Finding flights

[cruiser3775]

Yes, Changi is a great airport for facilities like that, but there are many others that have nothing much, and sitting around an airport for hours is not much fun.  I liked the idea that I could choose different time frames and hotels on that website.

[arxcards]

On 6/23/2023 at 9:28 AM, Sparky74 said:

Business Class

 

I’ve never been able to afford business class myself although I have a sister and an aunt who refuse to fly in economy for overseas trips. I have, however, had the extreme good fortune to be upgraded twice in my life. 😁

In 2006 when returning from my first trip to the UK. I was travelling alone and Royal Brunei stuffed me around (long story) and to placate me they upgraded me from Brunei to Sydney. I decided then that I could get used to Business Class!

 

The other time was when DW & I flew from Newcastle to Norfolk Island in 2008. We were seated on the small aircraft when the flight attendant asked us if we would mind moving forward two rows because of the weight distribution on the plane. We were more than happy to move into the more spacious seats!

 

I remember someone saying years ago (perhaps it was in this forum) that instead of flying business class, they would break their journey and stay a night in a five star hotel. It was more cost effective and they felt it gave them a better travel experience. When DW & I went to the UK in 2015 we broke our return journey with a week in Hong Kong but we stayed in affordable AirBnB, not a 5 star hotel. After many weeks of busy sightseeing it was great to relax and recover from jet lag before heading home and back to work. 
 

Friends of mine, an adventurous family, plan layovers of 10 hours or more and leave the airport to explore the city, treating it like a port of call on a cruise. 
 

We all have different needs and priorities: comfort, budget, time… As others have said do your research, listen to all the advice and opinions, but at the end of the day, you do you.

 

Happy travels!

 

Between Sydney and the US, I am also a firm believer that a stopover in a resort in Fiji or Hawaii is good for the soul. We usually save it up for the trip home though. Long legs and long flights are a pain, and the 3-4-3 configuration of most economy seats now is something else to contend with. 

 

We look forward to a flight to Heathrow in a couple of years' time to catch the Crown world cruise home. I have been considering business class seats, but also figure that money could be better spent on upgrading to a mini-suite for 57 days, more involved port experiences, or most likely - a cruise around the UK prior to jumping aboard Crown Princess. Of all of these ways of spending our money, the business class seats are at the bottom of the list as it is all spent in 24hrs.

 

Business class is great, but not when traded-off against extra days at sea in bigger cabins. Snagging us a twin seat in premium economy would be a reasonable compromise.

 

As to the original topic, I am watching keenly, and have been poking around some of those sites. The obvious candidate is QF1 via Singapore, but also the option to fly to Perth, then direct to Heathrow. There are cheaper options - what airlines do people prefer when heading to Europe/UK?

[MMDown Under]

Once we stopped over in Honolulu during peak season, when accommodation was very expensive.  We hired a car for a day and drove to the other beautiful side of the island for the day.  When we got back to Honolulu, the girls slept on back seat until it was time to board the plane.  An inexpensive day in Hawaii.

[resordanis]

Thanks to all for mentioning Google flights. We have been able to get a reasonable price on business class flights from Tokyo to Singapore and then to Sydney for our Royal Princess cruise next year. My only problem was the annoying foreign exchange fee that Westpac charge. Still a good price, but not as attractive as first thought. Still happy (I think)🤔

[Galesa]

arxcards: We flew Sydney to Perth, 3 days in PER before catching QF9 to LHR, in April, in PE. 

 

Thought the direct flight was great! Board 7pm, have dinner a few drinks and a movie and then try and get some sleep. We found 17 hour trip to pass quite quickly. Of course PE helped. We did try for an (paid) upgrade but QF10 is very popular with BC and there's rarely any seats available for upgrade. 

 

This was our first PE flight. All our previous many flights to Europe have been in economy. After a flight from Sydney to Copenhagen and back with Singapore over Xmas we swore we'll never fly economy again. If we can't fly PE we ain't goin!

