Flights to Sydney

[witte]

We really want to go over to Sydney for a wedding but only flights that are viable price wise and travel time/stops etc are via the ME

Would you book? It’s for 6 weeks time. We’ve been holding off booking.

My brother has been looking at Australia flights. Hes found one that stops in shanghai rather than the ME and is very reasonable. Worth a look? Although he is flying to Melbourne rather than Sydney.

I'm assuming that's with China Southern or China Eastern? Those airlines don't have a great reputation, I personally would avoid them.

For long distance flights i have used Dial a flight several times.
I just tell them what my needs are and they have always come back with good prices and schedules that I hadn't picked up on elsewhere.
It may be worth asking them.

Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong are good, or Singapore

That would be put to choice but prices are through the roof

I wouldn’t go through ME. Consider longer flight times. And Chinese Airlines are fine.
There are direct flights London-Perth and you could then take a domestic, but it is likely to be even more expensive.

Have you also looked at obscure routes like via Mauritius (you do end up in Perth), Vietnam or Sri Lanka? Also 2 stop routes with Finnair or Lufthansa or KLM? I wouldn't book with a ME airline right now, but the flights were running to Dubai when we were in Manchester airport last week.

Absolutely nothing wrong with these airlines from a safety point of view. DH is a pilot and would have no issues in flying with them. Yes, connecting in China is inconvenient for various reasons (language barrier, can’t use card payment, many social media channels blocked etc) but for the cost saving it’s certainly justifiable for many people. We paid £950 return for DD’s Etihad flights to Sydney last year - China Eastern offer flights for half of this, you just have to be brave enough to do it!