Break Journey to NZ - Too expensive?

richardw

Browse Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific websites and see what the come up with, both also fly from Manchester as well as Heathrow, Cathay Pacific also fly from Gatwick.

Also give Trailfinders a call, they might have a flight+hotel deal at a stop over point for one or two nights.

Voyager2002

RHemmings wrote: »

I can get a cheap flight London -> Auckland which stops in Dubai. If I try and split the journey and take some days in Dubai, then the Dubai -> Auckland return ticket costs more than Lon -> Auckland through Dubai.

There's something I'm doing wrong, but I don't know what.

No, you are doing things correctly but the software is not designed for what you want.

Anyway, call the airline that passes through Dubai (Emirates?) and see if they can offer you an itinerary with a long wait for the connecting flight but without a fare increase. Also check out Royal Brunei, since their routings also tend to involve a long wait in their hub.

You might find what you need listed on itasoftware.

zagfles

What we did which worked quite well for jetlag is have a 10 hour break in Singapore and booked the transit hotel.

Flight from LHR - SIN left about 2pm and arrived about 10am local time, 3am UK time, and we stayed awake on the flight - so it was like going to bed 4 hours late. You can book the transit hotel by the hour so a daytime booking is no problem - rooms are dark and quiet (no windows).

We had a good 8+ hours kip in the transit hotel, up around 7pm for the 9pm overnight flight to AKL, getting in about 10am local time. Again didn't need to sleep on the flight as we'd just had a good night's kip in a proper bed.

Then stayed awake till about 7pm when we really needed to go to bed - a couple more early nights and we were well into the new timezone.

And it didn't count as a stopover - it was a through flight with a long break, bags are checked through so don't need to collect them, don't need to go through immigration etc at SIN, you're airside all the time.

fifeken

RHemmings wrote: »

EDIT: Same with Kayak. I can get a cheap flight London -> Auckland which stops in Dubai. If I try and split the journey and take some days in Dubai, then the Dubai -> Auckland return ticket costs more than Lon -> Auckland through Dubai.

There's something I'm doing wrong, but I don't know what.

You should not be looking at LON-DXB and DXB-AKL return tickets, but at LON-AKL with a stopover in DXB. You'll get to choose the length of your stopover when you enter the dates using the multi-city or similar option on the booking site.

RHemmings

Thanks for all the information here. I was too busy over the weekend to look into this more. I will do so today.

RHemmings

fifeken wrote: »

You should not be looking at LON-DXB and DXB-AKL return tickets, but at LON-AKL with a stopover in DXB. You'll get to choose the length of your stopover when you enter the dates using the multi-city or similar option on the booking site.

I used Kayak to look for a multi-city trip. With no stopover, I could get the flights for £595 per person. If I go to multi-city and add in a stopover in Dubai, then the prices of the flights go up to £1212 per person. That's over twice the price! For a stopover.

BTW: I'll reply to other posts in more detail. But, in the meantime: I have travelled to NZ before and managed the jet-lag but am getting older and last time was a horrible experience which simply didn't resolve even over a week. If I go too close to NZ, or too close to the UK, then there will not really be an intermediate point to help with the jet lag.

Has anyone travelled China Southern? Some years ago their reviews were horrible, and I avoided them. But, they seem to have improved.

EDIT: I did see flights that stopped in Perth. But, it's the same problem. Add a stopover, double the price. Even if the plane is landing at the airport anyhow.

Voyager2002

I don't think I have ever found affordable fares including stop-overs on-line. They do exist, however: in this respect I have found the telephone sales staff at Emirates to be particularly helpful. I suggest that you also talk to Cathay Pacific, as well as Trailfinders.

richardw

Don't do a mult-stop search, do a return, then look at the longest journey times and see if the effective stop would be long enough.

Murphy_The_Cat

OP, If you're prepared to do a couple of hours of work on your itinerary, the information in this thread will possibly/probably enable you to create your own 'perfect' itinerary and book it.

FunTime