Quickest flight to Christchurch??

[MaggieW]

I'll be travelling with DD - 7 months and DS - 2 on my own to Christchurch. Singapore Airlines, which is my ideal with just one stop, is fully booked. Has anyone travelled via other alternatives and what were they like. One travel agent has mentioned BA/Qantas via Singapore and Sydney - has anyone done this flight? Any other suggestions gratefully received.

We have travelled with our 3year old twice to New Zealand. 1st time we travelled with Air New Zealand via Los Angeles - OK but US customs not particularly pleasant. Second time we travelled with Thai Airways via Bangkok - absolutely fantastic. They were brilliant with DD and had huge amounts of leg room. We had to travel straight through due to father in law being very ill but if I did it again I would definitely stop over night just to give everyone a bit of a rest.

Give Thai Airways a go.

Have flown to Aus via Bangkok - Thai Air were brilliant.... they have the break in Bangkok and people separate then off to NZ or Aus flights.

Air New Zealand brilliant but second the thoughts about US customs - nightmare - as I had to change terminals.

Lots of friends and mums on here have not had nice things to say about BA especially people travelling with children.

What about Cathay Pacific or Phillipines Airlines - have heard good things about them - Malaysian airlines also.....

Yes we have done Qantas via Singapore and Sydney. We didn't have any BA flights though. It was fine, but if we went again I would use Singapore because having a stop in Sydney is like so near and yet so far. I think it is slightly quicker via Melbourne because of better connections. Could you do that?

We did Cathay Pacific with one stop in Singapore for 3 hours (refuelling pilot changes etc , long enough to get a shower at the airport (luxury spa with wowowow childminders and secure tageed area and luxury products to lather yourself in)
Worked fine, it is easier to crash out when you get to othe end! You land at Akld and then get one of the frequent domestics to CHCH. or stop overnight in Akld at airport hotel and rest the go next day, pretty easy to build into your ticket options

Think I have tried every possible combination of airlines and stopovers between NZ and UK. The fastest is generally on NZ1 (Air NZ) through LA as it only stops to re-fuel. However the idiots at LA still make you go through customs even though you are in transit (or they did 13 months ago) and LA airport is awful. Air NZ has very good legroom - but didn't find the staff that fantastic with DD. Another thing to consider is that the US have just introduced new rules for flights originating or departing from US which essentially restrict time spent standing up / walking around the plane! For example they have prohibited queuing for the loos!!!! From London to LA we weren't able to get a skycot due to surplus babies so I spent much of the flight down the back of the plane so dd could sit and crawl (she was 8 months at the time). Based on the above I'd probably recommend going through Asia. Also Asian airlines are probably more likely to fly direct to Chch as many asian tourists come for very short holidays and want to fly directly to the tourist hotspots of NZ - the main one being the area around Queenstown. Try JAL through Tokyo for example - it looks a bit longer distance-wise on the globe but at 30,000 feet distances seem to even out and that route doesn't require the pilot to dogs-leg around the Himalayas. Sydney airport is fine - but the connections are usually poor. HTH