http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-...0311-8uoy.html

What's also good about Air Asia is their one way tickets are as they should be: half the price of a return.

But the seating is pretty cramped...

It kind of forces one to have a stop over in KL each way, which isnt such a bad thing. Anything less than a 3 hour interchange would be cutting it a bit fine.

How much extra is it on average for the extra stop over each way ?

Even that is risky.....I had a look at the schedules and the A340 operating STN-KUL is in the air average about 20 hours each day.....if it picks up delay, well it keeps it & keeps adding to it.....no back up plan.

Whereas my mates were flying into Sydney from SIN last week on Singapore Airlines.....their A380 went tech.....no problem SIA laid on another one!

I very much doubt anyone will be paying $1000 return to Aus anyway.

Who owns AirAsia X? I am always a little worried about 'minor' airlines. Call me a hopeless snob but Air Garunda and Air Ethiopia never quite appeal...

From Wiki:

The entrance of two new major investors has given the company more financial aids for the expansion plan.

As of 14 February 2008, AirAsia X is 48%-owned by Aero Ventures (a venture of Tony Fernandes and several of his business associates), followed by 16% Virgin Group and 16%-owned by AirAsia. Bahrain-based Manara Consortium and Japan-based Orix Corp have taken a total 20 percent stake in long haul low-cost carrier AirAsia X Sdn Bhd for RM250 million.[20]

Not sure how they are doing generally......my KL - Gold Coast just after Xmas was half empty. And they certainly didn't do their best to make extra dollars by not having any beer onboard!

I've flown Garuda, UK to Bali. The plane in Bali broke and we had to stay another day as, even though they're Indo-based, they couldn't find a replacement. We did end up travelling back first class, but of course it was Garuda first class.

I think we're about to book SIA for our September trip. $5.8k for two but we can do the A380 all the way.

Branson owns a stake so it can't be back by small players.

International flight ...no beer = frick that. I would pay more just to have access to the trolley in those long hours mid air.

Beer is on the menu, Heineken I think.....they just didn't have any onboard at all.

Nasty white wine served in a polystyrene cup really didn't cut it - I did try!

I got one of those take the child for free offers from Qantas...I know Quantas...sigh. I think it totalled up to $4800 for two adults and a child.
Back in Blighty in June....yippee!

I priced up the same trip with BA, with a stopover in Sg on the way back, and the saving really was minimal. I'll look at Qantas but I would imagine it's much the same as BA.

This will be the first time in years we've paid for flights. Hmm, would I prefer my husband not to do so much business travel or would I prefer free trips? Tough call. (We've even lost the extra 20kg luggage allowance, and that hurts. The shopkeepers of Leeds will suffer, too.)

To be honest flying economy to the UK with any airline is like being stuck on a glorified bus for 24 hours!

It will be interested to see how the likes of Qantas/ BA deal with the new airlines. Probably nothing as usual and then wonder why they are struggling to compete.

Qantas is flying the A380 to London as well now though.....BA's planes are somewhat antique at the moment!

My friend who works for SIA has been on the Qantas A380 and reckons it's much better setup than the SIA one.....QF service though....hit 'n' miss.

The majority of the Qantas fleet is very old and tired apart from the A380. Given the choice I would always fly with Singapore over Qantas.