Long-haul flights - best airlines

Singapore Airlines and Emirates are both good. If you can afford it, go business class as it is massively more comfortable, especially for someone with arthritis I would guess, and includes proper "beds". The food is much better too. Singapore Airlines tend to stop over at Changi (Singapore) and Emirates in Dubai. By the way, business class passengers get comfortable lounges with meals, snacks and hot and cold drinks at airports. I think Singapore Airlines are slightly more expensive than Emirates, but am not certain.

Hi Susie We've been to Australia twice, as my son lives there now. We like Singapore Airlines, great service and you get well looked after compared to some. The plane had space at the ends to stand around and walk a bit, even stairs to the next level, so we could exercise our legs. It wasn't too cramped, I suppose it depends how tall you are. You can go on seat guru to find exact space on various planes.

Drink lots of water en route as flying dehydrates you. Moisturiser and lipsyl also handy.

We had time limitations and didn't want to stay several days somewhere en route, though that would be best if you have the time.

We had a stop over at Changi Airport in Singapore, it is a wonderful airport compared to many others. We only had about 12 hours, so we had a free bus ride round Singapore, and then booked into the Transit Hotel which is in the airport. It is basic but clean, and we were able to get about 6 hours proper sleep before continuing our journey, which really helped with the jet lag. Another time I wouldn't bother with the bus tour, we were all too exhausted to enjoy it. I'd just have a good sleep, shower, then wander round the airport - they have a wonderful 2 level butterfly farm among other things.

You could ring the airline and ask in view of your husbands condition, could they offer you a more spacious seat. Sometimes works. I'm sure you'll have a wonderful adventure. Have fun.

Friends go to Australia regularly and they too use Singapore Airlines. They usually do a 2 day stopover in Singapore itself, but this time are sort of flying direct with only a 4 hour break at the airport.

Years ago my parents went to Australia and stopped at Bangkok on the way out, and Hong Kong on the way back (or the other way round!)

Oh...............I can only dream...........

I love to read about all the exciting trips taken by the well travelled Gransnetters.

Emirates and Singapore both good as are B.A.. Definitely do Business Class if you can. How long a stop over do you want? On our first visit to Sydney, we flew to Capetown, stayed for a week, then on to Perth for a few days then finally to Sydney. It certainly helped the jetlag - a gradual change. Last time I went Air Malaysia with a change at Hong Kong - would have loved a few days there.

But what about the standard legroom on singapore? Is it aimed at standard singaporeans?

Quantas is reliable , new planes with fancy touch screens - order a cuppa from your seat.
Air New Zealand is my favourite. I get a warm fuzzy feeling when i look at their logo - and there are not any other logos for any product that do that for me.
Their standard class legroom is excellent. Premium economy is an option if you want something less expensive than business. They have something called sky couch.
Their service is good - middle aged staff not pretty little things (of both sexes).
Not sure if the route works though. ANd make sure you are not on their "alliance partner" Virgin. Horrid experience.

Hong Kong is a good airport - new, all under one (beautiful) roof.
I have always found Trailfinders very helpful and usually book through them. Nice helpful staff.

JessM How interesting. I hate Air New Zealand. I have flown there and back with them once and I thought the service was appalling, the food inedible, the seats massively uncomfortable and the supplies of water and snacks inadequate and begrudging – and that was business class. Certainly no one had the slightest idea how to make a cup of tea – badly needed after a dreadfully uncomfortable night – and unlike any other airline on which I have flown, they had only bog standard supermarket-style teabags not a choice of different types of tea. I think that their business class lounges are second rate too. Clearly quite a different experience from yours.

I am with you there, absent. The last two times I flew with Air NZ were grim. In economy there was so little space between the seats that when my seat was reclined and the seat in front of me was also reclined, the amount of space between my armrest and the seat in front was no more than a handspan - ie about 8 inches. Awful when one of the passengers in the inside seats wanted to go to the loo during the night. NEVER again.

I have flown on a number of occasions to New Zealand with AirNZ, a couple of times "premium economy" which a few years ago was not THAT expensive and quite comfortable. They have now changed their seating style in PE and although I've not tried it myself, I believe the seats are not all that good. Economy has reasonable leg-room (I'm 5'8") but the seats are very narrow and the food unexceptional. Oh, and they are discontinuing the Hong Kong route in March so I hear.

My last trip to NZ was with Emirates and I got a deal on business class with a lie-flat seat. Definitely recommended if you can afford it. The food was good too.

I can't comment on stop-overs as I've always flown straight there.

We always fly with Virgin when we go to China and normally have a good experience. If you can afford upper class it is great and the Virgin Club House at Heathrow is fabulous. We usually travel premium economy which is quite comfortable, with wide seats and extra leg room. If you are a bit flexible on dates premium economy needn't cost much more than -cattle class- economy.The premium economy cabin is quite small and the service is pretty good in general. Having said that you can have a really bad experience with most airlines (personally I have had a couple of real problems with BA) so it's partly a question of luck.

We have stopped over in Hong Kong a few times en route to NZ and really enjoy a stay there. If you can afford it I would recommend at least 3 nights there in a good class western style hotel. I like Kowloon, but Hong Kong Island is nice too.

