Australia Bound

I'm looking for flights to Oz for first week in June, it's a recce mission to check things out, our first visit. We're looking at Perth for the moment. Flying out on the third and flying back on the 17th.

Can anybody recommend a good website. I've have a look around and prices seem to be around the £500 mark. Does that sound about right?

Perthforme

£500 is a good price if you can get emiraties flight for perth its about the quickest route.

Carruss

Try this site, I just put in your flight times and it comes back at £534 inc tax and is with Singapore Airlines. I do believe they are on eof the main companies that has the maximum legroom fro an economy seat.

http://www.airline-network.co.uk/flights/farelist.asp

Hope this helps.

R

BKate

Have a look at www.leestravel.co.uk they do some good deals. Last June I flew to Brisbane for just over £500 return with Singapore Air and I booked directly with them www.singaporeair.co.uk

Joanne

We were due to fly to Perth with Singapore Airlines, but had to change flights and holiday to Melbourne. We booked our flights on the internet and the great thing is that you can check in on the internet 48 hours before the flight departs. Would recommend Singapore Airlines, especially if flying with children. The backscreen tv's kept our kids amused for hours. They were truly a god-send. Will use them again when we hopefully get our visas!

Jo

The Druid

www.ebookers.com

You cant beat them

Australia Bound

OK, how's this for a plan.

Fly from London to Sydney

Stay in Sydney for a few days to recover from flight, hire car and drive north along the coast road to Brisbane. Check it out for a while.

Now where to from Brisbane? I want to check out Adelaide, do you think it's better to fly from Brisbane, i'm not keen on wasting my recce trip by driving, especially from Brisbane to Adelaide, but on the other hand, i want to check out as many places as possible.

How about drive form Sydney to Brisbane, fly from Brisbane to Adelaide and drive from Adelaide to melbourne and then back to Sydney?

All in all i make that 3200km driving in three journeys 1100km, 1000km and 1100km. We're there for three weeks. And i reckon those trips can be done in about two days a piece?

Am i being completely unrealistic with all that driving? Are there plenty of places to stop along the coast roads? Is two days driving enough?

Thanks in advance chaps

Grayling

Don't underestimate the driving.

You are talking about long distances mostly on single carriageways.

Virgin blue do lots of cheap flights.

I would fly between the main centres and drive more locally.

It may also be pretty cold and wet in the south in June so bear that in mind.

BTW Malaysian Airlines have far more legroom than Singapore and Emirates.

good luck

G

Joanne

Some friends of mine flew with Malaysian Airlines to New Zealand and said never, ever again! We choose to take her advice and opted for Singapore Airlines.

Jo

Grayling

Then we will have to agree to disagree.

I wil no longer fly with Singapore due to a number of bad experiences.

G

Joanne

We must have been lucky with Singapore then, and our friends unlucky with Malaysian.

Can you elaborate on your bad experiences? When we get our visas, it will be worth bearing in mind for those flights.

Jo

Grayling

Losing our luggage (twice).
having to sit in a seat with a broken back so that it was permanently reclined.
Sitting in a seat where my knees were touching the seat in front
Failure of the video system.
General lack of response to complaints about the above.

I have flown with Malaysian several times and have never had a problem.

IMO Singapore have a reputation they do not deserve. They are really pretty average.

Malaysian also give you an extra 2" legroom which can make a big difference. Plus (from Manchester) they are usually not full and you can have a couple of seats each.

G

Joanne

Cheers, thanks for that, will certainly look more closely who we fly with, when we hopefully get our Visas.

Jo

Australia Bound

Is that like 18 - 22 degrees? i.e warm to a Scotsman.

Vanessa

I agree with Grayling on leg room with Malaysian - 34inch seat pitch as opposed to about 32 with the rest. However, with regard to customer service I think most of the major airlines are a much of a muchness. We mainly fly with BA and their cabin crew can make or break a flight (especially when long haul) Went to Florida in November with them and couldn't fault the staff. However flying back from South Africa in January they were indifferent and when I went to Madrid in December they were downright rude - so much so I put in a written complaint!

Last months Which put Emirates and Singapore as most favourite airline to Aus.