Cheapest /best flights to Adelaide?

[bigee]

As per title,looking to travel around Christmas,dont mind what day..,been told Singapore Airlines is the way to go but looking for any (better?) alternatives.Oh,will only be good old regular economy!
Thanks in advance.

[5potTurbo]

Flying from Heathrow?

[bigee]

Ooops.always forget something.Yes,from Heathrow.

[zac510]

This is always expensive because they only fly direct from Adelaide to the SE Asian hubs on a few days of the week and at non peak times these flights can be less than capacity. Then you add the usual Xmas time loading! Lsat time I did it over Xmas I paid over £1300.

But the extra cost still beats transferring at Syd/Melb and wasting another half day IMO.

Forgot to mention I have done it on Singapore, Malaysian and Qantas and I could hardly split them, they all seemed fine. The other option I think is Cathay Pacific.

Edited by zac510 on Wednesday 22 September 16:46

[bigee]

Thanks Zac,also been told that the best plane to go on is the A380 airbus...any comments? Can you even 'pick' your plane so to speak?

[GeraldSmith]

I've been there with Malaysian, it was weird, the airport could only handle one international flight at a time so they couldn't check in the next flight until the previous one had left.... But then Adelaide is a bit weird...

[5potTurbo]

bigee said:

Thanks Zac,also been told that the best plane to go on is the A380 airbus...any comments? Can you even 'pick' your plane so to speak?

Not all Airlines have an A380 in their fleet, but IIRC, Lufthansa, Singapore, Emirates, Qantas do.

Using SE Asian hubs, as mentioned above, Cathay Pacific, for example, will have all flights via Hong Kong.

Cathay, in their newest aircraft, are fairly comfortable in economy. It's always worth searching online for the airline seat pitch/width, if, like me, you're not the most, err, svelte or virtically challenged individuals.

[zac510]

Usually they tell you what type of plane will be flying when you book it so you could book your flight on that basis!

You'll always get a 747 or maybe an A380 on the Heathrow > Asia leg but to Adelaide you'll get a twin-engined jigger. Not sure if the Adelaide airport runway could handle the A380. I expect that the airline would rather keep a big plane like that on the heavy traffic routes anyway.

[Jackleman]

I would look at getting AirAsia to KL and perhaps onwards to Perth or Melbourne, then looking up on Virgin Blue's website for their happy hour to get a cheap deal across from either city. That is probably the cheapest way if you are happy to go cattle class.

[GeraldSmith]

zac510 said:

Usually they tell you what type of plane will be flying when you book it so you could book your flight on that basis!

You'll always get a 747 or maybe an A380 on the Heathrow > Asia leg but to Adelaide you'll get a twin-engined jigger. Not sure if the Adelaide airport runway could handle the A380. I expect that the airline would rather keep a big plane like that on the heavy traffic routes anyway.

Some A330/340s and 777s can handle the distance, so although Qantas, BA, Malaysia, Singapore are likely to put a 747 or 380 on the leg out of Heathrow you can't be sure. I've found myself on 777s and 340s out to asia with Virgin and Cathay in the past and I'll be flying into Sydney on one direct from Abu Dhabi in the next couple of days.

All you can be sure of is that the leg into Adelaide won't be a 747 or 380.

I think it's more about how the airline has it configured than the type of plane.

[Beardy10]

Friend of mine lives in Adelaide...he always travels Singapore Airlines to London.