London to Australia

[steviedash]

Hi, I'm hoping some of you regular travellers will be able to help me here...i'm going to be travelling to Australia at the beginning of June on a standby ticket, so I need to know which routes from London are the quietest, and which airlines you guys would recommend? I think I'm going to be flying into Melbourne and the carrier options I have are BA, Virgin, Cathay and Qantas.

Any info much appreciated!

SD

[James 1077]

Can't help on which are quietest but, out of your options, I would go for Cathay followed by Virgin, followed by BA, followed by Qantas.

Is there any reason that you are limited to those 4 (ie no Singapore / Emirates)?

[SLFAussie]

I also can't help you with load factors or cabin quietness, but bear in mind that Virgin Atlantic and BA don't fly to Melbourne. With Virgin Atlantic you will have to transit via Sydney on Virgin Blue, and with BA you will either have to transit via Sydney on Qantas domestic or code share on Qantas international from one of Singapore, Bangkok or Hongkong. Even if you book a BA ticket to Singapore, Bangkok or Hongkong you might find yourself on a Qantas plane from London.

[steviedash]

Thank for the info guys. The airline I work for only has agreements with certain airlines - namely those four listed for getting across to Aus. I can be flexible when it comes to the airport I fly into - ultimate destination is Brisbane for a wedding but wanted to do a bit of exploring before and after.

[John Eacott]

I've done the trip with all 4, and would unreservedly recommend VA: 4 out of 7 return trips with them, even at the inconvenience of taking a domestic trip MEL-SYD

QF next, then BA, and Cathay a very disappointing last If you get a staff upgrade, then the UC cabin in VA's A340 is the quietest I've come across, and the beds are the most comfortable

[ptr120]

you can get an idea of the loads from the likes of seatcounter.com. If you want to go to Brisbane, go to Brisbane. You have sufficient choice of airline to get you there w/o having to fly via another Australian airport

[TightSlot]

I'm closing this - it's nothing that anybody has done. It's just that this kind of enquiry can lead to PPRuNe being overrun with similar, and so we have a policy of not running with such threads. Thanks for your understanding