Flight to Oz - is it worth paying extra £££ for 'well known' airlines?

steelframedhouse

Just looking at flight prices for October next year, going from Heathrow to Sydney return. The cheapest flights are around the £880 mark with the less well known airlines. £125 more gets a flight with Cathay Pacific and for £220 more Singapore Airlines who I understand are very good.

£880 China Southern / Asiana / Finnair
£1005 Cathay pacific
£1070 Qantas
£1100 Emirates
£1100 Singapore
£1180 BA

Soooo, is it worth paying a few extra hundred pounds to go with the 'better' airlines (have never been on such a long flight before)? The MSE'r in me says I'll be sat in a seat for 24+ hours so am likely to be very uncomfortable either way but if it's 'worth' paying extra then finding a few extra hundred pounds isn't an issue.

Ximian

If you fly with BA you might even find that the flight is a combined flight with Qantas, potentially with a higher cost. You could confirm if this is the case if you check the flight departure time.

I've flown with BA/Qantas to Australia a few years ago and I wasn't impressed with the service/airline but things might have changed since then.

Cathay Pacific is pretty good, I found that the service is much better than some of the more popular airlines.

The following website is handy, airlines are reviewed by travellers which might help with your decision:
http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/seats.htm

Gloomendoom

You missed Malaysian off the list.

Singapore looks expensive but you do get access to a lot of included-in-the-price goodies at Changi airport.

That said, in my experience, seat comfort doesn't vary much across the long haul airlines. The time you will be actually sitting a seat does though.

ETA Try to pick a flight at an unpopular time. We are in Oz now and the second leg of our trip over was only half full which meant that it was possible to get a whole centre row to lie flat in.

fifeken

Check total travel time as well. You don't really want to be stuck in an airport for 8 hours in transit which you may experience with some of the deals.

littlereddevil

At those prices it would be Cathay Pacific for me

aileth

Agree, Cathay Pacific all the way looking at that!

silvercar

OH has flown the route and he says Emirates.

peachyprice

You also missed Qatar, they come in at around £990, my mum has been using them instead of Emirates for the last few years.

steelframedhouse

Thanks all, Cathay Pacific is looking good then. The Cathay Pacific flights have short stopovers so are 24-25 hours each. Both the outbound and return flight get into Oz / UK at the crack of dawn which I understand is a better option than arriving in the evening in terms of sleep/jetlag.

Gloomendoom wrote: »

You missed Malaysian off the list.

Didn't realise they were one of the good ones... They're coming in at £1030 with flight times similar to Cathay. Are they better than Cathay would you say?

peachyprice wrote: »

You also missed Qatar, they come in at around £990, my mum has been using them instead of Emirates for the last few years.

I looked at Qatar but was put off by the fact there are two stops, Heathrow>Doha>Perth>Sydney. Plus I read that Doha airport is a bit of a nightmare with a short time in between flights.

fifeken wrote: »

Check total travel time as well. You don't really want to be stuck in an airport for 8 hours in transit which you may experience with some of the deals.

Yep, I definitely don't want a long stopover - I want to get it over and done with as soon as possible!

littlereddevil

Didn't realise they were one of the good ones... They're coming in at £1030 with flight times similar to Cathay. Are they better than Cathay would you say?

Although Malaysian are good they don't beat Cathay.
Cathay has often been voted best airline of the year

troubleinparadise

Ximian wrote: »

If you fly with BA you might even find that the flight is a combined flight with Qantas, potentially with a higher cost. You could confirm if this is the case if you check the flight departure time

BA now do a codeshare with Cathay Pacific; they're no longer with Qantas since Qantas set up a codeshare with Emirates!

Airline soap operas....