One hop flights to Shanghai

Can anyone recommend any routes/carriers for getting to Shanghai from Dubln without stopping in Heathrow ? I accept that I will have to stop somewhere, but anywhere is better than Heathrow. Unfortunately when I look at the various booking engines about 95% of the routings provided are via LHR and the other 5% are hard to spot.

I know there are routings via Amsterdam & Paris, but surely there must be some more ? I have checked out routings via the middle east - Aer Lingus, Gulf Air & Etihad have flights from Dublin now - but it seems that Shanghai is not well served from the region. Seems a bit odd for what is Chinas largest or second largest city.

z

p.s. Etihad don't have Dublin fights now, but they will by the time I need to fly.

Go thru Paris would be a good options, via Amesterdam can be more expensive.
flying thru Gulf or more alternative route may take up extra hours and hassle u don't want

i would say the route was designed by the airlines company,
according to profitability and not the destination itself.

Via Frankfurt with Lufthansa is probably cheapest, but they are not meant to be good on long haul.

Via AMS with KLM is the best airport for transfers, flew this last year on a 747 which is quite dated inside. They were due to upgrade the interior to add new seats and seatback screens but do not know if this has happened yet.

Via CDG with Air France is a bad airport (too big and complex) but AF fly new 777 with good inflight experience. This is vital on a +10hr flight.

Any of the middle eastern airlies will give a top class inflight service so I wold tend towards them.


Sooner or later though, EvilDoctorK will turn up with the definitive answer!!

Apart from the above mentioned options

How about Scandinavian via Copenhagen - for a nice one stop run - Copenhagen is a nice easy airport to connect at - but I think they're dropping Shanghai from the end of March so if you're not going soon this mightn't work.

Lufthansa go from Munich as well as Frankfurt to Shanghai (the Munich flight has better timings than their frankfurt flights - but then Lufthansa dont' fly Dublin -Munich so might be a bit more akward to arrange)

Austrian used to go from Vienna to Shanghai, but have dropped it now I think.

Finnair go from Helsinki to Shanghai too - mightn't be as crazy as you think as it's kind of on the way in great circle route terms (but connections from Dublin seem to only work in one direction)

I guess you could go via the middle east too - but that would be the long-ish way roung

Whatever way you get to Shanghai you must take the Maglev train into town from Pudong airport - it's awesomely fast quite amazing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train

Thanks for the answers people. I had a look at the Finnair site, but unfortunately their DUB flight stops in September and we are planning on going later in the year. I decided to put in some dates in September to get indicative pricing, and it initially looked like quite good value - €624. But then my eyes focussed clearly and I saw it was in fact €6243 . . . . hmm. I'll keep researching the Amsterdam & Paris options and anything else that comes up.

z

Bit Expensive alright ... they've got good fares out of London on Finnair to China - but I guess they've not got any good fares ex Dublin so the pricing isn't working out !