wolf72

Does US immigration have that bad a rep??

mikeyfly

My bosses went to the Lions in Auckland and flew CPH-AKL on QR for Ł1,700.00

They are still raving on about how fantastic it was. They did not seem to get any jetlag outbound, but did suffer on the way back

Mwenenzi

Rufin Welcome to FT

As posts above if you are 100% certain you want to fly on BA, that steers you LHR-SYD or LHR-HKG or LHR-Japan. and then another airline/flight. But the are many options UK - NZ.

For airline flying into AKL look at https://www.aucklandairport.co.nz/flights?leg=Arrivals
Most come via Asia or the Middle East. You can go via USA on Air NZ, UA & AA.
A Middle East airline (EK EY QR) may get you out of UK without having to to London.

If AKL is not your NZ destination, flying into Australia and then flying direct to your NZ city is a sensible practical option. Many flights from a range of Australian cities to range of NZ cities. SYD is not the only international airport in Aussie, just as AKL is not the only international airport in Kiwiland

Greenpen

I have just flown OSL-DOH-AKl on QR in J. Got a couple of hours sleep on the first leg and 6 + 2 on the second. Enjoyed both flights and the break in DOH was enough to get a shower and explore the lounge.

Arrived feeling fine at 5.30am and left luggage at hotel and had a swim. Explored Auckland but by 2.00pm needed to have a sleep. Just for a couple of hours and then explored again, dinner and went to bed.

Next day fine.

Dr Dave

I have done UK-NZ many times, and indeed am currently in Wellington.

In my experience the best is LHR-HKG on the A380 (or with CX) and then HKG onwards with CX. Ideally with a night in HKG.

Not wildly recommended is MAN-DXB-MEL-WLG with EK/QF. Great flights, great service, but sleep is really hard (MAN-DXB is too short, DXB-MEL is at the wrong time to sleep) so you arrive exhausted.

Worst - any route via USA. Grim. Is transit really so hard to understand?

clarkeysntfc

Avoid travelling via the USA. Absolute pain in the backside.

We traveled via HKG in both directions when we went to Australia last year and I'd definitely I'd recommend that airport & CX as an airline.

clarkeysntfc

Yes, but it's more the fact that you can be on a same-plane service from LHR-AKL and still have to enter the USA during the pit stop at LAX. Bizarre.

mikeyfly

Last 2/3 years I've found arrival - even pre GE - into LAX painless. I wouldn't however recommend this way around to NZ

ahmetdouas

deleted

Colossus

I am from Auckland, and have lived in London for the last 8 years, so this is a flight I have taken fairly regularly. As others have mentioned, going via Asia is generally much smoother than the US.

Last year I took the Qatar business class flight ex Pisa, when it was on sale for Ł1050 return. The circa Ł2000 fare from Stockholm that a previous poster mentioned is still very good value. Qatar itself is very good, and would agree the seats are far better than BA Club World. I think that return flight would net 600 tier points, which is enough for Silver, providing you have done the 4 qualifying BA flights (2 could obviously be the positioning flights to/from Stockholm).

I have actually recently booked a trip back for a wedding in January, on Cathay Pacific Premium Economy ex. Paris, for Ł1500. This was good value for January - I think you can still get a similar price ex. Stockholm (Paris is now well over Ł2000). I would say the lounges in Hong Kong are some of the best I have come across (including the Qatar lounge in Doha, which I wasn't that thrilled with). Obviously you will need BA Silver/OW Sapphire or be travelling in business/first to use these, but they are a great way to break up the journey with the noodles and char siu buns they offer .

BA options are generally via Hong Kong, Singapore or Tokyo, and require a stopover in Sydney, with an additional flight via Qantas. Unless you plan to get out in Sydney, I don't think this is a great idea - almost arriving in Auckland, only to get out at Sydney airport for 2-3 hours! If you do want to spend time in Australia, it can work out though. You can also take LAN from Sydney-Auckland, which is One World too.

I have also flown the route with Emirates before - and found it OK - but I wouldn't really ever fly Qatar / Emirates unless it is in business, given the flight lengths. So you'd want to be looking for a good deal (like the Ł2000 ex Stockholm on Qatar), and I'd imagine you would want to rank Qatar significantly higher than Emirates as it is One World.

Other options I have done are Korean Air and Thai Airways - both are good, but are also not One World. Korean Air (at least previously) even in Economy offered a free night at the airport Hyatt hotel on the Auckland-London route, which was nice. I wouldn't look at the Chinese airlines at all (Air China/China Southern), as they tend to have very long stopovers in China, and also are not One World.

Tafflyer

At the risk of sounding naive, isn't this because the prevailing winds and rotation of the earth are from the west? I always found traveling westbound slower than eastbound. It's not much but there is a difference. The transpacific route westbound is really boring, I agree. Unless you break it in Hawai'i of course

Flounge

CWS, the best and shortest way to NZ is via NRT? Do you go to Christchurch when you're visiting South Island?

corporate-wage-slave

My NZ family is near Greymouth, so the service to HKK is via Christchurch. The route through NRT is the shortest in mileage terms, and sometimes the quickest, but often prohibitively expensive. There is much more competition via HKG, hence why I would say that is the better route overall.

Lussac

Have been going to Auckland from CDG every year for about 6 years now, once with QF via SIN, once EK via Dubai and the rest with CX via HKG as is our next trip in January. Liked the QF stopover in Singapore but not the extra stop in Sydney to change planes, didn't much like the stopover in Dubai and again the extra stop in Australia so we've found that CX provides the best compromise and we have had a stopover in HKG both ways but mostly either just the outward or the return.

TravelManBiz

QR is great in J, not so good in Y. I flew both the 787 and A350 in J to SIN and it was a very good flight. But I prefer the A350 against the 787.

But to get to my point. I wanted to fly to AKL from OSL also, but Qatar is using a 777-200LR with a 2-2-2 config in J, and with a 17h flight I would really prefer a 1-2-1 config. So I will not fly this route on Qatar alone before they change the config.