Australia - Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Air or Phillipine Air?

newbieFTB

Which airline would you choose to travel to Australia? I've narrowed it down to 3 based on cost alone for the dates I want to go.

I've read reviews online but these tend to be left by disgruntled people - as the vast majority of flights go without a hitch I'd be interested in hearing which airline us 'normal' people on MSE would prefer...

I don't have particularly long legs, not fussed about the in-flight entertainment as not a big film watcher - wifi appeals as then I can entertain myself on the internet, instagram, spotify etc That said if the whole flight experience is 'better' with a non-wifi airline that's also fine as I've never had wifi on a flight before so what you don't have you don't miss!

The options are:

Cathay Pacific... Boeing 777 - no wifi

Malaysia Air... Outbound Airbus A350 with wifi, then Airbus A330 no wifi - coming home is the the same

Phillipine Air... Airbus 350, then Airbus 321 - wifi on both legs

Any thoughts please?

stevie11

Never experienced Malaysia or Philippine but travelled to Australia myself with Cathay and they were great, all legs on A350. Stops over in Hong Kong and if you have enough time it is well worth a trip to experience the city. We had 14 hour stopover on the return leg.

The flight back from Honk Kong was a long and tiring flight but I suppose you will get that on any airline.

dj1471

Another vote for Cathay. You don't say what class of travel but they have the best economy class I've ever experienced. Where are you flying from? They were flying new A350s from Gatwick (cheaper than the Heathrow flights, too). HKG is also a really nice and easy airport to transit, KUL on the other hand has a reputation for losing baggage (experienced first hand). Malaysia's economy class is pretty standard, food not very good.

You realise the WiFi will be really expensive, right?

newbieFTB

dj1471 wrote: »

Another vote for Cathay. You don't say what class of travel but they have the best economy class I've ever experienced. Where are you flying from? They were flying new A350s from Gatwick (cheaper than the Heathrow flights, too). HKG is also a really nice and easy airport to transit, KUL on the other hand has a reputation for losing baggage (experienced first hand). Malaysia's economy class is pretty standard, food not very good.

You realise the WiFi will be really expensive, right?

Sorry should have mentioned - this is economy class!


The flights I'm looking at are from Heathrow, I just put 'all London airports' in the ssearch and Heathrow came up cheaper - could easily travel from Gatwick if it's cheaper.


I naively thought that wifi would be free

zerog

Gatwick is cheaper because it charges lower departure fees than Heathrow. It will be about £10 less, unless the Heathrow flights are all filling up and cheaper seats remain on the Gatwick flight. However depending on where you are coming from, it might cost more to get to Gatwick.

The Philippines is a mess, avoid unless you actually want to visit the country.

MH flies from LHR T4 which is a tiny bit less convenient than T3. CX and MH are both fine, both airlines lost a lot of money recently (CX due to buying several years of fuel at the highest possible price just before it dropped, and MH due to bad luck as well as a wrong decision to fly over a war zone) so made a lot of cutbacks, but are starting to spend more money on improving their products again. Any anecdotes about either of these are just anecdotes, a small proportion of people will always have a bad experience.

newbieFTB

zerog wrote: »

Gatwick is cheaper because it charges lower departure fees than Heathrow. It will be about £10 less, unless the Heathrow flights are all filling up and cheaper seats remain on the Gatwick flight. However depending on where you are coming from, it might cost more to get to Gatwick.

The Philippines is a mess, avoid unless you actually want to visit the country.

MH flies from LHR T4 which is a tiny bit less convenient than T3. CX and MH are both fine, both airlines lost a lot of money recently (CX due to buying several years of fuel at the highest possible price just before it dropped, and MH due to bad luck as well as a wrong decision to fly over a war zone) so made a lot of cutbacks, but are starting to spend more money on improving their products again. Any anecdotes about either of these are just anecdotes, a small proportion of people will always have a bad experience.

Thanks , that's really helpful - will rule Phillipine air out then, although they were the cheapest at around £600, Malaysia are £660 and Cathay are £720. Just had a quick look at Gatwick and it's no cheaper, I'm flexible on dates so looked at a few dates either side and it was more expensive than Heathrow (Heathrow is closer for me).


Edit: As there's not much in it between Malaysia and Cathay, any thoughts on whether the 777 or Airbus 350/321 would be a better flight?

mgdavid

The only one of your 3 I've flown to Oz with is Cathay, and they were very good.

slinga

newbieFTB wrote: »

Which airline would you choose to travel to Australia? I've narrowed it down to 3 based on cost alone for the dates I want to go.

I've read reviews online but these tend to be left by disgruntled people - as the vast majority of flights go without a hitch I'd be interested in hearing which airline us 'normal' people on MSE would prefer...

I don't have particularly long legs, not fussed about the in-flight entertainment as not a big film watcher - wifi appeals as then I can entertain myself on the internet, instagram, spotify etc That said if the whole flight experience is 'better' with a non-wifi airline that's also fine as I've never had wifi on a flight before so what you don't have you don't miss!

The options are:

Cathay Pacific... Boeing 777 - no wifi

Malaysia Air... Outbound Airbus A350 with wifi, then Airbus A330 no wifi - coming home is the the same

Phillipine Air... Airbus 350, then Airbus 321 - wifi on both legs

Any thoughts please?

Out of interest which site did you use to check flight costs??

Voyager2002

newbieFTB wrote: »

Thanks , that's really helpful - will rule Phillipine air out then, although they were the cheapest at around £600, Malaysia are £660 and Cathay are £720. Just had a quick look at Gatwick and it's no cheaper, I'm flexible on dates so looked at a few dates either side and it was more expensive than Heathrow (Heathrow is closer for me).


Edit: As there's not much in it between Malaysia and Cathay, any thoughts on whether the 777 or Airbus 350/321 would be a better flight?

I have also used Cathay (to/from Hong Kong) and found them to be very good.

I have often felt more cramped on a 777 than on an Airbus 350/321, but I suggest you look at Seatguru to find out how leg room compares on the two 'planes as configured by the airlines you would use.

Gloomendoom

I've flown with Malaysian to Perth and they were fine. No complaints.

LadyDee

I've flown several times to Australia with Royal Brunei - can't speak highly enough of the plane (Dreamliner) and the attention and care by the attendants. Amongst the cheapest too.