Flying to Sydney from Dublin??

Apintplease

So we have a wedding next October in Sydney that we have to attend - our sons - ( if Oz open there borders etc)

 We have decided that we are too old to be sitting in cattle class for so long, we gave up on flights over 4 hours years ago. ( both will be 60+ )

Im thinking its going to have to be business class, but we aren't made of money and Im also thinking about Premium economy

We have the wedding in Sydney, then we have to fly across to Perth for another couple of weeks so need to fly home from Perth

A couple of questions if anyone has any experience

Is premium economy comfortable enough to do such a long flight? We have always booked it short haul for the extra leg room, but its still be bloody uncomfortable, cramped and leg room usually stolen by people queuing to use the loos

If we were to splash out for BC ,is there a  preferred airline?  

Many thanks xx

giraffe69

last time we went to Adelaide and back from Perth using Emirates Bus class. They were excellent.

CKhalvashi

LOT Polish are generally one of the cheaper airlines on long haul routes for Business, primarily as their Singapore service isn't daily, therefore making it not brilliant for business travellers (never done a SIN with them, but most of their 787 routes are 2/3/4 times a week). They've got a good reputation (and are one of my 2 personal airlines of choice, the other is Wizz) and their long haul fleet is made up of latest generation aircraft. There would be a quick stop in Warsaw on this route, with the final leg on a Singapore Airlines aircraft.

This isn't however guaranteed, and you will need to do a full price search of the market (Google has a flights section as a starting point, be wary of using an online agency with any airline as premium fares are generally at least semi-flexible). The link you'll need to do this is here (link to Google Flights).

If you're worried about cost, cheapest fares typically start in Dublin, Milan and Oslo, which could save £100s over the cost of a London (for example) flight by self-positioning to the start point the day before.

Westin

Emirates have just launched a Premium Economy seat/cabin but it will probably be a long time before it is widely available across the fleet. That said their Business and Economy cabins are I feel both good. Emirates will give you the options of DUB DXB SYD PER DXB DUB with just the domestic Australia sector flown by Qantas (or possibly Virgin Australia).

Singapore Airlines would be a good option to look at, connecting at LHR or a European gateway, then of course Singapore.  Our last Oz trip was due to be with them but sadly cancelled.

Qatar, Royal Brunei, Cathy and even Qantas viewed as suitable for your trip.

As well as planing for cabin comfort, perhaps look at breaking the trip with a stop over on route and sleeping in a proper bed at a hotel. Singapore might be worth looking at for this layover and the airline and Singapore tourist board even offers free/discounted hotel stay and tours. Alternatively a routing with a change of plane.  We have also done this in Hong Kong a couple of times.

If not wishing to layover then just a short stop of say two hour on-route marching around Dubai Airport will stretch your legs and possibly tire you for the next flight.

Of course if you can get into the mind set of a single 18h plus flight (in a comfortable seat) then there is the direct LHR PER LHR B787 flight on Qantas. They were also talking about direct to SYD pre pandemic. That might come back on the cards.  At the moment a step to far for me!

What a great trip to plan for. 

Alan_Bowen

Regrettably, I think the prospects of being admitted to Australia any time this year are slim to none. The CEO of Qantas, an Irishman himself, has warned that international flights seem very uncertain at all in 2021. They opened a travel bubble with New Zealand only a week ago and already an aircraft cleaner working at Auckland airport has tested positive for COVID and their PM is warning that the flights may have to be suspended. 

Westin's suggestions are excellent, Royal Brunei is a completely dry airline if that is an issue and they used to only fly to Melbourne which will be less convenient. 

[Deleted User]

 Australia is planning on only running repatriation flights for the rest of 2021 according to the high commission. 

 Disappointed as wanted to see the in laws this year but will be way in to 2022 before we can go. Hubby is a citizen but still classed as tourist if not planning to reside in Australia when getting there. 

Murphy_The_Cat

CKhalvashi said:

LOT Polish are generally one of the cheaper airlines on long haul routes for Business, primarily as their Singapore service isn't daily, therefore making it not brilliant for business travellers (never done a SIN with them, but most of their 787 routes are 2/3/4 times a week). They've got a good reputation (and are one of my 2 personal airlines of choice, the other is Wizz) and their long haul fleet is made up of latest generation aircraft. There would be a quick stop in Warsaw on this route, with the final leg on a Singapore Airlines aircraft.

This isn't however guaranteed, and you will need to do a full price search of the market (Google has a flights section as a starting point, be wary of using an online agency with any airline as premium fares are generally at least semi-flexible). The link you'll need to do this is here (link to Google Flights).

If you're worried about cost, cheapest fares typically start in Dublin, Milan and Oslo, which could save £100s over the cost of a London (for example) flight by self-positioning to the start point the day before.

Also have a look at CDG, CPH, ARN & AMS after your positioning flight.  There is every possibility that you could fly Biz for the. price of PE.

