Trip to Oz - Who with and why?

[IainB]

Me and the boss are going to Oz to celebrate a landmark birthday and I'd like to know which airlines would be best to use, where to stopover (don't fancy doing the trip in one hop) and whether business class is a useful upgrade on this type of flight.

What I don't want is my luggage shipped off to God knows where or to be treated like cattle.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.:8

[Flightman]

VIR business class, via HK. :ok:

[Loxley]

If you live in Cumbria, check out Singapore Airlines from Manchester! Means you avoid Heathrow (which can only be a good thing!) and you can get to Oz with just one stop in Singapore which is a cracking place to stay for a couple of nights en-route! Their Business Class (and yes for a trip like that to Oz it's DEFINATELY worth going Business Class, especially if it's for a special occasion!) is also one of the best around!

[Flitefone]

I'm a regular long haul user. My lessons learnt (ff miles excepting)

a) Avoid LHR, AMS, FRA, CDG if you want to keep your bagagge and reduce the chance of delays.
b) Avoid Emirates via Dubai, it's a zoo these days and increasingly suffering from Runway and Terminal capacity problems at peak times
c) Avoid anything routing via the US,for several reasons.
d) Try to depart UK in the morning for an evening arrival in Oz -straight to bed for a decent kip during the local night after the long flight - rather than a UK evening dep which puts you into Oz for breakfast and an attempt at rest during the daylight on your arrival.
e) Etihad and Qatar are good for service, space, new aircraft and flights that are not usually full. They also use hubs in the Gulf that are not crowded or complex. Low fares and just one stop from LON/MAN too.

[akerosid]

Coincidentally, just planning the same myself - not a landmark birthday. Just doing a spot check to make sure Australia is still where it's supposed to be!

Anyway, a few options I'm looking at:

SIA : A380 operating from SIN to SYD (and next month from LHR to SYD, but you could fly from MAN and still get the 380 from SIN)

I wouldn't like to have to connect through LHR, but if you're flying from there, it's not AS bad - certainly no picnic. Consider Malaysia, via KL. Great airline service-wise and Kuala Lumpur is a frequently overlooked but beautiful city. KL airport very modern and user-friendly too.

If you want to fly with some style but don't want to go Business Class, BA and Virgin have Premium Economy Class, which is very nice. Haven't tried BA's product, but VS's is very good. As Flightman pointed out above, you could do a lot worse than VS via HKG.

[baps]

Done the trip many times and flown with different airlines in both cattle class and business. Would highly recommend the likes of Cathay, Singapore airlines and malaysian Airlines. All have fantastic service and HK, singapore and KL are all great places to stop. Would also recommend Emirates. You can go from a number of UK airports and although Dubai airport becoming a bit of a nightmare if you're in Business you can go to the lounges (although these can be a bit crowded in peak times but have great food!!!) Would avoid BA (lots of miserable cabin crew) and personally wouldn't advise etihad. Not sure where they got their reputation from but did not have a very good journey with them in economy - rubbish food and cabin crew that really didn't seem to know what they were doing (perhaps business class is better). Not flown with Virgin but could be ok also. Definately advise business if you can because it really is a long trip.

Good luck!

[mphysflier]

If the cost isn't prohibitive I'd strongly recommend business class, and avoiding LHR if you can. This narrows it down to Singapore Air or Etihad from Manchester. Have travelled with both - Singapore are the top choice (great service, AVOD, food) but cost more, whilst Etihad have lovely new A345s with great lie-flat beds, but the cabin crew can be anything from fantastic to pretty clueless (it's pot luck). Singapore is great for a stopover and HOT in a humid kind of way, Abu Dhabi is more um..interesting, and HOT in a damned hot kind of way!

If LHR doesn't put you off, then Malaysian and Cathay would be good choices too.

[Rush2112]

SIA business class, the only choice. That said, the space beds on the 747s are getting a bit tired and are not as good as the new ones on the 777ERs and 380s but still OK. IFE is pretty good, the food is good and the service usually first rate.

Stopover in Singapore is a good idea, SIA often have some deals for cheap rates at hotels here for one or two nights (and that's about long enough here!).

CX is meant to be pretty good and HKG is a great place to visit but can be a bit daunting if on your own and never been before.

[pax britanica]

If you are splashing the cash check out one of the web sites that specialises in Biz class deals theres bound to be one airline 'on sale ' out of all the options . Wife and I did the same a few years back and flew business/first Lauda/Austrian via KL- fantastic but sadly I think Os pulled their Sydney flight end of last year.

If on more of a budget Malaysian are good and a bit underated comapred to CX and Singapore and KL is an interesteing place BUT main reason for MS is 34 inch pitch in economy vs the normal 32 and those two inches make all the difference -as the actress said to .............

