Re: Airline recomendations
 

Flew with JAL, and flight was fantastic, the crew were great, the only complaints were the hotel they put us up in when we landed in Tokyo wasn't the cleanest and they are now not allowing prebooking of seats at check-in, so since we are a family of 5 it has put us off booking them again.

We have booked with Emirates, mainly because they are now flying from Glasgow, via Dubai and Singapore, and a couple of people i know who have flown with them praised them very highly. Also there call centre was extremely helpful when we had to change our flight details, they didn't charge us the £50 per person cancellation fee when they could have as the change was our fault.

Would never fly BA. having flown witht them in the past, the service was abysmal. A few of my friends were flying to Munich to meet me for the oktoberfest and had booked the flight with BA. 15 hour, yes 15 hour delay and thats flying Glasgow-Bristol-Munich. Apparently there weren't enough seats taken so they never bothered flying out of Glasgow, stuck mymates on a KLM flight to Schipol where they had to get a Lufthansa connection. Great stuff when your going to the beerfest for 3days and end up spending 1 dya inGlasgow/Schipol airport. Thanks BA.

Re: Airline recomendations
 

HI
We flew via Singapore with Singapore Airlines due to both the competitive price and the feedback on this site. We booked an extra seat for our son - then 13 months and he slept nearly all the way here in his car seat - recommend doing this to any parent of a chid this age. The service was great, food good (some of it Gordon Ramsey apparently!), wine good, films good plus we got extra legroom after e-mailing them direct as we were travelling with a baby. Add to that a great stopover in an excellent hotel
Susan

Re: Airline recomendations
 

I have flown with both Singapore airlines and BA/Qantas (always economy/cattle class).

On my initial trip from Australia to Europe (I am living in the Netherlands) I changed my Singapore airlines flight destination, at the last minute, from London to Frankfurt am Main (Germany) as I had decided to go meet (my now fiancé/defacto) Sander in the Netherlands instead of heading to the UK to live and work for a while (there were no flights into Amsterdam available at the time).
Unfortunately this meant that for my flight from Singapore to Germany I flew with Lufthansa. *frown* It was cramped and crappy and very 'basic' (no games, screens in headrests etc).

BUT apart from that, I would definitely recommend Singapore Airlines! Food, space and entertainment were all great (and on another flight back here from Oz after a friends wedding, they didn't charge me for an overweight bag AND upgraded me to business class for no apparent reason - which is SO worth it if you can afford it btw!!!!).

BA/Qantas wasn't bad but the BA leg was no where near as good as the Qantas part. Overall, for price and comfort I'd choose Singapore.

oooh, and one tip, if you are particularly tall (as my fiancé is) then I'd certainly suggest either pre-booking (if possible) or arriving REALLY early to get an exit row or bulkhead seat for that extra room. I find the normal seats acceptable and I am approx 176cm but he (at over 190cm) finds it a little cramped (but 'do-able' if necessary).

Hope this helps.

Re: Airline recomendations
 

anyone got anymore experiances of airlines?????

Stu

Re: Airline recomendations
 

Stu
Tons!
Which airline in particular?
I have flown to Australia 10 times in the last 3 years. (amongst other flights to countries in the Far East & US mainly)

Andrew

Re: Airline recomendations
 

They seem to let you pre-book seat regardless. I have done this twice now.

I agree with the comments about the seat width on Emirates though, although I understand they are using a new Airbus between Dubai and Perth (probably the one with ICE entertainment mentioned by Debsy) which is meant to have wider seats than the UK --> Dubai leg

Re: Airline recomendations
 

Singapore airlines (economy :rolleyes: ) is the best as far as I am concerned. Qantas aren't bad but nothing to write about and I read in the paper yesterday that they are increasing the number of frequent flyer points required for international flights and upgrades, so that is the final straw for me, I will stick to Singapore in the forseeable future.

Re: Airline recomendations
 

I have done the trip heaps of times and in alot of ways, flying is just flying, you just put up with it and it is over soon enough.

