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

jacques_chirac

troubleinparadise wrote: »

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....

BA have code shares with Cathay Pacific and Qantas.

Gavin83

I've flown with Qantas before. The planes themselves are excellent but they have some of the most grumpy staff I've ever come across, they made everything sound like a massive effort and got extremely rude with me when they forgot to give me food and then I asked for it.

It's also the only airline I've ever been on that doesn't let you board with water, especially annoying considering how reluctant they were to give us water on the flight, not what you want with 14 hours in the air.

I would probably avoid them in the future.

richardw

BA no longer have a JSA with Qantas, it ended and QF formed a JSA with Emirates.
QF no longer fly SINgapore to LHR and Bangkok BKK to LHR.

Are those cheaper Cathay Pacific flights on aircraft with their unpopular shell back economy seats?

If those Malaysia flights are on their new A380s, they look like a bargain.

How much are Thai Airways?

peachyprice

steelframedhouse wrote: »

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.

Ah, I see, Mum only goes as far a Perth! Although she hasn't mentioned problems with connections at Doha and her and Dad are in their 70's, I'm sure she would have something to say if she'd had to leg it through the terminal dragging Dad behind :rotfl:

jacques_chirac

richardw wrote: »

BA no longer have a JSA with Qantas, it ended and QF formed a JSA with Emirates.
QF no longer fly SINgapore to LHR and Bangkok BKK to LHR.

Are those cheaper Cathay Pacific flights on aircraft with their unpopular shell back economy seats?

If those Malaysia flights are on their new A380s, they look like a bargain.

How much are Thai Airways?

But they do still have code shares via HKG.

I like the shell seats, because I hate people reclining into 'my' space. However I am in a distinct minority, hence why they are reverting back to the more traditional style.

steelframedhouse

richardw wrote: »

BA no longer have a JSA with

Are those cheaper Cathay Pacific flights on aircraft with their unpopular shell back economy seats?

If those Malaysia flights are on their new A380s, they look like a bargain.

How much are Thai Airways?

The Cathay flights are two legs on an A330-300 and the other two on Boeing 777-300 - not sure what style seats that indicates?

The Malaysia flights are on an A380 for two legs and an A330-300 for the other two.

Singapore all legs are on an A380-800.

Thai are coming in at £1290 so are out of the running.

I need to book direct with the Airline (as there's a slim chance I might need to cancel and have read that cancelling is easier direct rather than through an agent). When you go to the airline websites the same fares are not available, or at least they are but not with the decent flight times. Actually looks like Singapore might be in the lead as the prices on their website correspond accurately with the prices on the comparison sites ie the decent flight times are the same price and don't go up to £1300+ like Cathay did!

Archergirl

Have you checked that these tickets prices will allow you to cancel should you need to? Not all tickets are cancellable/refundable.

steelframedhouse

Archergirl wrote: »

Have you checked that these tickets prices will allow you to cancel should you need to? Not all tickets are cancellable/refundable.

Yep, I got the rough prices from the comparison site then went to each website to check the T&C's eg Cathay charge 200GBP for cancellations and Singapore it's only 100USD (around 60GBP). There's only a slim chance I might need to cancel, I don't mind losing £200 if that has to happen but would be gutted to lose the whole fare!

richardw

steelframedhouse wrote: »

..There's only a slim chance I might need to cancel..

If that chance is likely to fall a bit closer to NIL in the near future, then perhaps wait a bit, there'll still be many options and good prices available.

Thai might change their aircraft on this route and amend their prices, I wouldn't travel on their older aircraft.

A good website for aircraft types and their seat plans is https://www.seatguru.com also consider if the airline will let you pick your seats at time of booking if this is important to you.

Another way of looking at the extra costs is to consider it as an extra cost per travel hour.

There's about 50 travel hours on this trip so an extra £150 in airfare is £3 an hour.

steelframedhouse

steelframedhouse wrote: »

There's only a slim chance I might need to cancel, I don't mind losing £200 if that has to happen but would be gutted to lose the whole fare!

richardw wrote: »

If that chance is likely to fall a bit closer to NIL in the near future, then perhaps wait a bit, there'll still be many options and good prices available.

Thai might change their aircraft on this route and amend their prices, I wouldn't travel on their older aircraft.

A good website for aircraft types and their seat plans is [link removed, as a new user it won't even let me quote your post that contains a link!] also consider if the airline will let you pick your seats at time of booking if this is important to you.

Another way of looking at the extra costs is to consider it as an extra cost per travel hour.

There's about 50 travel hours on this trip so an extra £150 in airfare is £3 an hour.

How late would you be comfortable to leave it if it was you? I will more than likely know by May/June whether I'm 100% able to go. I thought you had to book as early as possible as the prices are only likely to go in one direction?

Very good way of looking at it, for the sake of £3 an hour I would definitely want to go with one of the 'better' airlines.