Best Airlines ??
 

Hi Everyone
Looking for some advice on peoples experiences with flying to New Zealand
me and my partner are looking to go in April but not sure what airline is best there's so many to choose from and with it being such a long flight would like to know peoples preferences
I understand most are going to be pretty similar


Gemma

Re: Best Airlines ??
 

Plenty to choose from and depends if price is an issue. I usually fly either singapore, emirates or air new zealand. Happy on any of these although some people dislike the transit in LAX, im fine with it.

Re: Best Airlines ??
 

All are very very similar but a stand out at the top
for me is Air New Zealand, and at the bottom Lufthansa

Re: Best Airlines ??
 

Singapore Airlines are my favourite. I like transitting through Changi airport and stopping at the transit hotel for a sleep. Helps massively with the jet-lag for me.

Air New Zealand are also very good but I prefer not to go through America. They are now doing a code share with Singapore Airlines through Changi but seemed to be more expensive.

Not travelled with Emirates for years but they get plenty of good reviews and we are travelling to Europe later this year with them.

Used Etihad in 2012 and they were fine, I believe they have improved since then. I didn't rate Abu Dhabi too highly but things may have improved since then.

Re: Best Airlines ??
 

Best to date is Singapore, Emirates were great till we got to the Quantas (code share) leg which was crap.

Look at the different leg flight times, Dubai to Aus/NZ is a killer 17 hrs. On that basis we now transit through HK or Singapore, marginally more expensive though.

Re: Best Airlines ??
 

Agree Qantas is bad. We had return flights to Melbourne with Emirates which turned out to be a code share with Qantas. Let's just say never again!

Re: Best Airlines ??
 

I suppose it depends which NZ airport you are flying to and how many stops you want.

For anyone travelling to the South Island, I'll always recommend Singapore Airlines. One stop in Changi airport which is arguably the best transit airport to go to. However, you can also fly with China Southern via Guangzhou and that's on the new dreamliner. I haven't flown any Chinese airline so cannot comment but have heard decent things. You can fly with Emirates but that includes a stop in Sydney and possibly Bangkok which isn't ideal given the 7 hour night time flight to Dubai.

If going to Wellington, you'd have to fly via either Auckland, Australia or Christchurch. Landings at Wellington can be very enjoyable at times. I've experienced plenty of aborted landings and strong cross wind approaches there. White knuckle rides eat your heart out.

Auckland you have plenty of choice. One stop, you've got Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines, Korean Air, China Southern, Thai Airways and shortly American Airlines, Qatar Airways and Emirates will be flying to Auckland direct from hubs. Despite the bad publicity in 2014, Malaysian Airlines are fantastic.

I have to promote Air New Zealand and I do think they are a fantastic airline. Not as good as Korean or Singapore but their on screen service is fantastic. I'd recommend you fly Cathay to Hong Kong and then Air NZ to Auckland. It can be booked or you could do Virgin to Shanghai. Both on the 787 that route.

The one I wouldn't recommend is American Airlines. Let's just say US Airlines make Lufthansa and Air Asia paradise

Re: Best Airlines ??
 

If you need to query anything about baggage stay clear from etihad... They are useless and have zero customer service!!!!

Re: Best Airlines ??
 

Are they really that bad??? You have me worried now as that's who I'm flying out with in a few weeks :unsure:. Had to call them for an infant baggage query and apart form a slight language barrier the woman i spke to was quite helpful.

Re: Best Airlines ??
 

Just tell 'em you're a City fan and how Joe Hart is brilliant and you hope Kevin de Bruyne recovers quickly etc., etc.:sneaky:

I have found that if you tell any crew on any airline how fabulous they are and agree to put it in writing, they shower you with gifts and give you excellent service ;):sneaky::sneaky::sneaky:

Re: Best Airlines ??
 

Our last trip was with Malaysia and was pretty good. They can be cheaper as well, probably due to bad publicity about occasionally losing planes.

