The best Qantas/British Airways flights to London via Hong Kong

Planning to travel to London via Hong Kong with Qantas? With the Red Roo axing its flights from Hong Kong to London, you'll need to transfer to a British Airways flight for the second and longer leg of your journey.

But pick your BA connection carefully, because your Club World business class experience can be significantly more private, restful and productive if you choose the right flight.

Upstairs on a 747, for example, window seats have extra storage bins, and there are no middle seats.

While all the flights have Club World's fully flat seats, the cabin layout can make a big difference to your 13-hour journey.

Upstairs in the quiet upper deck of a 747 is a much better experience than being in the main cabin of a 777.

On a 777, though, or downstairs in a 747, there are middle seats, less room and it feels less exclusive.

If you're connecting to London Heathrow via Hong Kong, you have three options on the BA side:

• BA25/BA26: runs daily, on a Boeing 747
• BA27/BA28: daily, Boeing 777-300ER
• BA21/BA22: three times weekly during some peak periods, Boeing 777-200ER

So which is the best?

BA25/26 is our recommendation. The business class seats on BA's Boeing 747-400 are quieter, there are no middle seats there's less "walking through the cabin"-type disturbance. The flight also gets into London earlier, so you'll have enough time to clear customs before freshening up in the arrivals lounge (which we recently reviewed) before continuing on with your day.

BA27/28 is the second best of the lot. It's got the newest Club World seats, which are the same style, but which have incremental improvements to the in-flight entertainment and feel a little bit more solid. (Note that BA27/28 are on a 747 on some dates in late May, making those flights an even better pick then.)

BA21/22 is an occasional extra "peak time" flight that occasionally appears during high-volume travel periods, and is the one to avoid. It has older Club World seats in a wider cabin that has middle seats.

How the timetables stack up

Hong Kong connections aren't planned for straight through transits like the Qantas-BA joint venture hub in Singapore is.

But if you're a fan of Hong Kong, and you want to stop off for meetings, a day in HK or for a weekend, here's the Qantas/BA schedule onwards to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane for your reference.

(Bear in mind that hours may shift slightly around the end of March since UK clocks go forward for British Summer Time on 25 March. We've quoted the times after the daylight savings change.)

Other options to Hong Kong include Cathay Pacific's flights, which include four daily returns from Sydney, two daily returns from Melbourne, and roughly eight flights a week from Brisbane. 

Hong Kong-London

• BA26 leaves Hong Kong at 2315 and arrives in Heathrow at 0450 the next day.
• BA28 leaves Hong Kong at 2345 and arrives in Heathrow at 0540 the next day.
• An additional flight, BA22, runs in some peak periods at varying times, usually around an 0900 departure, arriving into Heathrow around 1500.

London-Hong Kong

• BA25 leaves Heathrow at 1830 and arrives in Hong Kong at 1300 the next day.
• BA27 leaves Heathrow at 2200 and arrives in Hong Kong at 1650 the next day.
• An additional flight, BA21, runs in some peak periods at varying times, usually around a noon departure, arriving into Hong Kong at around 0700 the next morning.

Sydney-Hong Kong

• Qantas QF127 leaves Sydney at 1040 and arrives in Hong Kong at 1800 the same day. 
• Qantas QF87 leaves Sydney at 1425 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, and arrives in Hong Kong at 2200.

Hong Kong-Sydney

• QF128 leaves Hong Kong at 2005 and arrives in Sydney at 0720 the next day.
• QF88 leaves Hong Kong at 2330 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays and arrives in Sydney at 1050 the next day.

Melbourne-Hong Kong

• QF29 leaves Melbourne at 1415 and arrives in Hong Kong at 2145.
• QF30 makes the return journey from Hong Kong at 1855 and arrives in Melbourne at 0605 the next day.

Brisbane-Hong Kong

• QF97 leaves Brisbane at 1205 and arrives in Hong Kong at 1900.
• QF98 leaves Hong Kong at 2055 and arrives in Brisbane at 0735 the next morning.

Of course, airline schedules change, so refer to British Airways' timetable for flights on the Hong Kong-London leg and Qantas' timetable from Australia to HKG for the very latest information.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.