How much have you paid for CHRISTMAS flights NZ

[WingingWonder]

Hoping to get to see friends in Auckland next Christmas, and knowctyey sell fast and are expensive, so in order to gauge costs would love if you could share what you paid?
We would be c.15.12- new year
Departing anywhere in UK and consider most routes if decent airline!
Thanks

No idea sorry, but the further in advance you book the cheaper they generally are. My friend booked flights 8 weeks before flying to Brisbane and they were hellishly expensive. She booked the minute flights were released for the same dates for next year and they were a lot cheaper. Airlines release their flight schedules around 10 months in advance.

Btw Qatar do a direct flight via Doha to Auckland, my husband did it last year. 17 hours straight flying though.

We usually pay something like £1,400pp. With 5 of us now it's a joy.

The first time I went back for Christmas it was about £800pp.

Thanks all..,
I had a feeling it could be about those figures —bloody kids— would already be taking them out of school for it, but just so much 😱
Didn’t know quatar was straight through, having flown LH with them before I was impressed so maybe worth a go,
Thanks

If you can leave early December or before 8th or thereabouts, it's usually considerably cheaper. I flew Ethihad last time and they were fab. Cheaper than all others, short layovers and great service.

Also worth looking for LH flights out of European cities eg UK - Frankfurt/Paris- NZ as these can be cheaper.

Don't go via Istanbul. Was hideous.

Thanks, will factor that in- was stunned at the UK vs other departure tax but brexit uncertainty means I need to fully start and end in UK incase bags don’t make it back etc

I'm not sure that Brexit will impact on your suitcases getting lost or not...

However, there can be excellent savings made on flights that do not originate from the UK. Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt, Milan, Rome. Airlines will often have deals or sales departing from major European centres.

It's a bit of extra faff, so depends on the saving or how keen you are to make a saving, bearing in mind you will need a return flight from the UK to/from that destination.

To add further re long haul part of flights starting outside UK, we have saved £1600 on our flights to Japan next summer by flying in/out of Rome.

I can't see that baggage will be an issue as our bags will be checked and tagged from Japan through to London and vice versa.

Dublin can be a good one too. Lots of flights from London to Dub as well.

We booked April 2017 for departure 5 Dec, returned 8 Jan 2018 and it was £3850 for 2 adults 2 kids. Thought that wasn't too bad but had we left later or returned earlier it would have bumped the price way up