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!!

I've done a 4 night trip to Sydney before - in BA economy - I'm pretty good with jet lag to be fair, and managed very well.

I agree with one of the PPs who said if you're slim/under 5ft 10 then premium economy isn't worth the massive difference in price. The arm rests don't move and the seat isn't much different. The layout is also worse as its 2 4 2 rather than 3 3 3, so you can get stuck in the middle of a row of 4.

Business is a different matter altogether - you can sleep in a flat bed! Doesn't resolve the time difference though, and is SO expensive I don't think I could justify it.

I'd definitely 'pay' for unpaid leave to get an extra day or two, rather than pay for the cost of premium economy.

Oh, and avoid the rocks and circular Quay - the whole area is being dug up for the rail lines at the moment. Its been awful for 2 years now. Noise, hoardings, digging, machinery and road blocks. Stay on the north side of the harbour to escape it.

I feel really ill thinking about Sydney for a weekend! I’ve done the flight three times. Each time I’ve suffered really badly both ways. Two weeks minimum 😳

My friend once flew out Thu, ran a marathon Sat, flew back Sunday. But he is bonkers.

I flew with Emirates to New Zealand in business class. I had a bed and slept the whole way there. Felt absolutely fine and rocking and ready to go as soon as I arrived. A short trip is doable as long as you sleep on the flight.

Oaks Goldborough Apartments near Darling Harbour was great.

We stayed there - it was brilliant. My preferred airline to go down under is Singapore.

I would go in a heartbeat. Have a brilliant time!

Yep a weekend will be fine while you're there but I can't vouch for how you'll feel when you're back home. Try to get a flight that lands in the morning and go out in the sunshine right away. Try to avoid sleep till the last 8 hours of the flight if you can.
I can only talk about Air NZ and I don't think they're the best.
Take a full size pillow on to the plane with you. Also take proper wax earplugs or noise canelling headphones. The pillow is worth its weight in gold in economy for getting comfortable sleep.

It’ll be brutal but you can do it. I travel to Australia very frequently and have recently discovered the London-Doha route on Qatar airlines. Very good airline and Doha airport is about a thousand times more pleasant than the disorientating hell that is Dubai.

I've flown to Australia a lot of times and I'm good at coping with jet lag. I always tried to get my arrival flight to land late afternoon or evening so I could go to sleep soon after arriving and if possible the same on the way back. I would combine this factor with getting the shortest possible overall flight time 23 - 24 hours is a quick as you can do it. The other way to minimise jet lag is to break the journey overnight somewhere like Hong Kong but clearly you wont have time for that.

I really wouldn't ever go for a weekend. Its a real waste of going all the way there and not exploring.

I live in Sydney, with regular trips back to the UK. If you are the type of person who can usually sleep on flights, then think carefully about seating arrangements i.e. will you be near toilets or food prep areas, making it more difficult to sleep? You will probably need to avoid seats at the front of each cabin as that's where the baby bassinets are usually located so you would be disturbed by children. Seat guru and skytrax websites are good for info about individual airlines configurations. I would recommend going on airline which flys a double decker plane, and get yourself on the top deck towards the back. Singapore airlines have economy on the top deck and the service is very good.

However, if like me you can't sleep on planes, I would think very carefully about your flight times instead. Contrary to what others have said I find it much easier to arrive in Sydney in the late afternoon/evening. I might have got a little broken sleep on the journey but I'm usually exhausted, so I have an early night and wake up the next morning absolutely fine. Doing this, I've never had the same issues with jetlag/night waking etc that I had when I've arrived in the morning as I've never had enough sleep on the flight to be able to stay awake all day in that scenario.

I think it's totally doable btw. You'll be knackered afterwards but it will be memorable!

Yes yes I second arriving in the evening. It is not so much the jet-lag but the fact you haven’t had any sleep for 40 hours or more ( even with a 22 hour flight departing at 9 pm you will have been awake since 7 am most probably so total lack of sleep is 30+)

Someone earlier suggested a 1 hour transit at Dubai.
Don't risk it, especially if you are on the evening emirates flight (EK18, I think) that lands shortly after midnight. It it NEVER on time, and most people I know miss their 90 min connection.

Like Emirates. Loved Qatar when I could use them (and agree Doha is a much better transit airport). I rate both of those above Etihad.

You are mad! Enjoy it!

I don't get it everyone saying the OP is nuts. I organise travel regularly for various short business trips long haul.

Go for it OP, I would 100% do this

I’d use Qatar over emirates, hub airport is easier to navigate. Buy some melatonin before you go. A weekend would be easy enough, by the time the jet lag properly hits you’ll be almost back in the right time zone -wouldn’t waste the airfare on just a weekend myself mind, it’s a great country, stick a few weeks annual leave on the end of the weekend and enjoy yourself properly.

It is a nuts because it is a lot of money for a very short holiday (not a business trip so she has to pay the bills, not the company). It is also crazy to spend more hours travelling to and from a place than the hours you spend in that place.

But there are also times in life when it is good to be a little crazy. I hope the trip goes well.

It's certainly doable, we have done the reverse trip for family emergencies for a couple of days more than once. Take a Valium on the flight and don't think about the time difference.

I would fly emirates or ethihad.

Where is the wedding venue? I'm happy to recommend places to stay nearby, been here in sydney for ten years now.

I fly the ME3 a lot. Qatar are the best, followed by Emirates, with a heavily cost-cutting Etihad trailing behind.

I've done this a few times for events in the UK, from Australia. I like BA Premium Economy but Qantas PE is loads more money but not loads nicer.

I got caught recently trying to book business class for a reasonable fare on Expedia. It was an Emirates flight and around £6K but only turned out to be business on the Dubai- Sydney legs. The other bits were economy. I'd ticked the "only show all legs in business" button. It was going to have been a big treat.

I cancelled but would have been so disappointed if I hadn't read the small print first.

Hi all, thanks for the replies. Still haven't booked yet as deciding if we can shift some things later in the year to give us a little more time in Australia.

Isn't it fun how people opinions and experience range so much with airlines! I do think it's all luck of the draw on the day to what plane, Cabin crew you get.

I love the tip on taking a pillow; genius! Which is done that on this trip, not for the plan but hotel. Austria have a strange idea in what a pillow should be like it's like a giant square bag of cotton wool balls and useless

Funny **

I wonder if the OP ever did this trip? Now that I’m trapped here unable to see my family for the foreseeable future, I would 100% fly back for the weekend.