[gdiphil]

Last September I used Asiana thru Seoul and was very impressed by them. Very clean aircraft and kept clean thru-out each sector. A 4 hour wait going out and overnight coming back which broke the journey very nicely. I've used JAL thru Tokyo and Osaka and have found the 6 hour wait going out and the overnight back very satisfactory way of breaking up the journey. I tend to use Qantas generally speaking, the entertainment, food and beer is to my taste. BA are definitely a no-no in economy. Too cramped. I've never tried them in club. I've used TG in first, business and economy and found them just fine. MH are also good in economy and business. I notice Air Canada are coming up with some good deals but I don't know what they are like these days, although I will find out in May on a Nashville-Toronto-LHR trip in economy.

[UniFoxOs]

Can't agree with Flitefone point d) above - last year self and SWMBO flew into MEL arriving about 0800, both around 60 so not as resilient as we were, attempted to stay awake the full day, made it to about 1900, slept until about 0700 and back to normal with virtually no jetlag.

I also have to say re point b) that we went EK via DXB (because we could go from BHX, 20 mins down the road) and were very satisfied with the service and the connection wait at DXB, although we will not be going that way again - apparently we can be arrested there as we take codeine painkillers and we are together while not being married, so we won't be taking that risk.

We paid for upgrade to Premium Economy on our last hols (Egypt) and found it well worth while - but that upgrade also included airport lounge passes as well, made the airport waiting much easier. I have to say, though, that if your regular experience of flying is loco/charter, you will find that standard economy on the majors (well EK certainly) is pretty good - with the individual seat-back IFE, free after-dinner brandies etc., the flight passed pretty quickly.

UFO

[Miraz]

I usually plan for an evening arrival at either end if possible - whilst you can sometimes get off the plane and make it through the first day, it isn't much fun and you feel like death warmed up.

If you are looking at business or premium options then check the prices on round the world fares - they are usually the same sort of money as a straight return and give you more options on stop overs and routing.

Try coming out via South Africa, then returning via Japan or the US.

[Alex 009]

QF32 from Heathrow (sorry)...gets you in Sydney close enough to bedtime or a night out on the town :}

[Monkeytoo]

The three choices I would go for are either Singapore, Cathay or Etihad..............................just take the cheapest one of these three. As someone said Etihad Business can be a bit of lottery crew wise but they have the BEST lie flat seats - the service on Singapore or Cathay is exemplary - so 'service' or 'seats' only you can chose which is more important but I would also suggest that a for a trip of that length business class would be a must :8

[Rush2112]

The other thing to remember UniFoxOs about arriving early am after a long haul flight is that you almost never get an early check in at the hotel (even when specifically requested!) :mad: and you can't even freshen up or get changed. Much better to arrive early evening if you can.

We usually get in early am, but last month SIN - CDG the only flight got us in at 2000, picked up a hire car, drove for a couple of hours, found a motel (not hard in France), bed by 2330 and up at normal time, almost onto frog time already. Will definately look to do that again when we go back later in the year.

[thelummox]

Maaate.....................
If you're going to all the effort to come this far, you'd be as mad as a hatter not to break the trip in Singers or Hong Kong for a few days and really make a trip of it. Having experienced quite a few carriers of recent years I'll avoid Qantas as they are trading on reputation and not service anymore - not bad, just not what they used to provide. For my money, rather than someone elses, I really appreciate the service that Cathay offered - And now I'd fly Cathay with the company's money too, where possible.

But don't let the chance to spend a few days in Honkers, or conversely Singapore, go by. And it sure as hell beats 20 plus hours in the same seat.......If you stop over both ways, you get an extra two holidays thrown in.............

[IainB]

I did BA economy a couple of years back on LHR to Miami and wouldn't be anxious to repeat the experience. That coupled with their unenviable reputation on baggage...

Sat next to a lady on a NCL to LHR connecting flight last year who didn't extol the virtues of the Oz flag carrier either. That leaves the sandy people or asian airlines and I'll be tapping up one of my colleagues to find out who he used on his Oz trip last year. He did say the FA's were stunning, though!

Seat will probably be the most important factor, with price also in the mix - don't want to pay stupid money. With the wealth of choice on offer, I'll probably get someone like Trailfinders to handle the booking and itinerary for me. Any thoughts on this would also be appreciated.

Thanks for the info so far, you can always rely on Ppruners!!

:ok:

[1DC]

If you are able to fly in and out of Brisbane then EVAair are very good value in business class.Nice aircraft and good food, you can stop off in Bangkok and/or Taiwan..

[UniFoxOs]

Good point, Rush. We were staying in Melbourne with a mate, collected us from the airport, had a coffee in a local cafe to wait for the rush hour to die down, drove us to his pad, all very relaxed. Might well have been different if we had to hassle for a hire car, drag luggage to it, learn a new style of driving and find our way out of the airport etc.. very stressful.
UFO