UK -> Singapore -> Auckland

wez130

wez130

wez130

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31 Jan 2004
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Matakana New Zealand
I'm trying to plan a trip to Auckland in January, but rather than get a connecting flight from Beijing / Singapore / Dubai, i'd like to spend a night or 2 at the connecting city, preferably Singapore, what's the best way to plan this? I'm not well travelled so it's all new to me.

Thanks
 
I know, middle of Summer, will be there for about a month too, meeting to gf's parents. Will probably be flying over to Sydney whilst we're there too, see some of her friends from Oz. Can't wait, though not looking forward to the 2 x 12 hr flights to get to NZ, i'm a nervous flyer lol.
 
When I did New Zealand's north island, I flew Singapore Airlines (easily the best carrier I've flown with)from Manchester to Auckland, with a two-night (almost 3 day) stop over in Singapore in both directions.

Definitely worth it, but I'm not sure I'd have needed any more than the 4 or 5 days I got in Singapore.

A month well a month minus 4 days for stopping in Singapore, was easily enough to travel most of the north island and do one heck of a lot of the touristy things as well as a host of stuff with my NZ family just living their lives. Not sure if you plan on visiting the South Island, but a month would be incredibly tight for both IMO.
 
I Had a stopover in Singapore with British airways on way to Christchurch ,not the best airline but They're not too bad
 
I've done uk to NZ at least 10 times, the best airlines in my experience are Singapore and Air NZ (following their big refurb a few years back).

Virgin were good too, but can't remember if they still fly to NZ. Malaysian wasn't bad either.

BA was cramped and disappointing.
 
Air NZ have a route via the US - either LAX or SFO I think. So you could possibly just go east the entire way, which will reduce overall travel times a little bit.

eg. this:

22:30 London Heathrow Sat 7 --> Sep 17:50 Hong Kong Sun 8 Sep
19:10 Hong Kong Sun 8 Sep --> 10:00 Auckland Mon 9 Sep
21:30 Auckland Sat 28 Sep --> 11:15 London Heathrow via Los Angeles Sun 29 Sep

Dates picked arbitrarily, cost was £1207.

You might be able to put together a multi stop flight which went London -> Sydney -> Auckland -> San Fran -> London... assuming Air NZ fly to Sydney from HK.

But you also might want to do the NZ bit first.
 
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If you book on SQ's web site or Expedia, you can usually force an overnight stay as you can choose the individual legs.

This would be my recommendation. Singapore airlines are the best airline on this route, and you want to go via Singapore so this makes the most sense.
You won't be able to force 2 nights in one go, but if you do one in each direction it adds up to two. The advantage here is that it won't cost you any more
Might even work out cheaper as the journey time is longer.


Minstadave said:
Most airlines will let you have a single stopover, often with no fee. Just pick an airline that connects through Singapore.
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Or this :p
 
[TW]Fox;24532959 said:
Singapore Airlines connect through Singapore and are probably the best airline on that route anyway.
Click to expand...

This.

Singapore Airlines A380 uses the top deck for Economy. Book into an A380 flight, pick seat in upper deck...awesome. Also if you wantr, pay £30 for the awesome row of seats with none in front of them (There are 4 of them)
 
We may be changing plans yet, just trying to work out what's more feasible, my gf's visa runs out next June, so we're considering myself getting a 'streaming family' visa so thsat i cang o over to NZ for 2 years and work, my job fits in the the long term shortage list (chef), but loking at the NZ government website, it seems such a chore to get a visa, CRB check i can understand, but they want a med exam with chest X-ray? Then they require proof that i've been with my gf for 12 months, (it'll be nearly 2 years by the time we travel next June) I feel a little bewildered and don't know where to start atm, just as well we've got a year to plan!
 
mjt said:
If you book on SQ's web site or Expedia, you can usually force an overnight stay as you can choose the individual legs.

This would be my recommendation. Singapore airlines are the best airline on this route, and you want to go via Singapore so this makes the most sense.
You won't be able to force 2 nights in one go, but if you do one in each direction it adds up to two. The advantage here is that it won't cost you any more
Might even work out cheaper as the journey time is longer.



Or this :p
Click to expand...

On their website, just choose multistop flight, and put in the dates you want to arrive and leave singapore.
Prices vary by SQ have a sale at the moment, or certainly did last weekend.
 
wez130 said:
We may be changing plans yet, just trying to work out what's more feasible, my gf's visa runs out next June, so we're considering myself getting a 'streaming family' visa so thsat i cang o over to NZ for 2 years and work, my job fits in the the long term shortage list (chef), but loking at the NZ government website, it seems such a chore to get a visa, CRB check i can understand, but they want a med exam with chest X-ray? Then they require proof that i've been with my gf for 12 months, (it'll be nearly 2 years by the time we travel next June) I feel a little bewildered and don't know where to start atm, just as well we've got a year to plan!
Click to expand...

The x-ray will cost less than a hundred quid. Do you have to do the full medical or is that only for those seeking residence? The proof part should be easily provable. The NZ Embassy who you'll probably deal with if you have issues are absolutely amazing. You'll find a world of difference between what they do and how quickly they do it compared to what you are used to.
 
[FnG]magnolia;24536927 said:
The x-ray will cost less than a hundred quid. Do you have to do the full medical or is that only for those seeking residence? The proof part should be easily provable. The NZ Embassy who you'll probably deal with if you have issues are absolutely amazing. You'll find a world of difference between what they do and how quickly they do it compared to what you are used to.
Click to expand...

We've been discussing what options we've got. First choice was the best option (Go to NZ for a holiday for 4 weeks (ish), that seems unlikely due to lack of funds atm, and i don't want to scrimp.

Next choice was to stay here till June next year, then myself get a working visa for NZ - but it appears i have to aged be under 30 to do that?? My only option there is the family stream visa, which looks like a ball ache to sort out. I'm not sure whether i need a full medical or not, NZ visa website is'nt as concise as i'd like, to the point even my NZ born GF didn't know what some of it was lol.

Finally, this is probably the easiest option, (and my favourite i think), for my GF to extend her visa on a partner basis here in UK, which gives us both chance to go and travel Europe next summer then visit NZ next January (2015) instead, gives us both chance to save a lot more money.

However, i would like to spend some time out in NZ with my GF's family and to visit a good majority of NZ because on paper it does sound like a fantastic country to live!
 
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