Hi All

Just thought this might be of interest....

Just looking into special migration airfares, called Quantas and was quoted 889.60 GBP. one way to melbourne and 40kg

Looked at the same flight online and it cost 542 GBP one way to mel with 23kg. XS baggage $22 per kg so 170GBP approx for extra 17kg so 712 GBP if we just book it and pay XS.....

How is that a "special" deal??!!

I know - it doesn't make sense does it. I rang Qantas as well the other day because their website said they did special migration fares that weren't available on line. They mentioned a similar amount to yoursto Perth but still way above what I ended up buying online for £554 and 23k. I am emigrating on a prospective fiance visa and luckily my OH is travelling from Perth to the UK to spend my final week in the UK with me and to accompany me back for emotional support when I leave so I have asked him very nicely if he will pack very lightly so that I can use some of his allowance.

I am also lucky in that I work for a freight forwarding company and they are sending out my personal possessions free of charge (no furniture as leaving my house behind fully furnished for now for my daughter to live in) but it is still difficult to just have the 23k allowed because my personal possessions including clothes etc will be leaving the UK before I do and I can't spend my last month surviving on the contents of one suitcase especially when I have things like videos of my daughter when she was born, and extra special photos, letters that my daughter wrote to me when she was very young, that I can't take the risk of entrusting to a shipping company's care however good their intentions. Accidents do happen and I would hate for them to be washed overboard!!

It is also frustrating that a one way fare is basically the same as a return. My daughter is giving me away at my wedding and I am keeping an eye on fares for the end of May. The cheapest I have found for her so far is £543 on Singapore Airlines to Perth which is cheaper than my one way!!

I've just played around with Air Asia and come across a single ticket involving two journey legs via Malaysia, leaving London (Stansted) 31/03 ending up in Melbourne for £350 with 25kg of luggage. Add around £14 and they give you food too! You will have to be careful that you don't miss the connecting flights since it requires two separate bookings but it looks do-able, and if you're a family you can save heaps!

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Paul

I looked at AirAsia...you can get their business seats (not really that plush!) for the price of a standard seat on some airlines. What you need to consider is the additional expense of travelling to airports which are not all that central.

Very much the 'Easy Jet' of international travel.

Anyone flown with them?

I've flown with Air Asia X over Xmas. I flew in XL class - the so called 'equivalent to other airlines business class' product.

First thing, they have different seating in different planes. The first plane I flew on was their old leased plane - this really does have old style business class up the front and normal 2-4-2 arrangement down the back. The XL class was great, loads of space and very comfy.

On the way back I was on one of their brand new planes - these are now operating the majority of flights between KL and Aus. These have completely different seating. Despite the fact their website still claims XL is like business class - it's not - it is more of a premium economy product, nice, but far less comfortable than the old aircraft. The economy class is in a very tight 3-3-3 configuration. Some of the seats are so narrow that I couldn't believe it, really I was speechless when I saw them. I genuinely believe that even someone who was just a little larger than average would have a problem squeezing into the seat. Personally, I would not be prepared to do this all the way from UK to Aus. The new planes also have the new style fixed seat back design so the seat back does not recline at all, instead the seat cushion slides forward to allow the seat back to move to an angle - if you're tall (or even if you're not) this will just push your knees into the seat in front - so you may end up with no recline at all. Also wouldn't recommend going for exit row seats or bulkheads as these were the narrowest seats I have ever seen on an aircraft due to the tray tables being in the armrest.

Service onboard is OK, even at the start of the flight many of the items on the menu were not available, delivery is a bit haphazard. The old planes have no in flight entertainment, the new planes actually have a pretty nifty pay per view system.

As for making connections, I wouldn't recommend trying to do it and would always stay overnight in KL....there is a low cost hotel now open at the low cost terminal which would probably set you back as little as GBP10 per night.

As for the low cost terminal.....it's horrible and very overcrowded and under-resourced, this is why I wouldn't recommend a connection. The queues for passport control can be awful.

I think it's great what Air Asia are doing on these routes and providing a low cost alternative but I'd be very reluctant to do the very long haul with them.

Excess baggage is A$50 per kilo which works out at about GBP22 per kilo at todays ex rate.

http://www.qantas.com.au/info/flying...dCollectionNew

So that would make the total GBP916.

So in effect the migration fare is just the standard one way fare + the standard excess baggage charge, give or take exchange rate fluctuations.

You would be better off just buying the one way fare and attempting to 'negotiate' at the airport....you have nothing to lose, unless the pound drops significantly further against the A$.

Just remembered I had a photo on my phone.....check out the middle seat! It looks about a foot wide......and this is not because of the camera angle!

Suitable for kids only!

Ouch! I'll definitely stick to Qantas.

there are much better airlines out there such as Malaysian Airlines & Singapore Airlines

check out this website

www.leestravel.com



go to "flight offers" -- and there are some fantastic offers on right now...

I don't think I'm prepared to put my family through that. Thanks for the warning.