Lie flat seat from Australia to UK, or...

malc_b

Some interesting ideas, thanks. I'll look into the shorter hops. FYI I'm not with her but her sister is. There well may be a lesson but I'm not sure insurance company's would have paid out in this case anyway, they always seem to avoid paying what they don't have to. FYI Australia has a reciprocal arrangement with UK so in effect you have the equivalent of the NHS. Her travel insurance lapsed during her stay and yes, in hindsight , it might well have been a good idea to take out some more but it was overlooked and given there was the Australian NHS it was probably not seen as important.

She has a cracked pelvis and cracked ribs after a horse bolted. When she comes out of hospital the likelihood is a lot pain, crutches, etc. for some time. Like with a bad back I'm assuming which I know about, so sitting for 24hrs will not help her recovery. Hence I'm thinking that business class with lie flat seats needs to be considered. It's a case of finding the best cost option. Stay longer, shorter flights, or lie flat seats.

I do wonder if an insurance company would have paid for business class? Pain killers are cheaper, but as her dad my priorities are somewhat different.

ailuro2

Keep her there for a week or two extra to give her a chance to start healing before putting her through 24 hours of flights.

Also buying that bit further in advance might bring down the business class flight price.

At least in Australia there's the NHS type care, flying her to somewhere unknown with a pre-existing condition could get very expensive if anything else were to happen to her.;)

Of course you can get in touch with the airline and ask what they can help with., you never know she may land lucky.

Tojo_Ralph

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As dmg24 says, 3 or 4 economy seats a far better than one, however even when employing my economy seat bed making techniques (see below ) and using them as a bed, they are nothing like comfortable and are certainly not suited to laying on ones back, which I assume is what your daughter will need, thus I would forget that idea.

With regards to breaking up the journey, ailuro2 makes an excellent point with regards to suffering a relapse and getting stuck in a country where medical care needs to be paid for, so again I would avoid.

As you already know, your daughters health is the priority here and with all the unknowns and variables (pelvic breaks vary wildly) with regards to recovery, the best you can really do is exactly what you are doing, to look at all the options and wait until you get some good medical advice from her doctor/s.

Where is your daughter in Aus? or rather where can she fly from? Where does she need to fly to in the UK?

With regards to rehabilitation, whilst your daughter no doubt wishes to be home with her family and her family wish her home, it may well be that the warmth down under would be the best healer?

Have you looked at reducing accomodation costs in Aus? £50 a day (£1,500 a month) plus food must provide an opportunity for a cost saving?

BigBouncyBall

what about flying to beijing (shorter flight) and then getting the transiberian sleeper train all the way to moscow then get sleeper trains into london. Lie flat all the way for a fraction of the cost and see all these countries as well

Mr_Lahey

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

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That is pretty damn impressive!

malc_b

BigBouncyBall wrote: »

what about flying to beijing (shorter flight) and then getting the transiberian sleeper train all the way to moscow then get sleeper trains into london. Lie flat all the way for a fraction of the cost and see all these countries as well

I'm not sure that would be cheaper. I found a site that covered travelling but not flying and the costs they gave were more that business class. And I would rather she went from Aus NHS to UK NHS. Travel insurers are hardly going to want to cover her now.

BigBouncyBall

she better take a cocktail of pain killers and sleeping pills and try to grin and bare it then i'm afraid.

malkie76

Have you contacted the airline for options yet ?

dzug1

Might be worth looking at doing it by sea - OK expensive, but so is staying in Oz, and at least your living expenses are covered for the duration.

monomer

dmg24 wrote: »

Is she actually fit to fly?

This is actually a fair point. If she's suffered a fractured pelvis and ribs, she might be immobile in hospital for a bit. I don't want to be negative here, but flying on an aeroplane might place her further at risk of developing blood clots, which would be quite dangerous. Seek medical advice first would be my recommendation!