[mgbridges]

We're planning on buying tickets for my folks to travel from UK to Auckland at some point in Jan 2008. We want to organise a one night stopover enroute there and back and ideally want to sort their travel insurance too. Any suggests for best airline for elderly passengers and best point at which to break the journey? We still have UK bank account and UK credit cards so can always book & pay in £ sterling if it worked out cheaper.

Any advice on best way to go about this whilst also keeping it secret from them - planned as a Christmas surprise - gratefully received.

Thanks everyone
Anneliese

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

Having travelled here by Quantas and Singapore Air there's no contest.
Singapore were brilliant, Quantas are on the list of 'never again for long haul'.

We really enjoyed Hong Kong and there are some great 'tour the city' sightseeing trips available. We did one that took us around Aberdeen Harbour, across the harbour on the Star Ferry, up the mountain, to a market, to a jewellery manufacturer and on a cable car. A great day.

Just walking down the main shopping streets on Kowloon was an experience. Fab place. Wouldn't want to live there (far too busy) but a great adventure.

[Smiler]

Hi Anneliese

We've just 'done' Singapore air and if you're not on one of their old buses, you'll be alright.

We've flown to NZ with Emirates and Air NZ business class and I'd choose Emirates over anyone else. If you can stretch to business class for them, there are good priced companion fares (in GBP) at the moment with Trailfinders.

These fares also includes them being collected from home and delivered to the airport within a 60 miles radius of their home then looked after all the way.

MIL and Hubby came BA stopping in Hong Kong on way out and Singapore on the way back. They thought BA was 'just ok'.

[Tia Maria]

mgbridges wrote:

Any advice on best way to go about this whilst also keeping it secret from them - planned as a Christmas surprise - gratefully received.

:clap Yeah I love these kinds of surprises. I surprised the OH, many moons ago for his 30th, with a trip to San Francisco, I managed to sort it out with work behind his back and got the family involved. Only to discover his passport was about to run out!

So be the criminal mastermind that I am, I told him I wanted to book a couple of nights in Amsterdam and got him to renew his passport. It worked out very well as he was kind of prepared for a trip but still completely shocked when the check in girl said "There you go 2 seats to San Francisco". I'd even told the airline in advance, so everytime he looked the other way the check in girl kept giving me knowing winks. I'd also arranged for a bottle of wine on the flight! :nice1

I like Changi as a stopover as it breaks the journey almost in half rather than one shorter and one much longer flight. You haven't said how elderly but if you need any details about 'Meet and Assist', let me know. I was offered this by Singapore Airlines while travelling alone with a 6 month old baby and noticed a lot of elderly people using it too.

Cheers

Tia

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

Oh, good point Changi airport is cool and, as you say, right on half way.

We found Singapore quite oppressively humid though. I guess the extent of that depends on time of year, but probably not great for the older generation.

[Questor]

Singapore Air are awesome - we used them for our flights out here, and it was fantastic. We had a 3 day stopover in Singapore too, broke the trip up nicely and Singapore's lovely - I think 3 days is about as much as I could handle in one go though!