Flights to Sydney - websites/travel agents/carriers

[kokeshi]

I've just had word that I've been granted residency on Oz. Wooohoo! I'll be coming over with DP soon (around the 25th september) for 5 weeks and was looking for suggestions on which travel agent/website/airline to go with. We're basically looking for the cheapest option so if you know of any deals at the mo, that would be most appreciated. Oh, we'll be flying from Glasgow preferably.

We're really excited! I haven't been back for 5 years, I'm so looking forward to it!

Many thanks.

I don't think that you will get a flight from Glasgow through to Sydney; you will in all likelihood have to fly south to Heathrow or Manchester initially.

Quantas, BA or Singapore Airlines are airlines woth considering.

My DH flies regularly to Oz using Singapore. Cheaper first class than BA business, don't know if that is the same for other seats though.

BA had a deal going a few weeks ago - flying into Perth, Melbourne or Sydney. Not sure if its still happening (only know because I had just booked flights to Perth with Quantas and then saw the advert for cheap flights with BA, was gutted!!!).

Quantas was pretty much the cheapest we found and they seem to have a good reputation. They also had fairly sociable flight times too!! Not sure about flying from Glasgow though, sorry.

Hope you find something!!!

I used to work for travelbag, I'll try and tell you what I remember.

Your flights wont be 'cheap' as you are flying so close to your date, they come out approx 11 months in advance which is the best time to book. However youre not going at an incredibly expensive time of year.

Best carriers are Singapore/Malaysian/Emirates I would give BA and Qantas a wide-berth. Malaysian have the largest seat pitch and best customer service, ditto customer service for Emirates and Singapore.

Would recommend against going through US (this is what we did, was a nightmare).

I would recommend using Travelbag or Ebookers, its normally cheaper than booking direct.

ok have had a quick look, you can go from glasgow but you will have to stop in Heathrow anyway (this is with United, BA and KLM which stops in amsterdam also), plus its a lot more expensive at £1500.

If you go from Heathrow then with singapore youre looking at about £850

I'm Australian, so I fly back all the time and have tried most carriers.

Singapore has always been the best for service/food/comfort, and they are great with my dd.
Also, the airport has a pool and hotel rooms which can be hired out by the hour if your stopover is a little long. We always have a swim and get a room for a bit if time allows. It makes the trip SO much more bearable. The pool/rooms are in a wing of the airport and are really reasonable and a short walk/train shuttle from the gates.

Hi folks, thanks so much for all your replies, they're really helpful. Apologies for not coming back sooner, I've been out at travel agents in Glasgow.

It looks like going from Glasgow adds about £250 on to the fair if I'm flying direct (as direct as you can get), but the problem arises actually coming from London to Glasgow.

I went to Trailfinders today, they quoted a price of £991 with UNited Airlines, which I think must go through America. I don't fancy that either.

Another one I've been quoted is Asiana, but I've never heard of them. That's £750 from Heathrow.

I'll check out all the options that have been suggested so far, thanks again guys, this is really helpful.

Kokeshi

If you look at www.airlinequality.com it gives reviews of Asiana along with other airlines.

Another thing to bear in mind is the one piece of hand luggage rule which catches pax out especially if they have to transfer at Heathrow/Gatwick for another flight. If you return from Heathrow back to Glasgow you will only be allowed ONE piece of hand luggage even though you may have brought back two pieces of hand luggage from say Singapore to Heathrow.

HTH

Picknmix

Just to let you know that BA only fly into Sydney these days (BA scrapped its own Melbourne route some time back). The other routes you quoted all use their partner carrier Quantas.

Oh thanks for this Attila. We were on the phone last night and I think we've managed to secure a pretty good deal.

It's with World Wide Flights, whose number appeared on the deals section of cheapflights.co.uk. The guy was really helpful, and we're going to go with Asiana out of Glasgow on the 23rd Sept. We get a stop-over in Seoul, and two stop-overs on the way back (Seoul, London).

We return on th 6th November, and all for £799. It seems like a fantastic deal. I looked up airline reviews and it's really positive for Asiana. So, we're just waiting on confirmation now.

OK, we have just over a week to get ourselves sorted. Eeeek!

OK, after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing we have it. Poor wee manny coming into work on his day off as well! We're flying Asiana, but we're coming back slightly later than planned as we would have had to stay overnight in Heathrow with our original plan. So we'll be away from 23rd Sept to 13th November. Good God, that's a long time!

We have 3 house-sits though so that'll be keeping our accommodation costs to a minimum. I'm really excited!

Our first place is in Manly for a couple of weeks. Anyone around there with any good sightseeing suggestions?

Then we're off to Bowral in the Southern Highlands, a bit more rural but looking forward to the bushwalks. Appreciate any advice from people down this way too.

Our last one is in Blacktown, Greater Sydney. Also looking for hints and tips!

Thanks for all your help so far folks! Looking forward to joining you soon!