Colin73

Hi guys and gals.. We are finally off to NZ ( thank god for kiwi girlfriends!) at the beginning of December. Leaving from London, and was just wandering what you people reckon is the best route(probably need a stop off to stretch the pins) and airline, ie leg space etc.. Have found the ASDA website the best priced so far, offering discounts.
Will be moving to Auckland.. Tracey's family are from Howick(which is pricey), but we were wondering where in or around AUK is up and coming to buy property or is it worth hanging on until that long awaited crash happens Who knows? Opinions welcome.. Cheers

happynz

Hi Colin,

If you have a lot of luggage you might want to consider going via North America as you will get two bags per passenger - each bag up to 23kg, I believe. Flying via Asia you will get 20kg in total if you fly economy class.

As far as stretching your legs, if you have a shortish layover it won't matter which airport really as airports are airports, eh. If you want to get out for a bit I'd personally go for a flight that goes via Asia, at least I would as it holds more interest for me. I grew up in California so going via LAX doesn't seem like much to get excited about.

teambwr47

If you go via the USA with AirNZ.... as a family of four we were able to carry 212KG in total of luggage. The kids get a full allowance of baggage and we took a measured 209KG.

Each passenger can take two bags to a maximum individual total allowance of 46kg with a single bag up to 32KG even though it says 23kg on the website etc. Hand baggage is allowed up to 7kg (one item only per person) but size contstraints are in place as per usual now on most flights.

I weighed our stuff at home a number of times and was sure we were about 6Kgs over and arrived expecting to pay the £50 excess baggage fee. The first thing i said at the desk was that we were emmigrating and that i thought we were over weight. When weighed the total came out at 3kgs under weight so a difference of 9kgs to my home weigh in...

I'm fairly sure the girl at the desk was being helpful.....

BEVS

I'd say via Singapore. Superb airport transit facilities.

Colin73

Thanks for that, the US would be handy 4 the luggage, but i've been told all the security hassles can be a bummer.
The hard thing is picking the airline to match the route for the cheapest. Air NZ has a good reputation but mostly do direct flights(which we want to avoid) or via the US(has LA airport got showers?).. Cathay pacific is the cheapest but has sh*te reviews.. Singapore i've also heard from the gf, has great facilities( showers) .. Oh well, not too bothered now, it has warn me down, will book soon! thanks for replies..

minky

We have flown with Quantas which we found good and when we finally came over with Malaysian who were very good especially with the children if there not into spicy food get the childrens pack.Have not been in La so cant comment but hubby has and hated it.As for luggage we had 4 cases from 25kg-30kg and had to make one lighter no charges just quizzed on the one way ticket as we flew out after all the liquid hassels in hand luggage etc.
Im not sure about the crash but here in Howick there are price reductions coming thru between 10 and 20%.Auctions are also quite interesting not at all fast paced as in the UK 1HR 30 to sell 5 houses and only 1 ended up a definate sell in this area plus the Weds auction in town 70% are no bid or passed in so it is changing as more people are coming off fixed rates.
We have been here a year now and are still renting hopefully for another 6 months just got to find what we know we want.
As for upcoming areas that depends on what you are looking for and how far you are prepared to travel.

teambwr47

if it were not for the baggage allownace we would go via Hong Kong for a number of reasons...

1. The flight leaves the UK (late) and is quickly into night and stays so for much of the trip as opposed to the USA flight which chases the day if you get my meaning. We found it much much easier to sleep going the HK route as did the kids.

2. The HK airport is very nice....we paid £30 in May for a lounge which had very clean showers, fantastic food (it was the best chinese i've had for a long time) and a massage from a small chinese girl with thumbs from a gorilla....

waynepfry

Singapore Airlines via Singapore. Great airline, pretty well-priced, less security hassles and Singapore is a great place to visit. Also mention you are emigrating when you book the flights and you'll get double the baggage allowance. The Flight Centre staff use Singapore to travel between UK and Aus/NZ for most of the reasons above.

CAN2NZ

It could be that your scale is not accurate at home and you have needlessly been sacrificing dessert all this time.