Booking Flights - Long Distance & Extra Legroom Advice?

comeandgo

zagfles said:

comeandgo said:

Have recently booked london to Sydney returns with Singapore airlines.  Was able to check seating availability prior to final payment and was able to get return flights and pay for choosing seats and have change from £1,900 for the two of us.  This is with one stop for an hour, I can’t be bothered with jiggling flights and times and have long lay overs just to save a few pounds.  These flights are for later this year.

The point of the long layover isn't to save money, it's to get a good "night's" kip rather than trying to sleep on the plane. If you search for flights on SIA (and probably other airlines' sites) it'll give you options with long and short layovers, it's all on the same booking and luggage is checked through so it's no hassle. The price isn't usually any different whether short or long layover.

Then if you choose one with say a 7-10 hour layover you can book the transit hotel and have a good kip in a private dark room with your own shower/toilet etc, beats trying to sleep on the plane. It's airside so you don't go through immigration/customs etc. The transit hotel is relatively cheap, IIRC about £50-100 depending how long, you book by the hour.

Yup, done that too and as I’m small and can sleep a full 12 hours on a plane and seem to not be affected by jet lag I now just want to get there.

Brie

I've never been to Aus or flown on the airlines mentioned so far but have travelled UK to Canada numerous times.  A tiddly 7 - 8 hours so not too bad.

What I have noticed though is that most flights (Air Canada) have 4 seats across the middle - which would be great if you are a family of 4.  I would think that the front row would give you plenty of leg room. 

I don't like it as I like to rest my feet either on something - seat frame or my bag - as I'm several inches shorter than you.  And as a person normally flying solo I found that on some flights certain annoying individuals seemed to think they could use that space to cross from one aisle to the other.  I don't like feeling like I need to swear at obnoxious people but will do so if required when they do this for the umpteenth time.  Less likely to be a problem for someone very tall whose legs will be blocking their way.