Airline recommendations to Australia

[99redballoons]

Hi, hoping to travel to Australia in April with dh, ds(4), & dd(2). My sister recommended Singapore Airline because it's she felt it had more to offer the kiddies in headrest entertainment. I have been checking prices and availability online but nothing is coming up for them, mainly BA/Qantas. Have been told they just have films for kiddies.

Who would you go with and is it worth looking at different dates to get the one you want?

I've done quite a lot of research on this subject recently as we are travelling to Australia in August. Obviously it depends which UK airport you want to travel from and which Aus airport you are travlling to but Singapore Airlines do seem to be the most well reviewed along with Cathay Pacific. Have a look at the Airline Quality website and Seat Guru site for more details and reviews of the airlines. To the best of my knowledge the BA entertainment system still is not 'on demand' like that of Singapore Air, Emirates, Brunei Air and has quite a limited selection of films. For that reason alone I didn't even consider BA (although we've flown with them to the US and to the Caribbean a few times). Although the reviews aren't great, I've ended up booking our flights with Emirates because they are the only airline to reduce their summer flight prices on August 11th (we actually wanted to fly on August 10th) and the Emirates flights on the 11th are heaps cheaper (about £1,300 for the four of us) than any other airline on the 10th. I recommend using the Opodo website for quotes especially if you want to fly in and out of different cities in Australia like we do (use the multi-stop flight option). Also Travelmood and www.airline-network.co.uk Airline Network]] Of course you can try the Singapore Airlines direct website for a quote too. Hope that helps.

Hi,

I've used BA to fly to and from Aus (mainly because times suited) but would also be happy using Singapore Airlines.

I would agree with Copycat's comments; it is also very much dependent on which airports you fly to/from. Singapore Airlines main hub in the UK is at Heathrow. Also Singapore fly to more airports in Australia than BA now does (I think BA now only fly into Sydney and codeshare with Quantas on other routes into Australia).

What sites have you looked at online, sometimes it is actually best to look at the airline's website directly.

www.singaporeair.com is the website of Singapore Airlines. There is lots of information on there re their inflight services (they're currently showing Ben 10, Powerpuff girls and Dora the Explorer for younger children amongst two or three others).

BTW Singapore airlines do not have a premium economy class in their cabin.

Thanks for the info. We're flying to Singapore to stay with friends for a few days, then to Sydney, then to Perth and then back to UK.

I checked with singaporair.com previously and they only had high priced seats left. I have since found some on expedia.co.uk which come out at the cheapest yet.

Will take a look at your websites and other airlines.

Thanks very much!

If you want to do that particular routing I'd initially look at Singapore Airlines or BA/Quantas. They won't do the internal flight within Aus (would look at Virgin Blue for that sector).

I would try to keep the international arrival and departure airport into Australia the same. If you for instance arrive into Sydney and depart from Perth back to Singapore it may cost you a lot more.

I agree with atillathemeerkat. Qantas is better for food, snacks, kids packs, inhouse movies/kids shows especially for your young ones.
Go virginblue or jetstar for the internal flights although jetstar is ultracheap.
Virgin also have good car hire deals with Europcar if you are planning on hiring a car as well.

We flew to UK return to OZ with Virgin Atlantic. They were brilliant. We had 9yo dd, 6yo ds and 4 yo ds with us. The kids wanted the flight to be longer!! The inflight entertainment is fantastic and they fed the children first with huuuge amounts of food. (Warning: fruit shoot was served).

You can choose your own seats online. For an extra $300 AUD you can get economy premium seats which is the old business class before sky beds.

Would highly recommend.

Malaysian or Royal Brunei
short connecting flights to Singapore as they would stop off in KL or Brunei

ooooh hark at her with her aiport acronyms

LOL at Cfrau flying Cathy.

(Was Mandy jealous?)

i used to work for a well known courier company and have been totally indoctrinated into using the IATA codes
and hello suzy!

califrau, when are you going to Sydney?

oops sorry OP for ignoring question - others know better than me anyway

califrau we want to go to Melbourne for a little holiday sometime. I was just wondering if we could try to go at the same time as you so we could meet up - and see ghosty and some other friends of ours who there too. it's a plan anyway....

ok I will work on it
have just looked up flight prices and they don't seem TOO bad - we need to wait and see if DH gets a decent bonus in April and if it's OK then OZ here we come!

