northernbird

My relatives have all flown with Malaysian and spoke very highly of them.

We have flown with Singapore twice with our children and they were excellent apart from 1 leg between Singapore and Perth where the crew were appalling.

Sav

Some great advice on this thread. We'll be (hopefully) making the trip to Australia in 3 months or so and any information on airlines is very welcome. We will be travelling with a baby too so keep the info coming

Bazza Boy

No brainer - Singapore Airlines. Just look at the ratings year after year.

Modern fleet, best airport in the world, good flight time choices, fantastic staff, on board entertainment unbeatable, food excellent. The flight path is also safer than Emirates, - which is 11+ hours over sea Dubai > Aus.

Book online (don't waste your time and effort using an agent like Flight Centre, they're no cheaper) - choose your seat and meal option (Vegan, Vegetarian, Low fat, Childrens etc etc), print your boarding passes job done. No need for a middle man.

We never fly with anyone else and always have a night at the airport to break up the mammoth journey. Kids love the pool there, I go in the gym and wife uses spa.

Prices are usually comparable to some of the other players, Qantas, Emirates etc. But unless you're savings are considerable, they're worth the extra few dollars.

bcworld

I'd say that's one area where Emirates does beat them.

Tr1boy

I've done Syd-UK return 23-25 times plus dozens of inter Asia trips, a few of the early ones were 'zoo zone' but mostly business, and all business for the last 10-11 yrs. If work sends me I don't have a preference of provider really.

On my $$ then then i always fly Asiana business as it suits me to stop over in Korea to see family and very often I'll do the Seoul to LHR leg on my own. I think I've done 14 or 15 Syd-UK return trips with them ( I went Korean Air once). I really like their service, but I'm Platinum Plus and can speak (enough) Korean so I get good service.

I find the food ( nearly always choose from the Korean menu), service, lounge at Incheon all very good. Only caveat is that the Seoul-Syd leg nearly always leaves 45 mins late, they usually make it up but I've never been given a reason as to why it happens so often.

EvannTel

Nope. Well not 3 years ago. They are flat but not quite horizontal. Still very comfy well equipped clam shell type though. Quite similar to Emirates but maybe a little narrower IIRC.

angelica12

Thanks for all the comments. Singapore Airlines was the one we was looking at so more than likely gonna travel with them.

Couldn't believe that in just over a month I'm gonna be living in brisbane!!!!

DeadVim

Bazza Boy's advice about avoiding travel agents is a particularly good one.

The only hassle we had was when I booked through Flight Centre and the spotty McDonalds reject behind the keyboard somehow forgot to book a bassinet (bulkhead) seat for the Sin -> Lon leg.

The kid spent the whole leg on my lap in the centre aisle, mostly asleep, but still no fun.

Flight Centre can go swivel for us.

angelica12

Was goona book direct with the airline, don't trust someone else to sort it out for me!!

tonyk38

You can often get good deals going direct to an airline's own website. I found the cheapest flight to Taipei in April (Cathay) by doing this.

One word of advice, if it hasn't already been mentioned: Book ASAP.

If you have specific dates for flying, you cannot afford to wait, the prices will only get higher. 'Last minute' deals are only if you don't care when or where you fly.

DeadVim

Very wise, enjoy the anticipation of the move

verystormy

Cant say the rule in Australia as i have only flown on buisness and so dont book my own flights. But as someone who spent his spare time while at Uni working as a travel agent i can say that in the UK flights are cheaper when booked through an agent. Flight operators pay a commission to the agent as a % of the cost of the flight. The agent keeps part of this and then uses part to discount the flight.

Same also applies with cruises. You can ALWAYS get 10% off the best price a cruise company will offer with an agent.

sr71

No, in my experience Thai are far better.

Singapore are the most overrated airline by far - I just do not understand why people like them.

FitzroyLions

I have 3 small children & fly to Aus from the UK regularly. I tend to avoid qantas due to bad experiences in the past, ditto BA. Singapore & Emirates are both fine, Changi airport (sing) is also a decent airport for transit with children as it has a couple of reasonable play areas. Most recently (last month) I flew Qatar on a recommendation & found them pretty good, too. Main factor for me is flight time.

Mantzy

Have flown numerous airlines around and across Oz from London, Qatar and New Zealand (including random changes during the first Gulf War) and would highly recommend Singapore, Cathay, Malaysian and though I've never used them as far as Australia, Qatar Airways.

Qantas, BA, or basically any 4* airlines I'd rather not use (Check Skytrax for ratings). I find it also makes a huge difference in where your layover is. Personally not a fan of Dubai, so I keep away from Emirates, but Hong Kong, Singapore and KL I have no issues with at all. Might be worth considering, especially with kids. If you go with Singapore, get the Singapore Stopover. It breaks up the journey, gives you a interesting city to explore and it's cheap as chips.

I also like A380s [or insert newer long haul aircraft here - not 747s] too so would rather travel with airlines which use them. A decent website and online checkin/seat selection also helps.

HTH
R