[dianney]

Hi all,
We are trying to arrange a visit to new zealand oct/nov from uk, flew singapore last year and they were great, however, no flight available with them for our dates. Choice of flights being offered are via dubai with emirates, via LA with air new zealand or via kuala lumpar with bmi. Flying from manchester but may have to fly via heathrow london first.
Can anyone give us advice on the different flights, stopovers, staff etc. We will be travelling to auckland with children aged 13, 12, 6 and 4 so really need a good flight and staff to help it go as smooth as possible!
Any advice will be much appreciated.
All the best dianne,craig and familyx :)

[Kanga]

LA gets you heaps more baggage but the stop in LA could be a nightmare and if you're travelling around you don't really want all that extra baggage anyway.

Emirates- heard good things about- have a friend in NZ who's husband work's overseas so they fly a lot between them and always Emirates because she gets so much help with the kids.

BMI- not sure about the airline but if it's via Kuala Lumpar you could add a night in the Pan Pacific and almost halve (if my experience is anything to go by) the severity and duration of your jetlag.

[qslinger]

LA gets you heaps more baggage but the stop in LA could be a nightmare and if you're travelling around you don't really want all that extra baggage anyway.

Emirates- heard good things about- have a friend in NZ who's husband work's overseas so they fly a lot between them and always Emirates because she gets so much help with the kids.

BMI- not sure about the airline but if it's via Kuala Lumpar you could add a night in the Pan Pacific and almost halve (if my experience is anything to go by) the severity and duration of your jetlag.


My thoughts exactly.

[Jon-and-Lou]

we came via la with air new zealand and was fab .. kids had a race around the lounge area, staff were great and cos we had youngsters got rushed through queues and lots of help.

No experience on others. Parents - in- law came over (Heathrow, Dubai, Christchurch) but they also weren't told about 2 additional stops (Sydney and Bankok I think) which made their flight about 30hrs and they were not impressed, although the pland, staff etc were OK.

[Joolzr]

the bmi flight is probably a code share with malaysian airlines who are very good. kl airport is great- quiet, spacious and hassle free. i've never cued at immigration there.

[janrzm]

On our recce last year we came with Singapore Air. Would definitely have used them again , but Emirates was cheaper & had better flight times when we came over this year. We flew from Birmingham.
I would say they were comparable.
I think you would also have to stop off in Australia aswell as Dubai.
We did anyway , just for an hour , so basically get off plane with hand luggage , hour in the airport & back on again. [Don't forget your boarding card stub!!]
I thought this would be a bit of a pain , but it actually broke up the last leg quite nicely.
We also have 4 kids , and what I did like about the Emirates flight we went on was that I chose seats that were 2 , 2 , 2 - the eldest 2 sat together , I had one child & the OH had one child. I found this a lot easier to handle!

[Rubyshoes]

We just flew down via LA with AirNZ - I have to say, once again, it's the best in-flight service I've ever had. All of the staff were very nice & conversational, and anything that we needed was promptly given us.

We also enjoyed the media systems in each seat - that allowed us to watch TV episodes, movies, play games, or find out more info about New Zealand. We had bought several books to keep us occupied, but managed to either sleep or watch the entertainment system the whole flight.

Food was delicious as well - wine was great!

[ck38]

We have just arrived in NZ with our 3 children, aged 9,8 and 4. We flew with Air NZ and could not fault them. We got return flights (because we have to go back to the UK next year for my sisters wedding) and flew via Hong Kong on the way there and it will be via LA on the way back. We still got the extra baggage you get when flying via the states because our journey has one leg passing through the states (which was very useful). Air NZ were also one of the cheapest options costing us £2645 for all 5 of us, return.
I can not fault Air NZ, the stewards and hostesses were nothing to write home about, but their on-board entertainment system is second to none. Hundreds of films, for all ages, able to watch what you want when you want, as well as being able to pause films, music and TV programmes. There are video games etc etc. Even our 4 year old was amused. Not one tantrum, not one 'are we there yet'........fabulous!

