How To : Malaysian Do Europe : Part 5

Summary of the earlier How-tos:

: Pick the Destination> France, Spain, Italy
: Shortlist the Places> Paris, Rome, Venice, Barcelona
: Select the Dates> Autumn

Next step would be to select how to fly there and travel around. This is important because the selected few places are few hundred kms away from each others. Previously, before knowing the low cost carrier, the options will be bus and train.

4) Select the flight

But first, lets review how to fly to Europe from Malaysia. Of course there are many options, from choosing the Asean, Europe or Middle Eastern airlines. The cost level would roughly be Europe > Asean > Mid East. The lowest I found was Gulf Air. But there was not flexibility of changing the flight schedule. It will be either go-n-enjoy, or no go-n-burned your ticket. Return ticket to Paris cost roughly RM2.9K/pax.

The best deal I found was from Qatar Airways (www.qatarairways.com). There were few factors that pushed me to choose them; good connections in Europe, transit time, open-jaw availability and the most important, price. At least, it was within the budgeted cost. The price I got was RM3.5k/pax. But nowadays, you have much more options. I believe the lowest price you can find could be from Airasia. Bear in mind, do factor in the seat booking, meal booking and baggage check-in. It could be in the range of RM1.5K ~ 1.8K to London via KL.

For me, the priority list should be price > open jaw > connection. Open jaw was important because I need to move around few countries, without having to go back to my original destination. At least, a flight saved can let us have an extra or better meal.

Checking for the connection and seats online can be a tedious thing. You need a calendar, pen and notepad for notes taking. These stuff helps you to plan the connection with the best price at the best possible time.

For Qatar Airways, flight bound for Europe will transit in Doha, its capital. The duration varied, depending which direction you are going to. For our flight from Doha to Paris, our transit time was only 1 hr. This was a crucial point for us to consider, since we try to reach Paris as early as possible. But for our return flight from Doha to KL, the transit time was 7 hrs, leaving only at 3.30am. This was a bad choice, but we accepted it because we wanted to end our Euro league in Rome.