On the other hand, the last trip a year ago, was with Thai Airways and they seem to have totally overhauled their catering and the food was YUM SCRUM. Nicer than a lot of Thai restaurants I have been to actually. We looked forward to every meal and it made a huge difference to our flights. We did 6 flights and they were all good, so I know it can't have been a one-off. Has anyone flown with them and had the same experience? I have never heard anyone else say so.

Bangkok is also a good stop over if you don't leave the hotel. The prices for 5 star ones are very reasonable and the food is of course excellent.

Another good trip was with BA in their Economy Plus section, lots of leg room and personal screens with free viewing choice, but I would go for the food any day (take a book!).

Queenie

Forgot to say BA had head rests that folded in -very comfy - but not on all aircraft.

Re: Airline recomendations
 

JAL were excellent - great service, plenty of leg room. A few days in Tokyo en-route is an excellent stopover, got to love the Asahi! :beer:

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Singapore Airlines have been the best for long haul in my experience. The KrisFlyer program is really very good. Once you have 60000 miles they will give you a free round-trip London-Singapore. Quite easy to achieve with a family card.

Re: Airline recomendations
 

I would totally recommend flying to Oz from the UK via the US! We flew United and they are fantastic. I have flown with them loads and never once had a problem with them. The longest delay I have ever had with them was about 15 minutes.

The planes have great legroom and really good entertainment systems.

We flew from the UK on Sept 14th...spent 3 weeks in Florida and the flew on to Australia. It cost us pennies over £1000 for 2 adults.


We also flew to Oz via Singapore last year and found them to be a really nice airline as well. Would recommend them if you didnt want to go via the US.

Hels

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Andrew we are looking at Emirates & Singapore ever flown with these?
Stu

Re: Airline recomendations
 

??????

Why would you not leave the hotel?

Re: Airline recomendations
 

We flew EVA Air to & from the Uk recently, Bris to Taipai was economy class, seatback entertainment was the on demand type which is great if you are travelling with kids (well our kids anyway!) so you can turn it on & off at will. Taipai to London was Evergreen Deluxe class which is a class between Business & economy class, heaps more legroom (38" or 39" instead of the average 32" or 33" ), seats reclined much further back (23 degrees vs about 12 I think), seats were much nicer & plusher than economy & there were foot & leg rests that folded out which gave a much more comfortable sleeping position. The downside was that the seatback entertainment wasnt on demand, so if you missed part of it, bad luck! Food was ok, wouldnt have been so good if you didnt like asian food though, we like it so didnt mind. My only real complaint (if you want to call it that) was that when they did any announcements it was extremely difficult to understand what they were saying as the cabin crews accents were quite strong. Face to face they were fine - but through the onboard speaker system :eek: . (I think andrew commented on that as well)

Ive also flown Qantas, AirNZ, Singapore & Royal Bruenii in the past - to be honest a plane is a plane - to me theres not a big difference in the service. But the extra leg room & better seats on EVA did make this flight alot more bearable (I hate flying) .

Anyway, I would definitely fly with them again - especially considering that the price of our flights including the upgraded economy leg from Taipai to Heathrow was less than going all the way economy class with any of the major airlines like Cathay/Singapore/Emirates/BA/Qantas.

Re: Airline recomendations
 

Hi, Flew with United AWFUL!

We found a cockroach in our cup when the stewardess gave us our drinks, everyone went MENTAL and she just laughed it off.
Food was average, my TV screen in my seat was broken and I was told "sorry nothing we can do" La-de-da, twiddle thumbs...... for 13 Bloody Hours!!!
The check in was Appauling in the States... got shouted at and shoved around because the Yanks seemed to think they could check-in in the old style 10 minutes before departure way, despite over the top security. So the mad rush of people doing late internal flights meant the staff showed their true colours under pressure.
Cabin staff were rude.... could go on for ever.... Oh all the films were the same Here to San Fran - San Fran to Syd. Then back to the UK..... not that I could watch them!!!!!
Seriously complained once home, got bonus miles given to shut us up, which we will now use towards our Singapore flight. Seems they are highly rated.
The only thing is my Husband has a thing for Oriental women! They are stunning when ever I have seen them boarding their aircraft.... I'll sleep with an Eye open ;)