Advice needed on flights to "OZ"

[Vfrpilotpb]

Good evening Ppruners,

I normally hover about in the Rotorheads section, but have been advised this section could possibly provide me with some answers.

One of my sons and his pal, are approaching the end of their school life and have been given the chance to have a gap year in Sydney Australia as gap year students at a college there, they need to fly out in August 2003 and return July 2004, in order to put Mrs Vfrs mind at rest I need to try to arrange this PDQ then it is just down to the wait.

What I would like is some advice from some of you heavy metal types out there on such things as :-
Is there a best Airline for this sort of destination?
Which would be the most interesting (and Safe) route to take?
what sort of offers could we expect to be given for booking ahead?
Is there any airline to avoid?
Most importantly my son and his pal are both pretty tall and heavyish, so I feel it would be important for them both to have legroom. any help at all or suggestions will be appreciated .

Many regards

Vfrpilotpb

[Sheep Guts]

One answer "QANTAS" . Go and see your travel agent for the other info, deals and advance bookings etc.
They ll have plenty leg room in First Class but youll have to fork out a Kings Ransom to get a 1st Class Seat.


regards
Sheep

P.S. Usually direct LHR to SYD or via Singapore to MEL ,BNE or even SYD aswell.

LOOK AT:
www.qantas.com.au

or try BA as they code share I believe and also use QF routes etc.

But you would get more hits if you put this in the Dunnunda forum.

[Vfrpilotpb]

Thanks a bunch Sheep, I 'll see if the mods will move me on;)

[Straight Up]

I just booked flights from MEL to Manchester (& back), and the booking agent recommended either Emirates, Singapore, QANTAS or BA.

The prices were similar for all of them (some sort of special offer on over here last weekend), a total of AUS$ 2100 ish each (that was for travel in April) which I think is about 750 to 800 quid at the current (terrible) exchange rate.
I think the prices were the same to LHR, but that may just have been because of the special offers).

We booked with Emirates, because we'd both heard they were brilliant from a variety of people (including the agent), and they weren't the most expensive.

I flew out to Oz (one way) with JAL (cheapest when I booked), and would not recommend them, the seats seemed more cramped than I was used to (I'd only done European flights before that). My girlfriend flew over with Singapore and was well impressed with the level of comfort and equipment (screens in seat backs etc, JAL only had one projection screen at the front of each section, and cr@appy films to boot).

Most opinions I've heard put Emirates or Singapore first, then QANTAS and BA, but I've never met anyone who's tried all of them!

You might also try asking in the Pax & SLF forum as well as the Dunnunda forum.

I came out here for a year about 3 years ago now, and am only going back to the UK for a holiday!

Edited to say all flights were cattle class.

[redsnail]

I have flown to Oz via BA and Qantas. There's not much between them in terms of service quality. I think you get more water being served on the QF flights. I have only flown economy with BA, economy with one sector business class with QF (thanks Feather #3)

I was told that (at the time, early 02) that not all QF 744's have tv screens in the seats. All of BA's do.

If you can, go via Singapore, a much nicer terminal and facilities than Bangkok.

Internal flights in Oz can be expensive, even with Virgin Blue around. So, weigh it up, enquire about multi stage internal flights with QF once in Oz. It might be worth the 100-200 quid extra. (esp if the kids are planning a "Sydney-Perth" trip)

Another thing, try and avoid the mega popular times to fly. You can sometimes get a few spare seats to have a kip on. The 14 hours between LHR and SIN can be boring...

Top tips. Get up and walk as often as you can. Take compression stockings (yeah I know, they look uncool but so does fat ankles). Take batteries for the walkman, ear plugs for sleep and extra water.

I haven't flown Emirates, a mate flew with Royal Brunei from Perth Oz. One extra stop that added quite a few hours to the trip + no grog.

[rodondo4]

Hi .....

I would recommend Malaysia Airlines for a number of reasons:

1. Leg room - they have the most legroom compared to other airlines. (economy class)

2. Price - one of the cheapest especially for students - try rex air (travel agents in London, my last flight to Melbourne cost me only £530 - including stopovers in KUL and SDY)

3. Modern fleet - for the journey from LHR - any Australian city, they only use B744 and B772 (if your lucky get onto the newest B774 ...weeks old)

4. Service - won best cabin crew 2002, wonderful service

I have tried BA, Singapore and Qantas.....but now i'm hooked on Malaysian.

Hope this is helpful

p.s. on most of the KUL-Australia sectors the flight is not too full, you can have 3 or even 4 seats!!! Pick the right flight!

