Exchange in Europe: Introduction

In Jan 2014, I applied, and was offered a place for one semester of exchange study in the University of St Gallen, Switzerland. Although I was a little disappointed at not getting my first choice NYU, I was still looking forward to this trip.

Flight
So as ticket prices generally rise as the departure date nears, I booked my flight to Zurich way in advance.

With competition intense on the Kangaroo route, there are just too many choices, just to name a few. 

Direct
Singapore Airlines 
Swissair

Transit
Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
Qatar, Emirates/Qantas, Etihad (Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi)
Air France, KLM (Paris, Amsterdam)
Finnair (Helsinki)
British Airways (London)

So Qatar, Etihad and Finnair are charging about SGD1200 to SGD1300 for a return flight, while Lufthansa, Swissair and Singapore are charging about SGD1500 to SGD1600. Air France and British Airways are out of the question as not only are they more expensive than Singapore Airlines at more than SGD1700, they also involve a transit.

I seriously considered Singapore Airlines, since it's really comfortable and it's a direct flight on an Airbus 380. However, considering I might be spending quite a small fortune on the exchange, I thought prudent budgeting is necessary right from the beginning.

That narrows the selection down to Qatar, Etihad and Finnair. While the price is almost identical, Finnair had a much shorter transit time of slightly more than an hour, as compared to more than five hours on Qatar or Etihad. So Finnair it is.

Closer to departure I received an email from Finnair offering to upgrade me to Business Class on the Singapore to Helsinki leg for EUR348.

To be fair, this is a fairly good deal. However, I did not take it up for three reasons.

1. I am on exchange as a student and should be prudent with my spending
2. The aircraft flying the Singapore - Helsinki route features the old business class product, which is good, but not as great as the new, staggered seats
3. The flight is a red eye, and I can usually sleep well even in Economy class seats

Accommodation
Naturally, while in St Gallen, accommodation will be on campus. However, since student exchange has been traditionally a golden opportunity to travel, roaming around Europe is in order.

Considering the high costs in Europe and the extended stay, hostels are a more viable and economical option than hotels.

Fortunately, I am travelling with a group of friends who are really good with airbnb, and we booked hostels in London, Manchester and Dublin.