Spec me: Flight to Australia

Clum · 5 Jan 2015 at 13:16

muffins said:
It doesn't matter who you fly with. Economy is economy, and leg room will be cramped.

I flew with Singapore Airlines on the Airbus A380, and found it to be cramped, and I'm only 5'8''

Haha, I can assure you that the Singapore A380 is far less cramped than a lot of other carriers/aircraft types. The 777-200s in particular have been responsible for some very near mid flight rage incidents from myself

My vote is for Singapore Airlines and the A380. Best I've used, and I fly the London - Sydney route pretty often. The Airbus seems to have a fair bit extra room on the window seats between passenger and the wall/window, which is nice. Plus theres loads of room to go for a walk - climb some stairs, should the feeling take you!

dirtychinchilla · 5 Jan 2015 at 13:23

muffins said:
It doesn't matter who you fly with. Economy is economy, and leg room will be cramped.

I flew with Singapore Airlines on the Airbus A380, and found it to be cramped, and I'm only 5'8''

Do you have an enormous bottom?

muffins · 5 Jan 2015 at 13:50

dirtychinchilla said:
Do you have an enormous bottom?

No. Not at all. I'm of average build.

Last time I flew to Australia was in 2010 and the condition of economy on the Singapore A380 was fairly tatty.

Vanilla · 5 Jan 2015 at 13:57

Singapore, book on the A380 early and reserve seats 80 A/B/J/K for a little more! Map below

http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/British_Airways/British_Airways_Airbus_A380_new.php

ikillbears · 5 Jan 2015 at 14:00

i managed to get my self to NZ with thai air and it is i think the best economic experience I have had. food was great, films etc all good ( from my experience it doesn't really matter what airline for that ) staff were really friendly but the one thing i noticed the most was the leg room. I looked it up and at the time they had the longest at 36" i believe. worth a look

theleg · 5 Jan 2015 at 16:34

[TW]Fox;27432756 said:
Malaysia were excellent for me and are regarded as being very good.

2nd this. Ive flown long haul with Malaysia over a dozen times and theyve always been awesome.

N17 · 5 Jan 2015 at 17:31

Ethihad, and use there new Residence suite

TheVoice · 5 Jan 2015 at 17:43

Tunney said:
I flew with Cathay to Sydney last month and thought that they were pretty good. I love the mix of western and Chinese food you get on their flights. Dim sum for breakfast was a nice change!

The one thing with Cathay is that you're changing planes in Hong Kong. The Heathrow -> HK flight was excellent - really impressive service and decent seats. The HK -> Sydney leg is on an older plane and the service isn't as good. The upside is the HK airport is clean, relatively quiet and modern.

If Cathay are the cheapest (and they were easily the cheapest for business when I flew last month), I'd recommend them. Otherwise stick with Emirates or Singapore.

Yeah the food was very nice and quite varied. I flew to Brisbane and I'm pretty sure the plane was equivalent to the one I flew into HK on. As you said, HK airport is very modern and airy and it's quite easy to find somewhere quiet to just sit and relax while waiting.

Amp34 · 5 Jan 2015 at 18:29

[TW]Fox;27433306 said:
It varies between about 30" and 34" depending on who you fly with. Depending on your height that 2-4" difference can be quite noticeable.

The Asian carriers tend to be best, IIRC Malaysia was 34" which is about as generous as it gets in economy.

6'2 which means I'm not going to pay an extra couple of hundred for a couple of extra inches of leg room, which is going to make little difference. If one offered 38" then I probably would. The reality is the cheapest fares will probably have a 31-33" pitch so it makes little difference.

Tbh the biggest difference is the age of the plane, which generally goes hand in hand with the IFE. New planes are scattered through the big carriers so checking the flight codes on Seatguru before purchasing is probably the best bet. I generally check on there before booking anyway.

On the other hand when I fly it's usually at very specific times so I don't have the luxury of deciding to book a day or two earlier for a cheaper flight with a specific airline. I usually fly in the evening, generally on a Friday, after work, and come back the day before going back to work, on a weekend or bank holiday, that way I get the max number of days holiday with my days off.

Megahurtz400 · 5 Jan 2015 at 18:50

Flew to Sydney with Emirates on an A380 with a 2 hour stop over in Dubai, great service, good food, leg room wasnt too bad (6'3" so this is normally an issue), cost nearly £700 one way booked about 2 months before hand.

Flew back with Air China, on an A330 I think? Clearly the more budget option, food was ok (Chinese option and Western option, Chinese dinner was nice. Beef and noodles IIRC. The chinese breakfast was only comparable to hot sick and porridge though. Avoid.), less leg room and the staff on board spoke VERY limited English.

I would obviously prefer to fly Emirates everytime, but if you don't have the extra cash, China or other budget airlines do the job, just don't expect to be AMAZED by customer service or food quality.

Dr House · 5 Jan 2015 at 18:52

http://www.holidaypirates.com/flights/cheap-open-jaw-flights-to-perth-australia010115

not that cheap but may be helpful

[TW]Fox · 5 Jan 2015 at 19:06

Amp34 said:
6'2 which means I'm not going to pay an extra couple of hundred for a couple of extra inches of leg room

Not sure who suggested you should pay a couple of hundred for a seat pitch variation. It's almost never worth paying hundreds more for one economy class carrier over another - but the airlines know this so you'll usually find several around the same pricepoint.

Amp34 · 5 Jan 2015 at 19:20

Obviously of there are two flights, leaving at about the same time, with similar stopover times, at similar prices, then I'll choose the one with extra seat pitch or better plane. That doesn't usually happen IME.

Freefaller · 5 Jan 2015 at 19:54

Evangelion said:
Emirates or Singapore Airlines.

This.

Or anything which uses an A380 - even for my bulky size, is more than comfortable enough. MAS is okay, but their service isn't brilliant - the food is good and the entertainment system is as well.

It is a long flight - but it's quite easy if you get yourself into the swing of it, and try and put yourself away from zulu time as soon as you can.

Uther · 5 Jan 2015 at 20:39

Putting in dates now Heathrow-Perth, November/December I'm getting return costs of £700-£800 with Emirates which seems quite reasonable. I assume the price goes up the closer it gets to the date you want to fly?

Freefaller · 5 Jan 2015 at 20:40

Any reason why you're choosing Perth?

Uther · 5 Jan 2015 at 21:08

We have friends living in the area that we would visit.

[TW]Fox · 5 Jan 2015 at 21:14

Uther said:
Putting in dates now Heathrow-Perth, November/December I'm getting return costs of £700-£800 with Emirates which seems quite reasonable. I assume the price goes up the closer it gets to the date you want to fly?

It does but it's as likely go down before then than it is to go up.

Just before Christmas Emirates had a sale on fares to Perth - from £590 - for a selection of dates up to and including November. Who knows if they'll come back, but I'd certainly hang back until at least 4-5 months out before booking.

Uther · 5 Jan 2015 at 21:27

Thanks Fox, that's useful to know!

justintime2001 · 5 Jan 2015 at 22:00

I flew with Singapore Airlines on the Airbus A380 in October. It was the 3rd time and I wouldn't recommend anyone else. But... there's always a but! You need to choose extra legroom seats to get the best comfort and we also found the upper deck to be roomier.