[dianney]

Hi, thanks for all the info, it's much appreciated just need to book now oh and of course pay!

Diannex

[ck38]

Oh, Air NZ food was pretty disgusting though.

Just a thought......when you get through passport control into the duty free area and are encouraged to buy perfumes and other liquids over 100mls in volume. DON'T! When you get off your plane on your via route, you have to go through security again and get rid of any liquids you have just bought. Complete disaster. Anybody else got any thoughts on this?

[BodaciousBean]

We just flew down via LA with AirNZ - I have to say, once again, it's the best in-flight service I've ever had. All of the staff were very nice & conversational, and anything that we needed was promptly given us.

We also enjoyed the media systems in each seat - that allowed us to watch TV episodes, movies, play games, or find out more info about New Zealand. We had bought several books to keep us occupied, but managed to either sleep or watch the entertainment system the whole flight.

Food was delicious as well - wine was great!

This is awesome as we are flying out of LAX using Air NZ tonight!! YAY! :clap

[Duncan74]

We went AirNZ LHR via LAX and would do so again. The wait in LAX could be a bit of a pain if there's a delay I guess, but the rest was fine. We wern't at the back of the plane though, and I know some friends who were didn't find the whole experience as good, although they'd only flown twice before.so it was a new experience to them.

Good entertainment, and for us then the food was very good, but then I've not got that high standards for plane food, if it's edible, filling and roughly the right temperature then I'm happy.

[wes0074q]

Hi, we've done the UK-NZ trip many 4 times now, he most recent being 3 weeks ago Christchgurch to Manchester return.
To date I have always used Emirates and found the service to be excellent all round, I'm sure that with any airline there ill always be people who have experienced the occasional issue, however we have found the service to be consistently good.
Due to the frequency of the flights you can pick an itinerary that suits i.e. stop overs and time on the ground at each airport. When I fly with my wife and/or kids we usually have a stop over in Dubai fr a night or two to break up the trip (this is no extra cost with Emirates), whereas if I'm travelling by myself I'll do it non-stop.
By way of example my recent trip involved no more than 2 hours wait at each airport which by the time you have got off the plane and returned to the gate in time for boarding gives about 1 hour to strech your legs and look around the duty free shops etc.
If you are travelling with young children I'd recommend a night stop-over in Dubai - but obviously there is a cost for the hotel and food etc.
Emirates food has been very good, and the etertainment system is superb - particularly as you can start and stop and movie/tv show whenever you want - good for the kids.
Emirates have also increased the luggage allowance to 30kgs each which helps too.

They used to fly direct from Dubai to Sydney/Melbourne then onto either Christchurch or Auckland. However the flight is now broken up with a stop in Bangkok - it breaks the journey up into approx a 5.5 hour and a 8.5 hour journey, with a 1 hour leg stretch in the middle - which I actually prefer to 14 hours non stop.

Relatives have also used Singapore and reported similar as regards quality, plus having a stopover in Singapore which is halfway worked wll for them too.

[AliIsmailNZ]

Hi all,
We are trying to arrange a visit to new zealand oct/nov from uk, flew singapore last year and they were great, however, no flight available with them for our dates. Choice of flights being offered are via dubai with emirates, via LA with air new zealand or via kuala lumpar with bmi. Flying from manchester but may have to fly via heathrow london first.
Can anyone give us advice on the different flights, stopovers, staff etc. We will be travelling to auckland with children aged 13, 12, 6 and 4 so really need a good flight and staff to help it go as smooth as possible!
Any advice will be much appreciated.
All the best dianne,craig and familyx :)

If you can make it to reach Jordan, you can book on RJ to Bangkok and then via the Thai airways to Auckland. 5 hours transit in the stunny airport of Bangkok.

RJ provide you +30kg if you check-in your luggage at the RJ terminal in Amman Centre (7th Roundabout or circle they call it).

Hope I provide you useful info.