Hope you have a lot of fun planning your trip, Susie, and a wonderful holiday.

Whoops, I failed to cross out cattle class, brain malfunction

Absent - choice of teas on a plane!? How posh are you? (posher than me for sure, because I fly Economy. Did do premium once and that was unalloyed luxury in my book )
Leg room can depend on plane type. There are websites where you can look this stuff up. Or trailfinders can do it for you - tell you what kind of plane, what the "seat pitch" is etc.
Increasingly you can book an emergency exit, extra legroom seat by paying a little more.
I think where service is concerned there is a big "luck of the draw" factor. Depending on the particular crew. I have noticed this a number of times on long haul - because you get the 2 crews.
But the Virgin crews were all dire - selected for their looks not their charm I'd say. Even their advertisements emphasise this. Gorgeous girl in red etc.

Singapore Airlines cabin staff are just fabulous and the women are much prettier and more charming than those in the Virgin ads. I think the Emirates staff when I flew to New Zealand last spring were pretty good too.

I had an excellent experience on Virgin Atlantic to San Francisco, flying economy. Comfortable, friendly, reasonable food.

But I have a question absent one that occurred to me in an airport last year:
Do Singapore airlines really only do uniforms in one size and then recruit women that fit into them?

Like others, I would have to say Singapore Airlines, when I went to Australia, it was about 30 years ago now but couldn't fault them. I particularly remember lovely stewardesses in traditional batik dresses and really nice food. I thought Virgin were very good the first time we took the children to America, lots of things for them, backpacks, colouring books, and boxes of fruit, biscuits and chocolate, although I remember our younger son smothering himself in the latter when he was about three. However, I do remember a real lack of leg room, we were of course in zoo class. I haven't liked any of the American airlines we have flown with, irritable stewardesses and they seem to run out of one of the two choices of meals quite quickly and then get very snappy when some people complained and most surprisingly, bearing in mind they were American airlines, we felt quite hungry on several occasions when we arrived at our destinations. We flew British Airways to the States last time, I thought they were competitively priced and their premium seats gave us more leg room than we remembered on other long haul flights.

I flew economy with Etihad to Sydney last year and had a spare seat next to me on both flights.My only complaint...too much food...and I kept eating it!

Oh right, interesting. They are a fairly new company? Is that right?

Thank you everyone for all your really helpful comments. There is nothing like experience and Singapore Airlines seems to take first prize! Has anyone tried BA? On their website their Premium Economy fare seemed quite reasonable ... Business probably a step too far financially. Also, Singapore sounds good as a stopover, and thanks to Sunflowersuffolk for things to do whilst there. Any ideas on ideal time for stop, ie hours or a couple of days? We would obviously like to see Singapore whilst we are there, but finance will be quite limited. Grannylin - Etihad sounds interesting - they keep advertising at the moment too ...

I haven't been to Singapore, so I can't be much help as to how long it takes to see the sights. However, I have travelled a lot and suffered from jetlag many times. I find a stop of 3 nights gives you some opportunity to relax and lets you catch up on a bit of sleep.

I find that stopping over for a short while can be quite stressful in terms of finding your hotel, getting accustomed to a new bed and getting back to the airport in plenty of time for the onward flight, all in a short space of time (but I do tend to be a bit of a worrier). Because of this I prefer to give myself time to settle down and unwind in the stopover location.

We have tried lots of other different combinations, including stopping over for 1 night (not good for us), flying straight through apart from a refuelling stop (gets it over with, but quite tiring) and stopping over for 5 nights (best for getting over jetlag, but expensive and time consuming)

If this trip is going to be a once in a lifetime experience, I think you might as well see as much as you can and take a few days to look round your stopover location. If you plan to go more often you might feel differently.

The other thing to take into account is the adrenalin and excitement when you are going to a new place, specially when you are looking forward to seeing your family. You might feel you just want to get to Australia and see everyone as soon as possible. Sometimes a stopover on the way home can be a better idea.

Singapore would be a wonderful place to stopover.
I agree that coming home is far more jetlaggy than going and it is the stimulation and excitement that helps when you arrive on the other side of the planet. And it would be something to look forward to on the way back.

We flew Virgin Premium Economy to San Francisco last year. A long flight but doing Prem Econ made a lot of difference. Where there would be a row of 3 seats, in P.E. there are two large seats. They also handed you a glass [real glass] of champagne [maybe sparkling wine] as you sat down. A nice touch. I did price First Class but that was way beyond what we could afford. Premium Economy was worth every extra penny.
We're off to Hong Kong in 6 weeks, travelling Prem Econ again. That could be an ideal stop over on the way to your destination or on the way back. I think the flight is about 13hours.
Have a wonderful trip.

I agree, Rosiebee. I was very impressed with Virgin premium Economy when we went to Boston a couple of years ago. So much so that we always look for the equivalent on other airlines. Even BA to South Africa last year was not bad for. 10 hours.

The longer the flight, the higher the class that you can afford! But have yet to talk DH into First Class!

I guess if you can afford premium economy then most airlines are going to be ok.
I would like richard branson to experience my last flight on virgin and see just how cursory the service was and how uncomfortable the seat.