Getting to Kunming

[onebir]

I should be flying from London in a few weeks. Kunming is kind of remote; when I checked skyscanner.net the options were mostly... unpromising.

 

I thought perhaps I might somehow be missing cheaper/more convenient routes - if so, please let me know!

[ChTTay]

You could fly to somewhere like Guangzhou or Shenzhen then book a separate flight to Kunming. Even somewhere like Beijing or Shanghai...

When I went to Kunming I flew from Guilin but I was already in the middle of a China trip.

[Guest realmayo]

In the past I've wondered about the newish direct London-Chengdu route on BA which sometimes looks quite good value, followed by an internal flight from Chengdu. Probably saves some time instead of flying all the way to the east or the south coast and then flying back to Kunming.

[abcdefg]

I fly from the US each year, so I cannot be of much help on London routes. But I always change planes in Hong Kong or Guangzhou or Shenzhen. Try my best to avoid having to come through Beijing or Shanghai.

 

One tip that might be useful is that Hong Kong Express is a fairly new budget airline with non-stop flights between Hong Kong and Kunming. It does not always show up when using the big consolidator booking sites. Very low fares, usually about half of what the majors charge. (I have no personal experience with them.)

 

http://www.hkexpress.com/en-hk

[Angelina]

There is a new high-speed railway (高铁) now, you can fly to Shanghai and then buy a train ticket to Kunming. 

 

edit

 

No, it is not ready, only available from Shanghai to Guiyang, the rest of the high-speed railway is being built. 

 

 

from 12306.cn

https://kyfw.12306.cn/otn/leftTicket/init

[onebir]

Thanks folks - HK/HKexpress in particular seems like a good option I didn't know about. Might beat London-Chengdu + flight/train.

[roddy]

China Eastern flies Paris CDG > Kunming, if that helps. Also might be worth looking at routes via Thailand, there's a lot of Bangkok-Kunming flights, among others. 

[onebir]

Srilankan Airlines does london-colombo-kunming (lhr-cmb-kmg) several times a week for about $380 - ie similar to the cheaper flights to the coastal cities, without extra expense for onward travel &/ mix & matching airlines/transport modes.

 

20 hour trip with 5 1/2 hours wait in Colombo. Booked it for next week, arriving early morning Saturday 3rd Sept. Remind me to review it if interested

[abcdefg]

That looks like a good choice, especially at such a low price. Is the timing such that you will be able to get out of the airport and have a quick look at the city? The 5 1/2 hours would go by quicker if that's feasible.

 

I've never flown Sri Lankan Airlines, but they get decent reviews: http://www.airlinequality.com/airline-reviews/srilankan-airlines/

 

昆明欢迎你！