Longish story, we have decided we are getting too old and grumpy to fly Economy (especially as the airlines seem to keep cramming more seats in) so had decided to fly Premium Economy, probably with Air NZ because they have such a good reputation.
Late booking due to a sudden need to be in Australia (son's graduation ceremony with not much notice of the date by the Uni).
We discovered from a flyer from our travel agent (TrailFinders) that at this late date Business Class with Malaysia (special offer) was little more than Premium Economy with Air NZ.
So we decided to fly straight through. The transit time going out was about 7 hours, and the BC lounge in KL is a pit (relatively speaking), but comfy seats and free champagne take the edge off.
Being able to fully recline (Heathrow to KL) and nearly fully recline (KL to Sydney) meant that we could sleep most of the way and didn't need a stopover to recover from the first leg.
All in all we loved it, but sadly it is likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience unless the planned bank heist goes better than expected.

However, one lesson learned.
We have found TrailFinders to be generally excellent in organising flights to and from Australia/NZ but they have one weakness - they have one part of the organisation for the plebs (Economy and Premium Economy) and another for Business/First Class. If we hadn't received a flyer with our first provisional booking showing a special Business Class offer we wouldn't have realised how close it was to the Premium Economy price.
So always check that your agent is scanning BC deals to compare with SE and E.
Also, the "Executive" lounges at the airports do seem to make quite a difference to the transit stop between flights, and also the time between check in and boarding. They seem expensive (around £50 I think) but they make the trip a lot easier.
Having flown Business Class a LONG time ago for work, it seems that today's Premium Economy is equivalent to old Business Class - that is bigger seats which recline a bit more. BC is now equivalent to old First Class. So a combination of PE and an "Executive" lounge could give you most of the BC benefits at a reasonable price.

Previous trip was with Cathay (Economy) and we felt crammed in - not really an enjoyable flight.

We flew Emirates Sydney to Auckland and they were very good - we did want to fly them from the UK but decided that the hub in Dubai made the second leg just a bit too long.

Re: Best Airlines ??
 

I do believe from talking to people on here that the transit into and out of LAX is now a lot less faffing around also

Re: Best Airlines ??
 

We got hit with the drop in allowance and nobody took any blame between etihad and the travel agent. Etihad have been completely unhelpful and pawned us off for weeks and weeks after me asking for help as we have been penalised when not our fault... Only for them to brush us off! Then when our agent agreed to purchase one extra bag for us, yet again they have been useless in helping us do this... So we will end up forking out at the airport to get reimbursed.

I just hope the flight crew make up for it... But I will not fly them again!

Re: Best Airlines ??
 

Just finished a third Economy return trip to Europe in six months with different Airlines (all those air miles wasted :( - Cathay Pacific, Air NZ, Emirates, Quantas and Singapore on various legs.

In my experience:

Best Planes (modern with good leg room) - Air NZ. Worst Cathay Pacific.
Best Food - Emirates and Singapore. Worst Quantas and Cathay.
Best Crew - Singapore. Worst - Quantas.

The biggest decider for me (next flight) is short legs, therefore it will be through HK or Singapore (the 17 hour leg from Dubai on Emirates is a killer).

Note Emirates and Cathay/AirNZ have a 30 kg baggage allowance (can't remember ref Singapore).

I was disappointed in Cathay, they used to be very good but seem to be seriously penny pinching. Air NZ is a small op in HK so had to wait for them to 'open' and couldn't book in on line as it was a code share (minor but a pain).

So Singapore Airlines it is.

Re: Best Airlines ??
 

We went back at Christmas on Air NZ and Singapore Airlines. Singapore airlines to Heathrow were definitely better with superior service and food/snacks on offer. Changi airport is superb and taking the kids for a swim in their outdoor rooftop pool breaks up the mammoth journey well.

We came back via LA which was better than last time, but we stopped for a few days so couldn't tell you about transitting.