Which airline to Oz?

[sleep envy]

I'm looking to go to Syndey next month and there seems to be every airline flying there from London

Other than the usual outfits (BA, Virgin, etc) is there anyone else worth considering flying with and are there carriers to avoid at all costs?

[OzCupra]

Done most of my trips with BA and Qantas. Both are very good, if on the expensive side of things. Heading home next year for a few months again booked with Qantas.

Also flown Singapore Airlines which also rate quite well. Been told to avoid by friends some of the middle eastern airlines (names of which ones allude me at this point)

Try and get yourself on the new airbus if your flying cattle class as i'm told that they have more leg room.

[Matt..]

Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines are probably the better ones. There is absolutely no way i would ever fly that far in economy with BA/Virgin.

[sleep envy]

cheers guys

are Etihad worth flying with?

[Matt..]

http://www.airlinequality.com/StarRanking/5star.ht...

[sleep envy]

thanks again

[whitechief]

I fly to Sydney on the 17th, got a cracking deal with Asiana who rank as 5*, have also flown with Malaysia, who were very good.

[Engineer1]

Not BA/Quantas if you are flying economy, flew with them 3years ago and where right at the back of the plane, they ran out of food choices, drinks etc between 5 and 10 rows infront of us each time, and we where close enough to the crew bit that you could hear them making their choices. So who ever you fly with don't land up right at the back of the plane.

[bleesh]

I did Heathrow to Sydney via Hong Kong 2 years ago with Virgin - on a brand new A340-600.
It was in fact the first commercial flight it had done......... :-)
That was economy, down towards the back and there was plenty of room, and it
wasn't too bad - good entertainment stuf as well.

12 hours to HK, 3 hours wandering round the airport and then back onto the
same aircraft and same seat for an overnight flight to Sydney.

[Puggit]

whitechief said:

I fly to Sydney on the 17th, got a cracking deal with Asiana who rank as 5*, have also flown with Malaysia, who were very good.

Asiana have a very good reputation. But I think their connections in Korea often mean over-nighting.

[whitechief]

3hr connection on way out, night in 4* Hotel on way back as part of the ticket price.

[greygoose]

sleep envy said:

cheers guys

are Etihad worth flying with?

I went with Emirates via Dubai and Singapore and they were a very good airline, I'd imagine Etihad would have high standards too.

[sleep envy]

cheers guys, very helpful

[paoloh]

Air NZ business class is very good.

[v15ben]

Emirates would be my bet in terms of quality. The only issue heading to Sydney is that the stop in Dubai means a shorter flight first, then a long drag to Sydney rather than that opposite way round as you'd get by flying via Asia.

[sleep envy]

looking to stop off somewhere on the way for a couple of days so it's no biggie

[v15ben]

In that case I'd definitely recommend them. They have some good prices around at the moment though not sure how many seats they'll have left this close to Xmas

[sleep envy]

looking to fly out on xmas day or thereafter

[v15ben]

Try Xmas Day as suprisingly few people fly then. I've found a good saving on flights that customers have asked about if they don't mind spending Xmas day in the air!

[skeeterm5]

Singapore or Thai - both are excellent.

S