Tomsk

My son has his 18th birthday looming rapidly and has said all the way along that he would like his 18th birthday gift to be holiday in the UK to see all his old school mates before they scatter off from our old home town to university, work or gap years. Sounds reasonable to me, but we'd been finding some scarily expensive flights & were beginning to panic

Anyway last night found return flights Auckland to Heathrow with Royal Brunei travelling for $1760....so we booked them, simply too good a deal to miss, and he's 18 & resilient...he can handle a bit of discomfort & no alcohol (not that I've told him the no alcohol thing yet ). He'll be in the UK right over the school Easter holidays so the timing's great.

Has anyone else flown with Brunei, any comments or suggestions?? It looks like there's only one stop so that shouldn't be too complicated, but just wondered if there were any recommendations from seasoned Brunei flyers to make it easier for him.

Kiwiprincess

I know plenty of people who have flown them and have had no problems whatsoever. Seems like you got a good deal!

Oh, I would be surprised if it was only one stop though - you may find that the plane actually does stop once (or twice). Difference between a direct flight and a flight without stopovers.

I think Royal Brunei flights usually go Auckland - Brisbane - Brunei - maybe Dubai and then London. Sometimes I think direct to Brunei. But they all go through Brunei

Quite a good flight if your son likes flying.

mr_hello

I've flown with them quite a few times with no problems. The service is very polite and the food is... passable.

The no-alcohol-thing is a real drag, especially on long haul flights. I like to wash a few sleeping pills down with a glass of wine to minimize the discomfort, and this just doesn't happen on this airline.

However, I recall somebody mentioning that you can bring your own, you'll just need to declare it and fill out some forms. I could also be wrong about this, as I've never tried--best check with the airline. DO NOT SMUGGLE A DRINK WITH YOU! They are rather strict about drug-related offences in Brunei...

Other than that, the only problem I've ever actually had is that they have a hand full of rather old planes in their fleet. If you get stuck on one of these, it's like flying in 1988. Not much you can do about that though, and it's hardly the end of the world to be stuck without in-flight entertainment for a few hours. Just bring extra sleeping pills!

canadaeh

I flew with them years ago and they were really good.

The leg from Brunei to London does have a stopover in either Abu Dahbi or Dubai (but they don’t mention it anywhere and we didn’t even know until the plane started to land – I think it’s just to re-fuel.

They take everyone off, bring you through the terminal – time for a toilet and a quick drink and then put you straight back on the plane, all very quick and easy.

teeym

I was speculatively looking at Royal Brunei the other day for flights out in March/April (we can but hope) and they looked very nice. Admittedly SWMBO would remove certain parts of my anatomy which I hold dear if I got her on a 24+hr flight with no booze, but you know that when you book it.

Apparently you can get a 1 stop flight depending on what day of the week you fly. While most go from Brunei via West Island, there are a couple a week direct into AKL.

nelsonpom

Flown with them a few times and all good. You can take your own booze on board so drink away