;)

[Hobo]

We go to OZ twice a year, either JAL via Tokyo (or Osaka) or SQ via Singapore. Choose the flights so it is a morning/Midday departure from LHR. This arrives in TYO/SIN am the next day (Midnight UK time). Stay at airport hotel in Japan or airside transit hotel in SIN for 8-10 hours to sleep and then take evening local time flight to OZ. This is daytime uk time. Both these routes avoid jet lag until you get there. On the way back either morning flight up to Japan, 12 hours rest(included in ticket price in this direction with JAL) followed by day flight to uk. Or afternoon flight to SIN about 9 hours rest followed by day flight to uk. Again avoids jetlag during journey. Trailfinders (see weekend press) will get you the flights but they tend to allow min turnrounds in SIN/TYO so insist on longer stop overs as above.(Get flight times and flight numbers from the respective airline's websites) Book Sin transit hotel in advance via e-mail(see Changi airport website). No problem at TYO/Osaka, plenty of airport hotels (twin room £40pn). Avoid 2 weeks either side of christmas on both routes if poss. Similar route home available from Auckland. I've been going to OZ regularly for the last 30 years and there is no substitute for breaking the journey for 8-12 hours.

[Jetdriver]

This should have been posted in the Passengers & SLF forum. Although there are a lot of forums on PPRuNE these days and it can be difficult in selecting the most appropriate, there are too many postings that would be better directed to a travel agent.

Although this question might be directed at a professional pilot it would be better replied to from the hoardes of people who can offer specific advice on passenger related issues. The same thing applies to the folk who seem intent on announcing their holiday plans to the world and want to know the :best seat to sit in ; what the weather will be like; what is the cheapest / shortest / smoothest / most popular route/ ; what will they see from the window ; does seat 36C have more leg room than 41D ; What will be the route of flight that day , etc etc etc.

Most of these type of issues cannot really be answered with any degree of accuracy by a Professional Pilot nor are they of much interest to same. The passenger & SLF forum may have an audience (including professional pilots) who can offer a richer source of replies.

This is a brief explanation of why this thread is being moved to that forum and similar threads will be moved likewise.

[Desk Driver]

Malaysian & JAL are pretty cheap at the moment (around£499) and the fares allow a maximum stay of 1 year.

Check teletext page 223

[rsoman]

I would agree with rodondo 4 in pumping for Malaysian for all the reasons mentioned by him. The savings can be considerable for virtually the same sort of service you get with other airlines.
Plus, if you are a fan of quiet airports, then KLIA is the place
(last time I was there at 9 AM, some gates were proudly displaying signs like "THE NEXT FLIGHT FROM THIS GATE IS THE 9 PM SERVICE TO CAIRNS!!!".
Jokes apart, I have taken about 6 flights on Malaysian via Kualalumpur over the past two years and the service has been consistently good. The aircraft and airporft are relatively news, the service is efficient and on my first trip there I landed in Kuala Lumpur the day after they airline switched their reservation systems and even then they handled it efficiently (a similar switch by US airways some years back created headlines for the chaos caused all over!). Also most of the full frills you expect in airlines like Singapore and Emirates are availble in Malayisan also. All my special meals requests have beeb attended to, Also the cabin crew actually seem to enjoy their work and show it, wheich is sometimes a complaint made against its more famous neighbour where there ius a complaint that service can get a little robot like!

Cheers

[Globaliser]

Airlines
The "best" airline really depends on exactly what you want.

BA and QF run a very high quality joint operation. All flights through SIN and BKK have both BA and QF codes. All tickets for Oz are valid both for both BA and QF (which also allows easy connects through HKG, JNB, LAX and NRT, and on other SIN and BKK flights which are not codeshared). QF also distributes most widely within Oz. But for all this flexibility (which is probably unnecessary for students just going to SYD) you have to pay a price; BA/QF is usually more expensive than anyone else, although not much more than CX or SQ. Incidentally, personal TV screens are being progressively rolled out on QF so by northern summer 2003 there should be a pretty good chance of getting them on any QF aircraft flying from London to Oz.

CX and SQ are also very high quality operations, usually fractionally less expensive (GBP 10 or 20 round trip) than BA/QF. There are fewer connecting options (ie restricted to HKG and SIN respectively, and fewer spokes from each hub). They both have a reputation for good service - legendary, indeed, although sometimes mythical.

EK is probably the pick of the rest. But I would recommend that you avoid their 777s. They are configured 10-abreast in economy (against the standard 9-abreast) and are uncomfortable for anyone of average size or more. The A330s are fine. At the moment, I think EK also necessitates two stops en route - with all the airlines above you only need to stop once on the way to SYD. EK is planning non-stops from DXB to Oz, so it's worth checking their timetables for up-to-date information.

