Not massive distance but I'm travelling to Melbourne in March for the Jerks/City game.

I'm in Canberra for the week. It's bloody hot

Just watching a bit of the flight radar website and noticed auch a large quantity of different Chinese carriers flying in. I  don't think I'd really fly with any of them despite their lower fares from Europe. The connection timetable often has a long layover. 

What airlines have you flown with? Do you stay a day or two in your transit city? Is business class really work it?

 I've done Malaysia, KLM, Etihad, Emirates, Qantas, British, American, Lufthansa, Cathay Pacific and Singapore long haul. 

I'd say Emirates was just a tad better as their cheap wifi at $1 for 24 hours made the flight go much quicker. I'll need to see who else offers such decently priced wifi. Emirates did have the largest entertainment screen too. 

Etihad and Qantas are always good choices. Singapore are great and Changi airport is easily the best. I found Dubai quite overrated but Abu Dhabi has a lot of empty waiting areas where you can really get some peace.

Hong Kong is fine and that's the only place ice ever visited while on a long journey. I learnt a lesson never to land I the morning and then to continue flying that night. We were exhausted by 1pm and ended up sleeping in am airport hotel.

Have nothing but great things to say about Singapore.

To South America and back I flew LAN and they were fine. Nothing to rave about, nothing to whinge about. 

Closer to home, I've been knocking off places to visit in our own country, and my state. Surprising the mrs with a trip to Parkes in June. 

You know she prolly lurks on the forums to see what you get up to when you're having computer time :P

-PB

The insane lack of juicy information she'd find out searching thru my computer time would bore her to death I bet :lol:

With international flights getting cheaper and cheaper (I saw flights from Sydney to Beijing for $245 return!), lots of local places are overlooked.

Had a lovely time driving through western Victoria and the limestone coast in SA. the week around Australia Day. Some truly beautiful scenery.

My bucket list must be the most boring thing. 2 of the (many) items on it are: watch the Jerks at Hindmarsh, and catch a train from Sydney to Melbourne. 

Haha well a trip to Newcastle is on my list of things to do. While I'm there I'd love to visit "McDonald Jones Stadium" :laugh:

I deal with some people at UoN and they talk up the place so I'm keen for that and further north.

yer well you get what you pay for as they say.
Business is worth it IF you can afford it for long legs or if the company is paying for it as well as airport lounge usage. Nothing like stretching the legs, being comfortable, move around without limited restrictions, not climb over someone to get to the wet floored economy dunny and get fresher food and good beverages !
So depends what your priorities are.
Premium Eco is not bad at all and about all you need as a suggestion.
No I don't stay a day or 2 in transit only overnight if required.
Business is most airlines is great but Singapore is brilliant, Emirates and Qatar Eitihad. Though I'm a Qantas supporter and try to travel with them mostly.
Cathay is not too bad at all, Dec 28 we flew to Paris stop over was on HK. Flown with them a few times, a sound airline.
BA isn't too bad. United sucks but if you have a mother/granny fetish could be good for some, be warned they are rude and don't like servicing their paying customers.
American are far better.
I thought LAN was pretty good imo, much like Cathay.
Mate, Emirates Dubai lounge is one of the best imo, just was at Qatars airport last Friday, similar to Dubai but not as busy so plenty of chill out room.
Have flown domestically and 1 international leg with Air China Eastern and Southern Airlines. Not as bad as they seem but would prefer western airlines.
The boiled water 2min plastic noodles smell lingers forever and they never stop eating the crap ! as well as spitting in the spew bag every third forth passenger etcetc....so for those loving to save a buck it will be an experience I guarantee you.


 

If you ever come up I'll give you a run around. Newy is worth a visit at least once I'd say. Not sure you'd become a frequent flyer though. 

Thanks mate. Yeah I have realistic expectations I think :) Hope you can make it down here soon!

Actually, something that I feel like everyone should know but seemingly doesn't:

PSA - don't use Newy airport. It's a shitty airport in the middle of a swamp that is poorly geographically located and hard to get to/from. 

If you're coming to Newy - fly in & out of Sydney and catch the train up - sooooooo much easier. 

Haha a 2 and a half hour train ride or a 40 minute bus ride.  I know which one i prefer.  And yeh "Newcastle Airport" isn't in Newcastle at all, the people in Williamstown and Port Stephens should be feeling a tad ripped off.

haha Newy Airport. Good tip for those not in the know pv.
Great area though - love getting my hilux onto Stockton :)
We are booked in at One Mile Beach again for Easter.......

Foreshore is really starting to look UP and surrounds. It needed it.
I'll be there for the Supercars as well, I hope the track will feature good racing as good as the map looks.

I have never seen a Jets game at your stadium, one day I should.