 

Over many years of flying to Europe we've tried breaking the trip up just about everywhere. Finally came to the view that we should just get it over and done with rather than have to deal with immigration customs luggage security- repeat.

[resordanis]

11 minutes ago, Galesa said:

arxcards: We flew Sydney to Perth, 3 days in PER before catching QF9 to LHR, in April, in PE. 

 

Thought the direct flight was great! Board 7pm, have dinner a few drinks and a movie and then try and get some sleep. We found 17 hour trip to pass quite quickly. Of course PE helped. We did try for an (paid) upgrade but QF10 is very popular with BC and there's rarely any seats available for upgrade. 

 

This was our first PE flight. All our previous many flights to Europe have been in economy. After a flight from Sydney to Copenhagen and back with Singapore over Xmas we swore we'll never fly economy again. If we can't fly PE we ain't goin!

 

Over many years of flying to Europe we've tried breaking the trip up just about everywhere. Finally came to the view that we should just get it over and done with rather than have to deal with immigration customs luggage security- repeat.

We found the same with flights to Europe. Stopovers can be expensive at times, so for us the difference wasn’t that great between Economy and Premium Economy and  the flight was over with and we didn’t have the hassle of getting back to the airport and starting again. Could never afford business to Europe but definitely Premium except for British Airways, that’s another story!

[Rassa]

We choose to pay extra and have the economy seats by the exit door.   Pre-covid for overseas flights they were only $40 extra, now they are $400 extra.   However, you have to be in reasonable health to be able to open the doors, should the situation ever arise.   Started purchasing those seats even for flights within Australia.  The middle seat in domestic flights is just horrible.

[valantine80]

Has anyone tried booking aisle and window seats in the hope no one will book the middle seat?

A few years ago paid extra to select our seats , middle and aisle, on flight Auckland to Buenos Aires. A very much younger person was in window seat and we were asked by flight attendant if we would swap. We declined and she was then moved to middle section into three vacant seats. We then had the spare seat beside us.

[Jean C]

I always fly economy and dread the prospect of perhaps having Mr or Mrs Blobby as a neighbour. Hasn't happened yet but always scan the boarding queue with trepidation 😧

[Rassa]

3 hours ago, valantine80 said:

Has anyone tried booking aisle and window seats in the hope no one will book the middle seat?

A few years ago paid extra to select our seats , middle and aisle, on flight Auckland to Buenos Aires. A very much younger person was in window seat and we were asked by flight attendant if we would swap. We declined and she was then moved to middle section into three vacant seats. We then had the spare seat beside us.

With trying to not book middle seats, I have found that the system won't let you complete the booking.  Two people together have to choose the middle seat in domestic with window or aisle.   With international, I was able to not choose the middle seat many years ago, but that has probably changed also.

[cruiser3775]

4 hours ago, valantine80 said:

Has anyone tried booking aisle and window seats in the hope no one will book the middle seat?

Won't work on Qantas or Virgin. If two people have booked  flights together, they can only choose two seats together when managing their flights online.

I prefer aisle seats If it's a row of three, and someone has already picked the window seat, I usually choose the aisle seat for that row when travelling solo.  Sometimes that means the single middle seat stays empty, but not always.

[valantine80]

1 hour ago, cruiser3775 said:

Won't work on Qantas or Virgin. If two people have booked  flights together, they can only choose two seats together when managing their flights online.

.

That's interesting, as Qantas has previously assigned us separated sets when on the same booking for unknown reason though fixed on request at check in.

[Porky55]

12 hours ago, arxcards said:

Between Sydney and the US, I am also a firm believer that a stopover in a resort in Fiji or Hawaii is good for the soul. We usually save it up for the trip home though. Long legs and long flights are a pain, and the 3-4-3 configuration of most economy seats now is something else to contend with. 