All of these airlines have pretty standard pitch. If greater pitch is needed, consider NZ via LAX. NZ's economy pitch (at about 34 inches) is 2-3 inches deeper than the usual. But the disadvantages are a longer journey time and less schedule choice.

The other thing which could be done for big people, of course, is to fly BA in World Traveller Plus. 8-abreast in a 747 as opposed to 10-abreast economy, and 37/38 inches of pitch. Sometimes you can get add-on offers - buy an economy fare and add GBP 100/150/200/300 each way to upgrade into WT+.

The prices one can get on MH may be linked to the withdrawal of other airlines from routes through KUL (which is why the airport is so empty). The allegation made by airlines which have pulled out is that MH has for years been systematically fare-dumping on routes through KUL, making it uneconomic for anyone to try to compete. Make of that what you will, but I personally wouldn't fly them - not for the fare-dumping principle, but for what it might say about the underlying operation.

Seasons and fares
I notice that travel is for August 2003. You may want to bear in mind that there is a high season for fares which lasts until about 15 August. From about 15 August to about 15 September there is a cheaper season, then the fares pick up back to the pre-15 August level. It may be that not all airlines will do this, but it is a factor worth bearing in mind (and asking the travel agent about) when choosing travel dates and comparing fares.

[Hobo]

A couple of additions to my post above. The academic year in OZ starts in January so are they not going to college for a full year?

If they are thinking of doing any travelling they might consider staying south of about BNE from Dec to April/May to avoid the wet season.

One method not mentioned above, which we have used twice, is to fly on a BA special offer to TYO, and get your Japan-OZ-Japan tickets as a special offer from a Japanese travel agent. This can be done through English speaking travel agents in Tokyo via e-mail. They will post the tickets to the UK. You lose out on the exchange rate as you have to pay in Yen but at certain times of the year we have found this cheaper. (This gets round the crazy rule that, say, JAL aren't allowed to sell you a ticket in the uk that doesn't originate here.)

edited for spelling! (0/10 see me.)

[Vfrpilotpb]

Jetdriver,
Thank you for the move, I did seek advice before posting and I also realise that Pprune is not really a travel agency forum, but as Mrs Vfr was withholding certain rights untill I had obtained all available info for her little bundle of joy I had to act PDQ,

To the rest of you Ppruners who have given the info, a very big thank you, I now have at least a starting point with which to ask at the local travel place,

Many Regards to you all,

Peter R-B
Vfrpilotpb

[christep]

Definitely have a look at CX. Also consider how much you could almost certainly save by buying their tickets to start from continental Europe rather than the UK. For example, I think you would find that buying an Easyjet/Ryan/whoever cheapo ticket to Amsterdam/Paris/Rome and then taking CX to Aus from there via HKG would be significantly cheaper than buying tickets to start in the UK which is one of the most expensive countries in the world for airfares.

As an example, CX offers its "Pass Asie" from Paris for 1450 Euros (960 GBP) which would offer round trip CDG - AUS with stopovers each way in HKG PLUS a side trip either on the way out or the way back to any destination that CX or KA fly to from HKG. There is full flexibility to change dates / times of flights. See (in French):

http://www.cathaypacific.com/fr/offers/local/0,,39696-44129,00.html

(ignore the validity date - it was still available when last I checked a few weeks ago)

Consider also a round the world ticket which can sometimes be had for not much more than a round trip to Oz, and which could give them the opportunity to see many more places.

I have always found Trailfinders (http://www.trailfinders.co.uk ) to be pretty good at sorting out long haul deals.

Note that you will never find tickets with a validity of longer than one year so you might need to do it in two halfs somehow.

[Desk Driver]

BA / QF TO AUSTRALIA FROM £777
(Including 4 Free Stopovers)

Book before 10 March 2003

Departures between: 20 APR - 15 JUN 2003

Destination = SYDNEY / MELBOURNE / BRISBANE / ADELAIDE / CAIRNS / DARWIN / PERTH / AUCKLAND / CHRISTCHURCH / WELLINGTON

Stopover points are: Frankfurt / Paris / Rome / Singapore / Bangkok / Perth / Darwin / Sydney / Melbourne / Brisbane / Adelaide / Cairns / Auckland / Christchurch / Wellington / Tokyo / Los Angeles / New York

OR

MALAYSIAN AIRLINES
FROM: LONDON (HEATHROW) / MANCHESTER
To: SYDNEY / MELBOURNE / BRISBANE / ADELAIDE / PERTH

NOT VALID ON MH 1&2

16 MAY 03 – 15 JUN 03 £469

Free flights within Malaysia available with stopover package

Conditions apply

 VALID FOR SALE: up to 17th February2003

 STOPOVER: permitted in Kuala Lumpur in both directions. Plus 1 online in Australia.


I hope this helps you get your "Rights" back