looking for flights to New Zealand around next Easter

cundall

VixxAnn wrote:

Ok - been searching web all night
best price I had come up with was with Thomas Cook, flying with Malaysian Airlines via Kuala Lumpar total for five people £3894 inc tax (avg. £778 each)
BUT...
have just found something astonishing and need advice PLEASE
have found a flight with Korean Air (never heard of them before) London to Auckland via Seoul £2898 (avg £579 each!!)

Can someone please tell me something about Korean Air because that price sounds amazingly cheap - basically I am wondering is there a reason they are cheaper and is it not worth saving the money ?????

If you do go with Thomas Cook i have a voucher which you can have.. (PM me) and i dont know if it would be good though it gives you 400pounds off for the total flight cost of £3894 inc tax so it would work out at 3494 or 698 each though still not as cheap as Korean Air..

cundall

update korea air have a 3 star rating which is not too bad..　http://www.airlinequality.com/Airlines/KE.htm

Though Seoul is great from what i have been told, i will be there in a about a week my ferry leaves from Japan on Friday!

VixxAnn

thanks folks

richard - haven't even begun to think about the actual trip to NZ other than flights. Will take at look at the internal flights though as it will probably save a lot of driving time, although we do want to tour around a bit. I need to look into costs and a lot lot more!

Cundall - thanks very much for the offer - I will check out the Thomas cook site again to see best deals, are there anly limitations on the voucher, certain dates etc?

cundall

VixxAnn wrote:

thanks folks

richard - haven't even begun to think about the actual trip to NZ other than flights. Will take at look at the internal flights though as it will probably save a lot of driving time, although we do want to tour around a bit. I need to look into costs and a lot lot more!

Cundall - thanks very much for the offer - I will check out the Thomas cook site again to see best deals, are there anly limitations on the voucher, certain dates etc?

PM sent ...........

VixxAnn

;)just an update - still looking around, will be booking next week when the funds are available!

have found another reasonable price flight with Qatar - don't know many details as its with Dial a flight and I haven't rung them yet! but its from Manchester and less than £700 - so not bad

Next step up is singapore airlines for £800 again from Manchester.

KLM are somewhere in between these two prices but require 3 changes from Manchester to Auckland - which I think is going to be a bit too much with 3 kids!

Think I have come to decision that it would be a lot easier for us to fly from Manchester than have to have a journey to & from heathrow on top of the long flights.

If anyone has any further info or suggestions - please let me know;)

regards the holiday once we get there - I am currently thinking of hiring car and doing motels in the North Island and maybe hiring a motorhome in South Island. But I've a lot more research to do yet:o

sylwright

We went (family of 4 adults) in February this year Manchester to Auckland with stopovers both ways at Kuala Lumpur. We flew with Malaysia Airlines and the service was good. I would definitely fly with them again, but checking their website it looks like they only fly from London now.

In my opinion, I would have at least a 2 night stopover on trip as the flights are very long. When we got off the plane at KL after a 12 hour flight, the thought of having to get back on a plane within a short time and take another long flight was not appealing at all. The stopover gives you time to get used to the time difference more gradually and also is like having a mini break in between your main journey.

I booked with Dial a Flight and it cost just over £3000 for 4 adults for the flights and a 2 night stop on way out, 3 night stop on way back, and included the 2 x double rooms in a 5 star hotel in KL for those stopovers. Like you I phoned everywhere and couldn't get cheaper than that. I found Dial a Flight very helpful and professional.

We loved KL and would love to go back, we didn't travel around NZ a lot as we went originally to check out if we would like to live there. The answer was no, we found the place quite boring. We stayed in an apartment in Auckland for one week (this was great as we had 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and lots of living space). We then travelled to the Bay of Islands which is nice. Given the choice we would have spent longer in KL and less time in NZ though.

One point to remember is you will get a lot more for your money in places like KL or Singapore, than you would if you had a stopover in LA (Air New Zealand). Also we found our money in the stopover places went a lot further than it does in New Zealand which is fairly expensive.

Hope this helps and you get sorted soon. I know it was a relief when I finally booked the trip.

richardw

VixxAnn wrote:

Next step up is singapore airlines for £800 again from Manchester.

Think I have come to decision that it would be a lot easier for us to fly from Manchester than have to have a journey to & from heathrow on top of the long flights.

If anyone has any further info or suggestions - please let me know

That's a great price. I'd go for that.

This train journey might be of interest http://www.tranzscenic.co.nz/services/coastal.aspx

VixxAnn

richard - that's so bizarre - I was actually viewing the tranzscenic website 5 mins ago just before checking back on here! I was looking at the overlander train (Wellington - Auckland) but apparently its closing later this year. But the coastal and alpine routes both look fantastic and I'm very interested in looking into this as an option. Did you do either trip yourself?

Sylwright (sp?) thanks for the flight info, especially on stopovers. Sorry to hear you didn't particularly enjoy NZ - I suppose not everything can be to everyones taste. I cannot wait to get there - I think I have fallen in love already from the books I've read, photos I've seen and general research I've done.

We are going to look around with a view of emmigrating there in the future. I hope it lives up to my expectations! I actually think it will still far exceed them. I do think that perhaps staying a week in Auckland wasn't a good way to see "real" NZ - but hey thats my opinion and I haven't even been yet.;)

I cannot actually book anything until next week when I have the ability to do so (financially speaking!) but I hope the Singapore flights are still available as I think thats preferred option at moment. (fingers crossed!)

richardw

We did think about doing the train but had to change our trip. The children might enjoy it as a change from road travel. We did visit Kaikoura and then Christchurch-Queenstown on https://www.qantas.co.nz.

The Heritage hotel Auckland has a fantastic roof top swimming pool, you can get weekend deals. http://www.heritagehotels.co.nz/default.asp?sectionID=210 perhaps stay there for a treat before leaving for Singapore on the way home.

Don't stay too long in Auckalnd or Christchurch, a week in Auckland out of a 3 week trip is too much.

swizzle_2

We are flying to Nz for xmas and New Year, we too are up north and are flying from Manchester.

Found that if we could get flights from Manchester or Leeds/Bradford down to Heathrow they left in a morning ie 10am, but you did not fly out of Heathrow until 7pm- same sort of thing coming back.

Did manage to get a better connection one, once over but hubbie did not want to get on transatlantic flight, after all the trubalance on man-LHR flight, it`s all going up and coming down!!!

We are travelling with 2 children and decdide it was better to fly from Manchester- did want to go with Singapore, and just have a few hours connection each way- but price was too much. In end we booked with Emirates, changing at Dubai and Melbourne. So 7 hours, 14 hours and 4 hour flight. Or you can do it in more stops.

We booked via the Emirates website-best prices.

Hope you enjoy your trip- I would move tomorrow if I could