Weekend in Australia

[chopper2311]

I know it's mad, but we're looking at flying to Sydney to attend a friends milestone birthday party and catch up with a lot of old friends.

We would ideally be flying from Manchester but could do Heathrow. We've never flown to Aus so are after a little help on which airline to go with. There's the obvious for economy; emirates, BA, Etihad, Cathay Pacific. But we're also looking at premium for BA & Cathay, are either worth the extra £2k?! We don't want to stretch to Business as it's only a quick trip and we hadn't budgeted.

Does anyone have any pros/cons for which economy flight to pick or experience of either of the premium economies are worth it.

Oh, and any recommendations to stay in Sydney??

Thanks!!

For a weekend I think you are bonkers but I did Melbourne for 6 days. I was hit really badly with jetlag though so be preparared.

Airline wise I’d go from Manchester With emirates via Dubai which I think will be your quickest route.

A weekend?! As in, literally just 48 hours? The jet lag will be brutal! I second Emirates for that route though. Although you will get a wider choice of flights and fares from Heathrow, look at Malaysian, Air NZ and Qantas too.

You've not heard of climate change, then? How can you possibly justify the massive carbon footprint of your flights, for the sake of 48 hours which will be ruined by jet lag.

We could maybe stretch to fly out Thursday and return Tuesday maybe Wednesday. So a long weekend, potentially a week.

I think emirates is the shortest time from Manchester, which would cut out a 3 hour drive to the airport instead of Heathrow too.

Is emirates economy ok for an entire day sat in the same seat?! Hah

@milkmoustache - the plane would be going if I was on it or not

fuck, that's dreadful. and crazy.
one weekend .
couldn't be doing with such a huge waste of time and money.

Completely mad! Why on earth would you think you could do a weekend in Australia?
You'd not be fit for work for a few days when you got back, the jet lag would be that bad. I used to go to the States for the weekend (east coast) and would fly after work and then fly back overnight and go straight to work and that was doable but you couldn't do that with Australia. I got discounted flights and worked/lived extremely close to the airport but I would't recommend it even then.

A friend of mine did it for a wedding.

I’d recommend flying with Etihad.

I know people who've gone for a similar length of time for work reasons although they've normally flown business. One thing to bear in mind (especially if you're going economy) is to move around a lot - my SIL recently flew back from a short work trip in Oz and ended up with a blood clot in her leg.

You must have more money than sense if you're planning on spending all that money for a couple of jet lagged days.

Personally I think it's a waste of time and money, if you're going to go somewhere so far away you may as well do it properly.

I’ve done a weekend in Oz. It was fine. Left Thursday night, arrived early sat morning, straight to the hairdressers for a blow dry . Late afternoon/evening wedding + brunch the next day. Flew out of Oz on Sunday night. Back in london by Monday lunchtime.

You don’t really get jet lagged as you’re not there long enough. Emirates will be absolutely fine. Perhaps book a seat w extra leg room.

If you go for a weekend you'll spend as much time travelling as you will actually being there. That's madness. Unless you have money to burn it also seems really daft to spend all that money in a flight and barely see the place while you're there.

I disagree your time there would be ruined. You’d be fucked once you were back, but you’d crack on once there.

I would. I’ve got lots of lovely friends there who I adore. What I’d give to see them.

You are quite bonkers!

If you fly BA, their fares are much more competitive these days - so it might be worth looking at their premium economy.

If you're spending that much time in the air, relative to the time in the country, you really do need to make sure you get to sleep, which means going for more space/comfort.

I'm amazed you're considering it if you've never done that flight before.

Seriously - don't even think about trying to do a weekend. A week, absolute minimum would be my recommendation (I've done a week a lot for work, so I know that's more doable).

In terms of accommodation, I'd look at aparthotels or AirBnB. Do you know where you want to stay? Anywhere around The Rocks would be lovely, as you're really close to Circular Quay, and all the ferries - but it doesn't sound like you'll have any time for any sightseeing anyway!

It's a one off, never planning on a weekend trip to the other side of the world again. I know it's mental, but we really want to go for this particular occasion. We could of planned it a little further in advance but we didn't and now we're thinking YOLO.

That's one of the reasons why we'd be returning the wed/thurs so we have a few days and the weekend to get back into routine. We also only live 20 minutes from the airport.

All I really want, is a recommendation for what flight provider to go with.

Emirates is great, comfy seats, nice food, good choice of movies. I flew to Tasmania last year with them straight through for a two week holiday and it was exhausting - I don't sleep well on planes and it worked out that I did 48 hours without sleep on the way home (from waking up in the hotel to getting into my own bed). Two weeks was too short a time, a long weekend would be madness.

Ps BA economy is absolutely shite, in fact I would actually choose Emirates economy over BA premium economy

Cathay is nice

In general the Asian and Middle Eastern carriers are far more comfortable than the European ones

But it's such a beautiful city it's criminal not to go for longer!

Where abouts is the wedding?

I think its doable. What will be key are making sure you get enough sleep. You need sleeping tablets or antihistamines or something.

Emirates are great, as are Singapore Air and Qatar. I've used all of them to Oz/Nz/SEAsia and couldn't really choose between them - all equally good.

Also Qatar is much better than Emirates and are likely to be cheaper.

I’ve done it with BA ... it was fine ... I slept well on the planes .. I always do !
Go for it and enjoy yourself...
you can catch up with sleep on the weekend you get back

@stealthbanana just what I wanted to hear!

Australia is on my bucket list for retirement when can go for a longish time. But whilst we're stuck in working life, 4/5 days it is. Like I say if we'd planned ahead a little we could of gone for longer, but we have other things booked and I've no more annual leave to take. Damn work getting in the way of life

Take some melatonin.

You're a nutter but I like your ethos.

Buy shedloads of melatonin whilst you're out there!!!