late evening "body clock" time so it is feasible to treat these as day flights, even though they are overnight. It would mean a 24 hour stop in Asia because sleep would certainly catch up with the traveller on the day flight to Australia if continuing straight on. I just base this on observations from such flights - with many passengers - moreso economy passengers - staying awake for the whole Europe-Asia flight, yet falling asleep on the connecting "day flight" from Asia to Australia which happens entirely during the night time European or "body clock" time.

The more jet lag friendly, but I'd guess vastly more expensive option would be to continue in a westerly direction - a day flight to the US, another to Hawaii and final day flight back to Australia from Hawaii.

 

[sinophile888]

I have the same concerns as your mother and step-father re daytime flights. I also wanted to limit the time of each flight.

I flew to Europe in 2011 on daytime only flights. My solution was to fly
PER -> SIN (alternative KUL) (5 hours)
SIN (KUL) -> DXB (7 hours)
DXB -> FCO (6 hours)

LHR -> DXB (7 hours)
DXB -> SIN (KUL) (7 hours)
SIN (KUL) -> PER (5 hours)

We stopped overnight in Singapore each way and for two nights in Dubai each way. One night would have been fine in Dubai west bound.

The west bound flights didn’t pose too many problems. The only alternative east bound at the time was EK as it was the one airline with a morning flight out of the UK; it left LHR at 0840.

With regards the sleep apnoea situation, there are cpap batteries which can power the cpap machine without needing a powered seat. This opens up alternative airlines which don't have all seats powered.

This Resmed battery is about the size of a Penguin novel and two can be joined with a coupler to double the battery life. A humidifier cannot be used with the battery as it drains too much power. This battery satisfies the requirements of airlines for safe use onboard.
http://www.resmed.com/ap/assets/doc...smed-power-station-ii_fact-sheet_apac_eng.pdf

Other batteries are available to suit different machines.

I hope it all works well for your mother and step-father.

 

[dairyfloss]

Thanks all - some good inputs & ideas, and I'll share with them for consideration.

In terms of the size and function of the machine, I recall it's probably the size of a laptop bag, but in an already cramped economy seat, that's a pain, even if they can get powered seats or an approved battery power source. They're just hoping to avoid it, if at all possible.

The old man generally passes out after sitting on the couch for a couple of hours, so to be honest I don't see him making it without a good kip, regardless their decision!

Thanks again.

Cheers.

 

[atreides]

AY 90 would work plus you would have enough time to connect somewhere at the other end.

AY flights are quite well priced out of BKK.

 

[Ikara]

I'd just like to say congratulations to them for thinking of others. A pity more people didn't do it. And we get ourselves into a tizzwozz about seat reclining!

FWIW

JB

 

[BABENS]

Hi as a road warrior who is currently enjoying "ground time" I found this thread of great benefit. I prefer to fly during the day on my personal time and have been looking at options for the future. Appreciate all of the help.