Oooooohhhhhh yes yes yes, come and see me ... yes yes ... [excited emoticon] It'll be fab ... do you want to see some 'culture' MrsJC? Shall I see if the Wiggles will be on??
Hehehehe

I am going the UK from Melbourne with Emirates in June ... very well priced and lands at Gatwick which is very handy for where my family live ...
I like Emirates - have had good flights between Melbourne and Auckland with them ... but i don't know how they will be longhaul with children.
I think Quantas has gorn downhill personally ...

We went to Australia in dec with dd then 9 months.We went with Royal Brunei and although I have flown on more up to date aircraft,the crew were absolutely fantastic with dd and definitely helped to make the flight stress free.
They are cheap too!

Flew with Singapore Heathrow to Sydney in december with 3 year old and 6 month old. Singapore were fantastic with kids, food for 3 year old was great too, they served jelly-juice one the way back which she thought was the best thing she'd ever had. However there weren't that many programmes on for her age just one 30 min episode of Dora, so she ended up watching High School Musical 2 three times on the way back, didn't really mind as it's fairly harmless and she loves singing and dancing. We did fly on the new Airbus 380 from Singapore to Sydney though and it has lots more films to choose from. I found flights over fine and felt shorter than I expected but coming back felt much longer so next time I think I would break over night on return.

I really think I might sort this Melbourne trip out
can see Ghosty
can see Califrau
can see old friend of ours (native Melbournian or whatever you call 'em)
can see other musicky friend

AND I hear that Melbourne is the place for shopping

Sorry for all this hijacking 99redballoons! I do like Singapore meself. Wouldn't touch BA with a bargepole with kids TBH - they're crapola

Hi Ghosty, we (dh, myself and ds 1 and 2 aged 13 and 10) are flying Emirates from Gatwick to Melbourne in August. I've read some pretty awful reviews of their longhaul flights so I'm really glad you have had good flights with them before. I think one of the problems is the chaos at Dubai airport at the moment and transfers from plane to terminal for the 2/3 hour stopover are taking 30 minutes or more. I'd love to hear how your flight goes in June. We live 30 minutes from Gatwick so this was a major draw for us along with the cheaper price of the flights of course .

We will only be in Melbourne for 3 days (to visit my cousin and Aunt who live in Mitcham and Burwood) before heading to Brisbane and Sydney but we also want to do a whirlwind tour of the city. Is there anywhere in particular we should see that will appeal to the dc? DH and I are considering emigrating but the dc are very opposed to the idea so we want them to have a fab holiday .

Sorry for another hijack 99redballoons - have you booked your flights yet?

Personally I would avoid BA and Quantas like the plague, with kids or without! I had to do an emergency trip home last September and it was a truly horrible journey thanks to the rudeness/bad attitude/incompetence of both BA and Quantas alike. I would always fly Singapore Airlines given a choice, particularly with children.

We are flying with Malaysian Airlines tomorrow to Sydney. I have never flown with them before but my Mum has, the seat pitch is supposed to be one of the best, apparently the food can be a bit dire but am taking a packed lunch for the kids because they never seem to want to eat Airline food, so what this space when i come back and Ir'll report.

One thing that looked good is that we leave 10 at night and we have a 12 hour flight to KL and then an 8 hour flight to Sydney, so good going out, hopefully we could all get a good sleep, a bit of a walk around KL and then only a 8 hour flight, not such good timing coming back though.

Oh and we are travelling with a 4 and 5 year old.

Have done the trip Syd - Glasgow, with kids on numerous occasions.

Emirates was fantastic (great entertainment system & gifts for the kids / great meals / we also avoided Heathrow which is a big plus when you have kids). British Airways / Qantas were average (to be honest we had heaps of problems with BA - they just ignored the kids - meals for the kids were below par). Singapore was great (hostesses were really helpful with parents / kids). Cathay hostesses were similar to Singapore.

Guess it depends on where you want to stop off. We found it heaps easier to have a night or two stop off (along the way) to assist with the jet lag.