allturnleft

the_real_a

May or may not be useful depending on your disposition to change planes (or ability incorporate into another trip) - Qatar does a fifth freedom from Baku (QR 252) for very little BA miles.

ratypus

BA to Moscow, connect to S7 - but long connection and I think a Russian visa hassle?

Qatar looks the best option - some good connections on offer most days: 1-2 hours on the LHR flights, and 2.5 hours on the LGW flights: not too bad.

Still not a very direct way to get to Tblisi, but QR is a nice enough way to travel if you have to go on OneWorld.

jerry a. laska

You could route through DOH with QR leaving LHR in the morning and arriving TBS around midnight. There are some overnight options also. I think I would forego trying to fly OW.

Travelling Inspector

I looked into this recently and the option with the shortest overall timing was Turkish from Gatwick via Istanbul.

makin'miles

flatlander

If only BA could get a bunch of slots at another airport in London, perhaps a competitor might collapse... it's a dream!

EvilDoctorK

Tried to put something together this summer to go to Georgia ( apart from Tblisi wanted to go to https://www.designhotels.com/hotels/...-hotel-kazbegi ) but it was almost impossible to find flights that don't arrive and/or depart from Tblisi at terrible hours of the night

Georgian Airlines doesn't show up on Google flights or ITA .. but they do fly to Gatwick from Tblisi a couple of times a week .. the inbound flight is okay , the outbound awful timings - No idea what they are like [ They also fly to some other European cities as well , but their website is fairly primitive ] .. Wizz Air also fly to somewhere in Georgia (not Tblisi) from Luton once or twice a week , but 5 hours on Wizzair ....

As noted above Air Ukraine via Kiev or Turkish via Istanbul were the only vaguely reasonable options with sensible timings ... closest BA will get you is Istanbul or Kiev , but flights from either to Tblisi seemed pretty pricey if bought separately.

Going via Doha is a bit silly given the very extended journey time , and it was very expensive too ..

Overall I'd love to go , but decided to shelve the idea until I could find better timed flights .. definitely on 'the list'

Globaliser

BA not only considered it, but did - albeit (IIRC) as a route acquired with BD: https://www.businesstraveller.com/ne...minal-changes/

mckma8

Went through the same debate earlier this year, the lack of reasonable flights was almost a deal breaker, but we ended up booking the Georgian Airlines flights, mostly for price and duration reasons. As you say the flight times on the way over were terrible but otherwise it was…. fine.

However the destination more than made up for it, couldn’t recommend it more.

Jetstreamer

This is one destination where you should just forget Oneworld (and pretty much anyone else) and fly TK!

Alternatively Wizzair fly to Kutaisi for next to nothing which is at least in the right country, although they fly from a place called Luton, whatever that is.

Agree with others that TBS is a great place to visit and it is only a matter of time before one of the major LCCs fly there from the UK and it really takes off as a long weekend destination.

Prospero

My interest in Tbilisi has also been piqued - inspired by Joanna Lumley's Silk Road Adventure. My initial planning tends towards TK via IST but I'll be staying clear of that option for the next 6 months

EvilDoctorK

Yeah, those flight times (especially with kids) were just a deal breaker for they Georgian Airlines option .. will definitely look again in the future, seemed like an amazing place to visit

orbitmic

Indeed, it stopped a while ago unfortunately, then they stopped Baku too.

So indeed, QR can work if you absolutely must on QR or S7 but this is both more inconvenient and more expensive. Georgian Airlines is by far the easiest choice from London, followed by TK with multiple daily flights, then way, way, further down the pecking order are the likes of LH, LO, and SU - though if like me your SU to TBS gets cancelled and you don't have a Russian visa, expect hell (so personally I'd avoid S7 and SU at all cost next time).

BA6501

The fifth freedom is no more, as far as I know. It looks like QR252 does operate as such, but the flight hasn't actually operated in a while. TBS-DOH is nonstop up to 3x daily.