Best airline to fly back to Europe?

[$Pripps]

I have looked at KLM, SIA, LH and SAS for flying home to Europe, seems SIA is the more pricier of the four options and KLM the cheapest, and they fly every day. I was wondering if somebody has flown with KLM (2 adults 1 toddler) - any good?

[Try Middle Eastern]

Try Qatar, Ettihad or Emirates.  I think you get a better deal and better service. 

I haven't flown KLM from Singapore but had a return flight from Amsterdam to Vancouver a few years ago and thought they were rubbish.

[Even]

A lot also depends on your final destination bearing in mind you arrive in Germany with LH and Amsterdam with KLM for example. You'll then have an onward somewhere.

Of the four you mention it would be between SIA and SAS but what's your definition of best? Best timing, best service, best price (definately not SQ on that score) or best IFE?

SIA and SAS i think have the better legroom/space in economy and newer aircraft and i don't think KLM have improved that much in recent years....and they were rubbish a few years ago.

If you do the stop-over in the middle east, Qatar would be my choice.

[transiter]

If you're not going to be flying non-stop, then the airport you're going to be connecting through would be a decisive factor.

So, for that reason avoid Lufthansa (Frankfurt) and Air France (CDG) and gravitate towards KLM.

Having said that, if you don't want to pay SIA prices, I'd favour Malaysia Air - transitting through KLIA is fine, and onboard they're excellent....more legroom than anyone else and generally excellent cabin crew (much better than the good, but slightly impersonal SIA crew).

[Codeshare]

Luft Hansa also fly to Munich from Singapore.  Isn't that a code share with Singapore Airlines?

[PaulDeb]

I'm flying back to London on Wednesday using Emirates for the first time. But just me, no kids.

I guess maybe if you have children you might like to go non-stop which limits your options. Or then again breaking the trip up maybe good too? 7+hrs to Dubai, 1.5hr transit and 7+ to Heathrow.

Emirates use the 777ER and A380 for these trips, but a slightly different seating configuration to SQ whom I've always used but it seems that their prices are just going up and up, the difference being almost S$700 for my trip, which in my book is a few weeks car hire :-)

We will see...!

[Mystery]

I prefer Emirates...good service, good connections and very competitive price...

am a little biased though as I used to live in Dubai....still Skywards Gold member and get frequently upgrade to business.....

something which will never happen at SIA :-((

[KLM]

no one has ever had anything good to say about KLM and if you've ever spent anytime in The Netherlands, you would know that they don't 'do' service!

[$Pripps]

no one has ever had anything good to say about KLM and if you've ever spent anytime in The Netherlands, you would know that they don't 'do' service!

noted, but then they are 800 SGD cheaper than if I would fly with SQ when flying to Copenhagen via Amsterdam.

I also don't like Frankfurt, its the worst transit airport ever, long queues and often very chaotic because they seem always to building somewhere. Don't remember how Munich was, have only been there once.

Maybe I will check out Qatar also, emirates I looked at but they seemed quite pricey.

Thanks all for your feedback!

[Munchener]

Munich airport is very nice.  New, clean and efficient.

[KLM]

It depends what you mean by pricey.  When i booked flights for 2 adults & 3 children to London, SIA was 10k.  Emirates was 5.5k.  Guess what i booked.  Staying over to break the journey and help with the jetlag one way and a three night stop over on the way back still brings it in well under 10k.   If you book early enough you should get some savings.  For me though, when travelling with children, cost is by no means my first consideration, in fact it's really low on the list.  I would rather sacrifice something else than spend 13 hrs with surly cabin crew and reduced leg room!

[$Pripps]

Well when I looked the other day emirates where 9k and SIA was 5.6k so that is what I mean with pricey. But I agree the less hassle and better service is worth the price but I find SIA is just getting worse and worse in that. So far we have always flown with SIA but are now considering other options, seems for us SAS would be the best option. We looked at Qatar also but flying out at 2:20 am and then 2h in Dubai didn't seem like a good choice even though the flight was only 4k considering we would have a toddler to carry around.

[tuttut]

Who cares about spending 12 hrs in the company of a crew that might not have the exact same standards of manners and service as seen throughout Asia if you can save several hundreds of dollars? I wouldn't! It's only 12 hours. Nothing wrong with KLM.

[Luft Hansa?]

I have only had short European flights with them.  How are they for long haul?

[Kollette]

We haven't flown long-haul with KLM but we did fly with them to and from SIN-DPS (Singapore-Bali) with the flight originating in Amsterdam.

It was a new and spacious B-777 with a very large individual TV screen in economy class and a full meal service (with free alcohol). The price was very close to flying the same route with Jetstar.

The KLM plane was certainly much better than the old SQ jumbo jet I'd been on a couple of weeks earlier on the New York JFK-Frankfurt-Singapore route which had a very cramped seat and tiny seatback TV screen.