CKhalvashi

Murphy_The_Cat said:

CKhalvashi said:

LOT Polish are generally one of the cheaper airlines on long haul routes for Business, primarily as their Singapore service isn't daily, therefore making it not brilliant for business travellers (never done a SIN with them, but most of their 787 routes are 2/3/4 times a week). They've got a good reputation (and are one of my 2 personal airlines of choice, the other is Wizz) and their long haul fleet is made up of latest generation aircraft. There would be a quick stop in Warsaw on this route, with the final leg on a Singapore Airlines aircraft.

This isn't however guaranteed, and you will need to do a full price search of the market (Google has a flights section as a starting point, be wary of using an online agency with any airline as premium fares are generally at least semi-flexible). The link you'll need to do this is here (link to Google Flights).

If you're worried about cost, cheapest fares typically start in Dublin, Milan and Oslo, which could save £100s over the cost of a London (for example) flight by self-positioning to the start point the day before.

Also have a look at CDG, CPH, ARN & AMS after your positioning flight.  There is every possibility that you could fly Biz for the. price of PE.

Of course there are other options. I tend to find (with Star Alliance at least) that starting from a non-Star Alliance hub (or those mentioned above) is generally a cheaper option, with LHR only really working for European flights (no personal experience with Dublin since BMI services effectively moved to OneWorld).

Checking most large cities (You can do a multiple search for several cities) in Europe can yield some amazing results. The other one I forgot to mention is currently Vienna, which due to becoming a battleground for 3 low cost airlines has led to some surprisingly cheap fares, at least pre-Covid.

MalMonroe

I lived in Oz for a while, my daughter is a dual citizen and we love to return to her homeland. We have flown mostly Singapore Airlines because they are so lovely - just economy and all flights were great. On some flights the planes weren't full and we were allowed to hog a couple of extra seats too (we always ask, we're just polite that way). 

Last time I travelled I was WAY into my 60s! And found economy perfectly acceptable. I'd rather fly economy and spend my money on other things than BC.  For example, a few nights' stopover in Singapore on the way there and the way back. Flight time from Manchester to Singapore is 13 hours but I guess it's longer from Dublin. Then on to Perth, around 5 hours. But with stopping in Singapore we have time to refresh and recover a bit before the next leg of the journey.  We also sometimes stop in Perth to stay with friends and that's another little break in the journey. Then off to Brisbane on the east coast - short flight again. Always economy. Never a problem. Last time we were on Virgin (and the snacks were not free!)

Once coronavirus is out of the way we will be travelling over there via economy again. And I'm now in my 70s. Economy will do me. We stay in five star hotels in Singapore - last time the Mandarin, Marina Bay - which we wouldn't be able to afford to do if we travelled BC. Have a think about it. 

I do think most airlines are pretty reasonable though and have heard great things about Emirates too. Air travel is improving all the time.

Murphy_The_Cat

CKhalvashi said:

Murphy_The_Cat said:

CKhalvashi said:

LOT Polish are generally one of the cheaper airlines on long haul routes for Business, primarily as their Singapore service isn't daily, therefore making it not brilliant for business travellers (never done a SIN with them, but most of their 787 routes are 2/3/4 times a week). They've got a good reputation (and are one of my 2 personal airlines of choice, the other is Wizz) and their long haul fleet is made up of latest generation aircraft. There would be a quick stop in Warsaw on this route, with the final leg on a Singapore Airlines aircraft.

This isn't however guaranteed, and you will need to do a full price search of the market (Google has a flights section as a starting point, be wary of using an online agency with any airline as premium fares are generally at least semi-flexible). The link you'll need to do this is here (link to Google Flights).

If you're worried about cost, cheapest fares typically start in Dublin, Milan and Oslo, which could save £100s over the cost of a London (for example) flight by self-positioning to the start point the day before.

Also have a look at CDG, CPH, ARN & AMS after your positioning flight.  There is every possibility that you could fly Biz for the. price of PE.

Of course there are other options. I tend to find (with Star Alliance at least) that starting from a non-Star Alliance hub (or those mentioned above) is generally a cheaper option, with LHR only really working for European flights (no personal experience with Dublin since BMI services effectively moved to OneWorld).

Checking most large cities (You can do a multiple search for several cities) in Europe can yield some amazing results. The other one I forgot to mention is currently Vienna, which due to becoming a battleground for 3 low cost airlines has led to some surprisingly cheap fares, at least pre-Covid.

The other thing to bear in mind is the accessability of the positioning flight - options from regional airports will be a lot more restrictive than from somewhere like Heathrow (I don't know enough about how well Dublin airport is served). Flying from Manchester may have 6/7 flights each day  to AMS/CDG but only one to Vienna, which is risky in the extreme for a positioning flight.

lady1964

We’ve done two flights to Sydney from ARN and been in business class both times; once with QR and once with SIA, both excellent and would happily travel with either of them next time. Even with the positioning flight from LHR or LGW on BA with an overnight stay, we saved enough money to make it worth our while and the extra bit of time. 

We’re looking into going to Sydney in spring 2022 and have looked at Dublin as our ‘starting point’ provided we can make it work MAN-DUB.