 

We look forward to a flight to Heathrow in a couple of years' time to catch the Crown world cruise home. I have been considering business class seats, but also figure that money could be better spent on upgrading to a mini-suite for 57 days, more involved port experiences, or most likely - a cruise around the UK prior to jumping aboard Crown Princess. Of all of these ways of spending our money, the business class seats are at the bottom of the list as it is all spent in 24hrs.

 

Business class is great, but not when traded-off against extra days at sea in bigger cabins. Snagging us a twin seat in premium economy would be a reasonable compromise.

 

As to the original topic, I am watching keenly, and have been poking around some of those sites. The obvious candidate is QF1 via Singapore, but also the option to fly to Perth, then direct to Heathrow. There are cheaper options - what airlines do people prefer when heading to Europe/UK?

We were firm Etihad passengers - via Abu Dhabi where we have spent time on stopovers.

 

But have recently been getting much better $$ with Singapore Air - (particularly on 'one way' ) by booking as soon as the dates open to book. 
 

As much as I love Qantas - have yet to find a price to match SA. We too like mini suites and 5⭐️ hotels (while still flying Business 😉), so try to find a bargain of some sort. Helps that DH is still working full time. Once he retires this will probably disappear. 🥹

[lucymorgan]

I've found it very much worth it to collect frequent flyer points - either for upgrades to J (business class) or purchasing J or PE (premium economy) seats.  There are a number of sites that help with this if you are in Australia.  For example, australian frequent flyer, point hacks and a number of groups on soc med - e.g. qantas points collectors and woolworths reward enthusiasts.  For example I recently scored 2 business class tickets  Syd to Singapore with British Airways using points.  People often say it is difficult but it isn't if you have time, are willing to learn the tricks and are willing to plan.  Happy collecting if you decide to do this! 

Edited June 27, 2023 by lucymorgan

[Galesa]

22 hours ago, valantine80 said:

Has anyone tried booking aisle and window seats in the hope no one will book the middle seat?

A few years ago paid extra to select our seats , middle and aisle, on flight Auckland to Buenos Aires. A very much younger person was in window seat and we were asked by flight attendant if we would swap. We declined and she was then moved to middle section into three vacant seats. We then had the spare seat beside us.

We always book aisle and a window. DW loves the bulkhead for sleeping. I like the aisle for regular bathroom trips and movement. It's not because we're trying to "game" the system for an empty middle seat, we're doing because it's our preference; and quite frankly, it only ever works around 10% of the time in our experience (more likely on domestic flights). To respect the middle pax, we basically ignore each other for the whole trip.

[cheznandy]

9 hours ago, lucymorgan said:

I've found it very much worth it to collect frequent flyer points - either for upgrades to J (business class) or purchasing J or PE (premium economy) seats.  There are a number of sites that help with this if you are in Australia.  For example, australian frequent flyer, point hacks and a number of groups on soc med - e.g. qantas points collectors and woolworths reward enthusiasts.  For example I recently scored 2 business class tickets  Syd to Singapore with British Airways using points.  People often say it is difficult but it isn't if you have time, are willing to learn the tricks and are willing to plan.  Happy collecting if you decide to do this! 

Totally agree, we do the same. ANZ Black card, Qantas FF and everyday reward, and Accor all linked together.

We have earned over 2000 QFF points just staying in Accor hotels this year, plus the points on the CC card and the Accor points, we can just about get another free night. Comes in handy for those Sydney stays$$$. All the hotels in Sydney are up over $400 for a stay we need in October, but I have ours for free!!

Have you discovered Qantas shopping? Click through their site, order as usual and they add up the points, mostly it's $1 for $1, but lots are triple points.

Everything is so expensive these days, gotta save where you can, and like you say if you have the time and knowledge it works.

I am patiently waiting for the dates for Sydney to Singapore flights we need, good to know you got Business, we have points to use!

[Sparky74]

1 hour ago, Galesa said:

…we basically ignore each other for the whole trip.

For the whole trip or just for the flight? 🤣🤣🤣