wardy2

Ok I have given up looking on the internet I cant get it to give me any useful info, so I have come to the horses mouth if you will forgive the expression.

We live in Newcastle and want to know the best way to get to Cairns without having to go to London if possible.

I would have liked to have gone via Singapore can anybody who has flown from the North of England advise us on a good route with limited stops, if we have to go to London then we will.

Thanks

kaye

youngy73

you have to go via a large hub airport. it may be manchester,heathrow or where ever in europe. we use cathay pacific if we can via london and hong kong. found it to the best/most direct route.why dont you want to go via london? just check your bags in newcastle then pick them up in cairns.

sophjam

Hi kaye weve always had to fly to london, weve flown with JAL , quantus, cathay Pacific and always preferres the Tokyo flight, you get the longest flight out of the way first then its a 7.5 hr flight to cairns direct. How are you getting on with your plans we will probably get there around the same time (jan) keep in touch xTrudi. What r u taking with you?

wardy2

Theres no real reason why I didnt want to go via London just I liked using Singapore airlines via Singapore and London didnt seem to offer that option.

Saw a good priced flight with Cathay Pacific via Heathrow are they are good airline is it a good inflight entertainment system with games console kids will need it, sorry to be sad about these things.

Trudi did you stay over in Tokyo would like to stay over somewhere thats why we thought Singapore.

We had thought about doing the usual flight to Brisbane then getting an internal flight not sure if that could add alot of time onto to journey, or prove to be expensive.

Hope still to arrive January just got our case officer last week, not taking anything except few personal bits had been told to bring over all my furniture as stuff there is awful but have been reassured on that front that I can get nice stuf.

Youngy if you go via Heathrow where is the best stopover point for you if you did stop.

I really hate flying so the whole thing fills me with dread.

Thanks

Kaye

The Bloke

No way around it unfortunately, and unless you can be lucky enough to get a Qantas flight direct to Cairns, you will have to land in Brisbane, then get a connecting domestic flight on either Jetstar Qantas or Virgin Blue back up the coast.

sassie

Hi there.

Singapore Airlines definitely go via Singapore from London, as that is their hub. You would have to fly into Brisbane and then get a domestic flight up to Cairns.

sophjam

Its the last thing you need unless youve had a stop over in singapore I didnt enjoy that flight as much as you are so tire by the end of it. Tokyo would be expensive though for a stopover. Its a personal choice. Kids travelled very well every time no probs tended to sleep watch films neither thought any of the food was great. Chose european menu. Its these things we tended to think of we also moved seats to get spares when possible its a godsend. All in all journeys were all ok. Ive been looking into schools expensive! My brother in law suggested trinity anglican school Im up to 7500$ without uniform we will be bancrupt

youngy73

hong kong is good. cathay have a lounge there which is good for a shower, food, the net and a few beers. if you want the in flight stuff i would avoid singapore airlines flights as there connection to cairns is a qantas flight which is operated by jetsar (budget airline)you still get a feed and a the drinks cart but thats about it. be warned.

wardy2

Thanks guys, you have given me options to consider there. I knew singapore went from London but Iwas aware that I would have to get domestic flight.

Trudi had seen Trinity Anglican school because they have a great swimming program middle son competes so was a good option. However the cost is prohibitive and have been told the best of the states is cairns state high school followed by trinity so going to look at them.

Do you know the date that they restart for the new school year have found some really cheap flights via Hong Kong leaving on 22nd Jan I feel that may be too late doesnt give much time before they restart.

Thanks

Kaye

LauraC

I did BA/Qantas/Jetstar from Manchester via Heathrow, Singapore and Darwin to Cairns last year. Ticket said Qantas, ended on BA (probably the partnership thing) and when we got to Singapore ended up on Jetstar which had much better food and service than BA. Sitting on the Jetstar plane I saw the price list for food and thought 'they want me to pay extra? hell no', but the food was included the entertainment system was about $10 (I think) for the whole flight. I can't say what it was like though because I didn't get one.

On landing in Darwin the Captain thanked us for choosing to fly Jetstar at which the Aus family behind me said 'we didn't choose it!'

Bloody long flight! Pissing about in Heathrow was the worst bit. Had to practically run from the plane to the bus to go to another terminal and then leg it to the next flight! Stopped in Duty Free when we got to the terminal though

I'm going to try and avoid that route when I go out again! Also the prices to Cairns seem to have gone up a lot. Can you get to Cairns via the US, just thinking about the extra baggage allowance, I'm going to assume it would mean going via Brisbane and then up.

wardy2

Oh god that sounds like a nightmare have seen a couple of good flights out of Heathrow via Hong Kong which seems straight forward 5 adult singles on Jan 22 for £2553 which I thought was good.

Still looking though 10 january same flights can be £3853 so best to book asap before it goes through the roof.

kaye

LauraC

Wow! That is a good price. I'm hoping to get out to Cairns in the next few months and it's working out at about £960 each for adults, I think that was with Cathay Pacific.

Ronnie and Deb

We flew with emirates from manchester to dubai ( i believe they fly from newcastle now) then dubai via singapore ( to refuel) then onto brisbane. Then when we flew up to cairns we booked over the net. with virgin blue and it was a reasonable price and very efficient. Deb

Ronnie and Deb

Sorry forgot to tell you the price it was about £680 each to fly to oz. and then the internal flight to cairns was about $120 if that. Deb

Nodge

Totally agreed, when we 1st came to Cairns we flew from Manchester to London, London to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to Cairns. The stop-over in HK was pretty brief and we arrived in Cairns pretty fresh.

We went back 4 weeks ago for a family wedding and decided to travel on the cheap... HUGE MISTAKE

We flew from Cairns to Brissie, sat around for 4 hours
Brisbane to Singapore (booked in the terminal hotel and got some kip) 8 hours
Singapore to Doha, Doha was hot sweaty, busy and a bit manic for me and not a lot to do for our 4 hour wait. I won't go through Doha again.
Then we did Doha to Manchester which seemed to go really quickly, thank god.

It was very tiring and I don't know how I motivated myself to do the same route again on the return home.

In terms of airlines, I like Cathay and Singapore but I was disappointed by Qatar Airlines. Not half as classy, comfortable or as friendly as I expected from one of the worlds top rated.