Spec me an airline

Soldato
Joined
7 Nov 2005
Posts
4,958
Location
Widnes
Hey,

Which is the best airline to travel to Auckland, New Zealand with? I don't mind paying a bit more if it means a more comfortable flight.

I live near Manchester so include any train fares to get to Heathrow.

Prices:

Cathay Pacific Airways £765 (Heathrow)
Emirates £783 (Manchester)
Singapore Airlines £865 (Heathrow)
Air New Zealand £870 (Heathrow)
Qanta Airways £868 (Heathrow)
 
I fly with Emirates whenever I go to Dubai. I've never had a problem with them and would recommend them, fairly comfortable although it's a substantially shorter flight.

I can't speak for the others through personal experience, but my Girlfriend rates Singapore Airlines; she used them to fly to Sydney and back a few years ago and never felt uncomfortable.
 
Yeah, like ten times the price?

Helps if your cousin worked for them. :)

I agree, it would be quite substantially more but when you need comfort, what Airline is not going to charge a premium thats through the roof?

Last year when I went to Africa, I could not get a direct flight 1st Class and would have had to pay 3x the cost of the direct flight with Thompson. It was Monarch that wanted all the dollar.
 
Last edited:
Helps if your cousin worked for them. :)

I agree, it would be quite substantially more but when you need comfort, what Airline is not going to charge a premium thats through the roof?

Last year when I went to Africa, I could not get a direct flight Business Class and would have had to pay 3x the cost of the direct flight with Thompson.
A first class flight from London to NZ is going to cost roughly between £5000 and £7000. I don't know about you but unless I was a multi millionaire, I'd never pay that for what amounts to less than a day of traveling, most of which will probably be spent asleep anyway.

I don't see how having a cousin in the airline can significantly reduce that, either. I get full industry discount with most airlines as staff travel and travel in first class cabins is usually not permitted. Since most ID flights are standby travel and only open to those in the industry (and generally only spouses and dependent children, not cousins), I don't see how it helps the OP at all.
 
I flew with Emirates from Manchester to Auckland and back. I'd definitely go with them, especially if you live closer to Manchester than Heathrow. The planes are nicely decked out and clean, the crew are very good at what they do (and the girls are mighty fine looking), legroom in cattle class is okay though over the course of a 26 hour flight anything less than a king-sized bed gets uncomfortable.

I take it the Emirates flight goes via Dubai and Melbourne, because that's the way I went. The Dubai to Melbourne leg is the worst, 13 hours over featureless Indian Ocean, though you can pick out some pretty little Maldive islands if your eyes are sharp enough.
 
We use ANZ most times, awesome flights. Qantas is good though!

Also back in 99 we used Cathay Pacific, that wasn't too bad.
 
Well, I'll chip in my 2p, last time I did it was return on air new zealand and I would never in a million years fly with them again. Bad customer service, bad food (even by airline standards), about the worst long haul flight I've ever had the misfortune to be on...
 
Back
Top Bottom