Comfortable flight to New Zealand

WAYT

littlereddevil wrote: »

Yes you can book exit seats on many airlines

Only took you nine months to reply....

malkie76

headpin wrote: »

Air New Zealand premium economy is excellent. Their Space seats on the LHR LAX AKL route are too notch. 2. 2. 2. Unfortunately they were so good ANZ are taking them out and reverting to standard 2. 4. 2 configuration - more revenue for same space. They are expecting to complete the change by November. But if their service remains the same it will still be excellent.

Very innovative product - shame it's going. The issue was that in the first version (with the same density as standard premium economy) customers complained about the legroom issues (with the angles). As a result they took seats out, increasing the legroom, but lowering the density hence revenue.

Ultimately the seat didn't work as planned, hence it's going.

dondo

Joking_Joe wrote: »

Hello Dondo,

Just to follow up on this I am now planning the trip to NZ in November. Out through Los Angelis and home via Singapore, literally only taking a 1 night stop each way to break the flight up.

So do I need any kind of visa to step off the plane in Singapore?.......and any hotels you particularly recommend, sort of mid-range, decent bed and food.?


Anyone any suggestions for a good hotel in LA not too far from the airport?......hopefully that does late check-out as the departure is not until 9pm

For Visa I guess just the ESTA

Hi there

As others have said no visa needed for Singapore.

On the way out we stayed at the Crowne Plaza at the airport- I wouldn't call it mid range price wise- bit more pricey but is a really great hotel. Reason we booked it was that we were travelling with kids (8 and 6 at the time) and we thought the convenience after a long flight of the hotel being right there was worth it (it was!). We landed about 8am and they were able to give us a room by about 9.30am. Obviously meant we weren't in the city centre but there is good transport connections to take you in.

On the way back we stopped at Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre as that was a bit more central as we were stopping for 2 nights- again probably a bit more than mid range price wise. But being a family of 4 we needed a bigger room.

I've the same user name on trip advisor so you can see my reviews there (along with ones for places in NZ) and there is another thread that I contributed to on MSE where there's more tips on NZ too.

knightstyle

Just to add that if you don't do a stopover have a look at airside hotels where you can book a shower and even a massage. We did this at Singapore on the way out. We then had a 6 day stopover there on the way back.

Joking_Joe

thanks everyone.

I am planning to do AirNZ and go premium economy, a bit in two minds of doing all in one hit, did it before like that in 2000 and regretted it, mind you it was just economy class then.

WAYT

Joking_Joe wrote: »

thanks everyone.

I am planning to do AirNZ and go premium economy, a bit in two minds of doing all in one hit, did it before like that in 2000 and regretted it, mind you it was just economy class then.

Are you joking? How much is that costing?

Joking_Joe

well, I just looked and its about 2.7k on the AirNZ site....not cheap but then I last had a holiday in 2015 and before that in 2000 (NZ) so I reckon I haven't blown the budget too much :-)

I picked up on Dondo's recommendation for Crown Plaza and reckon both ways stopping off there got to be a good solution, in fact the return flight could be a 6.45am arrival in Sing. and leave again at 23:45 same day....................but still in the planning phase

dondo

Joking_Joe wrote: »

well, I just looked and its about 2.7k on the AirNZ site....not cheap but then I last had a holiday in 2015 and before that in 2000 (NZ) so I reckon I haven't blown the budget too much :-)

I picked up on Dondo's recommendation for Crown Plaza and reckon both ways stopping off there got to be a good solution, in fact the return flight could be a 6.45am arrival in Sing. and leave again at 23:45 same day.......e.............but still in the planning phase

In that case you may be better in one of the transit hotels so no need to clear immigration and do one of the free tours from the airport which you don't need to clear immigration for either.

http://www.changiairport.com/en/airport-experience/attractions-and-services/free-singapore-tour.html

dawyldthing

See if you can alter a day or 2 with skyscanner. You can choose just the one airline and it will show you the differences. Plus check different airports - even Dublin. I saved a lot flying to Dublin to go from Dublin to London to Singapore to Sydney last year

WAYT

Joking_Joe wrote: »

well, I just looked and its about 2.7k on the AirNZ site....not cheap but then I last had a holiday in 2015 and before that in 2000 (NZ) so I reckon I haven't blown the budget too much :-)

I picked up on Dondo's recommendation for Crown Plaza and reckon both ways stopping off there got to be a good solution, in fact the return flight could be a 6.45am arrival in Sing. and leave again at 23:45 same day....................but still in the planning phase

My point being that for the price of NZ PE, you can fly flat bed Business Class.