dublin to sydney

[the dean]

hi folks,

have a friend going to australia from dublin later this year. etihad has been suggested via abu dabi ( as they start a dublin service i think later in the year ). i have'nt flown them.

would any of you long haulers give me your views on etihad...food, seat comfort, seat rake, service generally etc..??

also any other suggested carriers ( obviously via any other airport like LHR and british or amsterdam with klm..etc.).

this would be Y class...a not yet qualified lawyer so suggesting any other class not a runner.

many thanks in advance...:D

the dean.

[the dean]

c'mon you long haulers.
going to post again in the hope somebody offers a suggestion...:confused:

thanks.

[Tolsti]

I have done LGW-AUH-BKK return in Pearl Class (C) last year and did LHR-AUH-BKK return in Coral (Y) this May.... both trips were excellent. Food is good, AVOD gives you over 200 hrs of entertainment and games. Seating is very comfortable on both the 777 and A340s in Coral and in Pearl you have flat beds. Staff are very racially diverse and friendly. The break in AUH gives you time to stretch your legs. I am also going to use them to do a trip downunder late next year and will travel again with them later this year to AUH on a mile building trip for next year. With a return to BKK in Pearl and one in Coral I am now Silver in their FF Programme which gives lounge access and an extra 10Kgs on top of their already generous allowances. Their Customer Services Dept can be a bit slow to respond but all in all an excellent airline with good prices and service.

[gdiphil]

I travel to Sydney twice a year in cattle class. Since September 2005 I have avoided BA on all long haul flights due to their absurdly tight seat pitch and seat width. I am an average 5'10" tall, 13 stone middle aged male. Family, friends and colleagues say the same thing. No matter what the price I would only travel with them in emergencies. QF I've used alot recently and is much more comfortable, food is fine but the non Aussie staff I find peremptory bordering on rudeness. Entertainment is excellent, schedules very much to my liking. SQ is fine but their legendary service I find cold, literally, the planes are too cold for my liking. Their food I find bland and small in portions. Entertainment is good. I like Thai because the seating pitch is bigger than most but head and shoulders above all is Malaysian with respect to all issues I've mentioned. I have used JAL which I thought was fine, especially the compulsory overnight at their expense in a hotel in Osaka.

[Hotel Mode]

You'll definately get a bit more pitch on the asian airlines, but with exception of SQ, they are around 0.5in narrower than QF and BA. Bit Baffled about BA vs QF comment above, according to Seatguru, BA and QF have identical pitch to BA and BA's seats are slightly wider. Which is what my experience had been.

[Taildragger67]

Mate BA are fine - it's not a gee-wow product but it's reasonably good and consistent across the fleet. I say this from many years flying BA to all continents (except Antarctica), in all classes. They are far more consistent (generally positive) than others I've flown multiple times.

That said, I have found the ones which consistently (to me) better BA, to be Malaysian and Cathay (although my sample of trips on both is far smaller).

I have not flown Etihad or Qatar; have only flown Gulf short-haul. I have not flown Emirates for several years as I was thoroughly disappointed in all classes (except one particular trip where the IFE was showing Mad Max 2, you could have shown me that in the back of a Herc and I'd have been happy!). I think Gulf and Emirates both go into DUB these days? My wife did the EK A340-500 DUB-SYD direct thing last year and said never again, it was the worst flight of her life.

VS also go LHR-HKG-SYD in a 346 if you can put up with their super-cool approach to things (ie. cr@p service from people only hired for looks rather than giving any hoot about service; I'm clearly not cool enough) and the tightest seats in the sky.

From Dublin, you might also like to consider going via North America, eg. Aer Fungus to LAX then to Australia with QF (or UA or AC through Canada). Air NZ are said to have a great Y-cls product ex-LHR (and they go both ways - via the US and via HK).

[the dean]

ok guys,

many thanks for all the info...i will pass it on.

i think she has now booked on etihad....

but she may be interested in your kind comments for future.

muchas gracias...:D