Journey to NZ

RHemmings

My other thread on a journey to NZ appears to have become a big argument, and it has been closed.

Returning to my topic, I'm spending time learning how flight pricing works. It's really weird. Breaking the journey in China is cheaper than anywhere else. I thought that Chengdu might be a good place to stop as it's more western (location, not culture) than other locations. (Even if China insists on being a single time zone the sunlight hours will be closer to half-way than Shanghai or Hong Kong.

I'm experimenting to see where I can get to for cheap prices. London to Dubai is cheap. Even cheaper if I went through Kiev which I'm not sure about. Dubai to Singapore is cheap. Singapore to Sydney is cheap (and my brother lives there). Then Sydney to Auckland. Adding that all up gives a reasonable price, with a potential for a number of stops where needed. It's going to be a nightmare making all those flights work together.

I don't need advice right now. I'm working through things and learning how it all works.

Holy <something> I can get from Birmingham to Istanbul return for £123 per person on KLM/Air France!

FunTime

:rotfl: What are you doing to yourself? You are going to spend more time and money just getting there and you are going to be totally knackered from the travel on multiple sectors on low cost airlines, let alone jet lag.

For some reason, you never posted your actual dates of travel. I look forward with interest to see on what you'll settle.

RHemmings

I did post my dates of travel in my other thread. Overall, going out on the 5th of April, and returning (to the UK) on the 29th is as long as we can go. We'd probably need to leave a couple of days either side, but this works for finding cheap legs.

What I've learnt to do is to search on Kayak from individual UK airports with a destination of 'anywhere'. That brings up cheap destinations. Then search from those destinations, including to my eventual destination of NZ. It's hard as there are few cheap legs that end in NZ, apart from Australia.

If I did this trip, I would certainly need some gold plated travel insurance that would protect me in case of a missed connection.

Murphy_The_Cat

RHemmings wrote: »

If I did this trip, I would certainly need some gold plated travel insurance that would protect me in case of a missed connection.

& balls like a brass monkey.
I wouldn't envy you in the slightest trying to put together a seperate ticketed, multi flight itinerary over several airlines.

Have you factored in the very strong probability of one, or several airlines changing their flight times or cancelling flights, which would potentially leave you in (say) Kuala Lumpar airport, waiting for your next flight that isn't going to come.

If you're prepared to put some time into it, follow the steps in this thread and get your head around using ITA matrix.
It isn't straightforward, but once you've tuned yourself into how it works, its very intuitive.
At the end of it, you can see if one of the links that ITA matrix powertools works for your itinerary and book it that way, OR, print it off and take it to a Travel Agent that will book the trip for you.

My 2p worth is that the value of getting multiple flights, on 1 through ticket, with 1 airline/alliance is worth many hundreds of pounds over booking multiple legs, with several stops and several different airlines.

Kayak is OK, but it is quite restrictive as to what you can and can't do (it wouldn't produce the flights that I wanted for next year and it's closest (& much poorer alternative) was over £1000 per person more expensive that ITA Matrix).

Plan B would be to set some time aside and visiting a flight specialist who makes a living from putting flight itineraries together.

I don't see how a travel insurance policy would help you if a timing change, several months ahead of your flight, on a seperate leg of yuour flight meants that you wouldn't get the next seperate leg of your trip with a different airline.

Murph

p.s. it you've got an Amex card, Save to Card to get a £100 statement credit when you spend £800+ at emirates.com/uk by 6/11/16. UK departure flights only. Valid once per Card for the first 10,000 UK Cardmembers to save. Terms and payment restrictions apply.

comeandgo

I'm with Murphy here. I travel to Australia and New Zealand quite regularly, I book flights myself now but the first time I did it I used Trailfinders. They were excellent. If you are not doing a through ticket you are going to have to pick up your suitcase from one flight, go check in other flight, go through security each time you stop. I'd rather pay a couple hundred pounds more to have peace of mind and ease of travel.

FunTime

RHemmings wrote: »

I did post my dates of travel in my other thread. Overall, going out on the 5th of April, and returning (to the UK) on the 29th is as long as we can go. We'd probably need to leave a couple of days either side, but this works for finding cheap legs.

What I've learnt to do is to search on Kayak from individual UK airports with a destination of 'anywhere'. That brings up cheap destinations. Then search from those destinations, including to my eventual destination of NZ. It's hard as there are few cheap legs that end in NZ, apart from Australia.

If I did this trip, I would certainly need some gold plated travel insurance that would protect me in case of a missed connection.

Actually, you didn't post your dates, even though you were asked. Clearly that is the reason why all my projections were from the 1st to the 16th
It's one of those things that you are sure that you did, but actually only did in your imagination. My girlfriend does that all the time.

As to the flights, of course it is your choice, but the hassle involved seems to far outweigh any effects of jet lag. You are just over thimking the thing.

South east asia is a good mid point and you can take massage and simply relax at the beach for a few days to help with any jet lag before moving on.

RHemmings

Thanks Murphy The Cat. I'll give ITA Matrix a go. I did try using it, but it came up with expensive options. I'll try to see what I can do in terms of finessing the travel plan.

As of today, I think it's more important that I explore options and work out how things work, rather than get my exact itinerary sorted now.

PompeyPete

There's so much to see and do in NZ. It'll eat quickly in to your available time, and so I hope you don't regret doing all the in-between stuff.

Murphy_The_Cat

RHemmings wrote: »

Thanks Murphy The Cat. I'll give ITA Matrix a go. I did try using it, but it came up with expensive options. I'll try to see what I can do in terms of finessing the travel plan.

As of today, I think it's more important that I explore options and work out how things work, rather than get my exact itinerary sorted now.

If you've got a reliable TA that you trust, that may be worth a visit.

RHemmings

PompeyPete wrote: »

There's so much to see and do in NZ. It'll eat quickly in to your available time, and so I hope you don't regret doing all the in-between stuff.

I was born and grew up in New Zealand. My main reason to go is to visit family. I won't be doing a big tour.

FunTime

RHemmings wrote: »

I was born and grew up in New Zealand. My main reason to go is to visit family. I won't be doing a big tour.

Since you don't need our help, perhaps you can post the best things for me to do whilst I'm there in November.