No direct flights from Adelaide to Newy anyway I don't think. I think what I'd like to do is fly into Sydney hire a car and head up the pacific highway stopping in at Newy, Coffs and a few other places then fly back from GC or Brisbane. I'm a few years off doing this though :)

Going to a mates wedding in England in august taking the wife and kids and hiring a car and traveling Wales and some England then flying to Italy for 8 nights. Looking forward to it.

Gonna be a great trip mate - not that far off already.

That'd be unreal.

Mrs v4 & I have a long term goal to fly to England & road trip to Scotland. One day..

Wonderful countries!

Go in summer when they have about 23 days daylight in the Scottish Highlands.

They love Aussies in the north of England.

yeh are pretty lucky. My mum and dad are flying into london for 3 nights when the wedding is on so they can look after the kids while me and the wife go out drinking with everyone else which is handy

We fly in to manchester first then off too liverpool for Goodison Park then getting a car and driving around wales and doing the bottom of england to do all the tourist shit.

Never cared for wales until i started reading into it and looking at all the places it looks amazing same with Italy didn't interest me either until now some of the places we are staying at in italy are lush especially venice have a room overlooking the water.

We both turn 30 this year so we are using it as a bit of a celebration.

Was lucky enough to be in the highlands in a mild and dry week or so in about late august/early september 2015. Almost disappointing we didn't see the true Scotland aha

The most amazing scenery and drives I have ever done were through the highlands. I was just blown away. It's mystical. It just feels historic and you sense you could be in any of the classic fantasy type stories ever written.

Can't recommend it enough. I have seen some beautiful cities but as far as landscape goes, I reckon I rate it as my favourite.

Those Beijing flights are probably with one of the low cost carriers and do not include luggage. I work in travel and we had a special that was 2 for 1 from Gold Coast to Narita, roughly about $450 return for two people. It was 7kgs hand luggage travelling with Jetstar. No food or entertainment or anything else. For and extra $300 you can go with a full service airline direct from Brisbane. Just really depends. See it every day at work. (Now for my shameful plug) So if you guys see anything and want to know all the details, let me know, chances are I can knock off some $$ for you. 

We did it 18 months ago, though it was only for 2 weeks, and only got as far as loch lomond and Edinburgh in Scotland as we tacked our uk trip onto the front of a previously organised spain trip.
Scotland was amazing regretted that we didn't get into the Highlands i can just imagine how good it is.
I didn't think id be too enamored with the uk but boy was i wrong! 

Spot on zimbos re "cheap flights" - double check the small print ! especially for OS return flights, domestic you can live with it being hour flights here and there but for eg Syd Perth 5hrs.
On board weight restrictions AND luggage weight restrictions. I know people boast I got cheap flights haha BUT then they are not once the add ons are tallied up.
I'm lucky being frequent traveler having extras BUT I lol'd just through Jan on the family OS holiday.
My wife had booked a coach trip from Faro/Portugal to Seville.
She was rapt it was great pricing and locked it in. I should have checked but we had countless bookings for this trip so I just didn't bother.
1. she neglected to read the time was in 24hrs so she had it marked down in her dairy departure was 1.45pm.
We got there prior obviously and was advised sorry the coach departed at 1.45am LOL.......therefore no wonder why it cheap ! lol........,
My kids just went beauty Mum, I just laughed but we discussed of the situation with the Bus Line and thankfully they arranged us to be able to get on the next departing coach later that afternoon (lucky not booked out)...it doesn't always turn out this way so I was most relieved for we had other bookings upon arrival at Seville to meet.
Moral is once again - if nice and cheap always check check check.

It was with China Eastern so it was "full service" though that service isn't anywhere near as good as Qantas, Singapore or many other airlines. The price was also one of those super limited offer(i.e. handful of seats). 

My point wasn't really about those tickets in particular just that international travel is outrageously cheap at the moment (even Qantas have a fare Sydney to Beijing for under $500). Because of that, it's easy to ignore the fact that there are heaps of amazing places locally to visit.

Back in oz Zimbos? Probably wont be doing any big travel for a while but I'll keep your offer in mind :)

:lol: bloody Mums. 

One story of our family that we still hold against Mum to this day was when my niece had to fly from Sydney to Perth on her own as a youngen. Mum sorted the flights etc, and told us that my nieces flight left Sydney at 7:25am. Dad asked if he could check it and got in a tonne of trouble for not trusting Mum, "belittling her", etc. So Dad, my niece & I got up bloody early, headed down to Sydney, rocked up to the airport and found out that her flight left at 5:25pm, or 1725. A phone call to Mum & boy had the tables turned :lol: 

We ended up having a really nice day cruising around Sydney with the niece though, so it was all OK in the end. But never again has Mum been trusted with times/dates/important details and if she challenges us on it, we always bring up that day :lol:

Booked flights 2 weeks Switzerland in the Summer, including Interlaken.



Chocolate watches knives and FIFA

Hope you took out a mortgage. I had a week in Basel and couldn't believe how much it cost there.