Great Britain (Mainland UK) Flight Options June-July 2024

CharlesSmash on 22/02/2024 - 22:21

I'm looking to fly to from Melbourne to absolutely any airport in Great Britain (i.e. UK mainland), such as London, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, anywhere!

I'm willing to fly via absolutely anywhere on the way, Bangkok, HK, Singapore, Beijing, Istanbul, LAX, again, anywhere.
even 2 stop options like Singapore-Frankfurt or Hong Kong-Helsinki are suitable.

I only care about the price, and that it is not a complete budget airline, e.g. Skyscanner throws in Easyjet as options but I don't want to include Easyjet and Wizzair which I doubt will have the same baggage allowances as China Southern, it's not possible to uncheck Easyjet from the Skyscanner airlines list.

I am looking for the best price, because there are 5 of us, incl 4 "adults" going in late June 2024 returning mid July 2024.
The problem is it is very hard to search with such an open range but I really need to find a decent price for a family of 5, any suggestions how to do this or someone found a magic route/airline?

Travel Airfare Europe United Kingdom

Comments

  • Stewardo on 22/02/2024 - 22:31
    +1

    Use google flights
    Type Melbourne - England
    Filter airlines - deselect easy jet wiz air
    Click on the calendar and it will show prices for all dates

  • CharlesSmash on 22/02/2024 - 22:32
    -4

    note - except Malaysian airlines, lost 2 planes in recent memory, no thanks!

    • boomramada on 22/02/2024 - 22:41
      +1

      One was a rogue pilot and other got shot down, higher chance of having a accident way to airport. Don't forget to get travel insurance 😊

      • CharlesSmash on 22/02/2024 - 23:17
        -1

        I don't want to sidetrack the discussion but in 2014 three Malaysian-related planes were lost

        1. Shot down while they flew over Ukraine when other airlines were going around:
          "The flight plan took the aircraft across the entire breadth of Ukraine, including the eastern part of the country, where Russian-backed separatists and government forces were engaged in combat."

        2. "Rogue" pilot, not sure if that's been confirmed, but have you heard of any of them flying for BA Qantas or Air China?

        3. Air Asia - also a Malaysian airline - their Indonesian affiliate plane disappeared on the way to Singapore.

        • CharlesSmash on 22/02/2024 - 23:18
          -1

          the Malaysian transport minister at the time was Hishammuddin, not sure if he was picked because he was the best for the job, it surely can't have been because he was the the Prime Minister's cousin?

          https://www.smh.com.au/world/mh370-saga-hishammuddin-hussein…
          "Mr Najib has supported Mr Hishammuddin, his cousin, in his handling of the crisis"

        • dahokolomoki on 22/02/2024 - 23:50
          +2

          This was 10 years ago.

          If you want an airline that has no mishaps ever, that would slim down the list of airlines.

          Unless, of course, you've got a particular bone to pick with Malaysian Airlines?

  • Stewardo on 22/02/2024 - 22:39
    +1

    $1649 19/6 -17/7 Melbourne London

  • sumyungguy on 22/02/2024 - 22:43

    Any airline miles to add into the mix?

    • CharlesSmash on 22/02/2024 - 23:06

      yes I have 435,000 Qantas and 120,000 British Airway Avios

      • sumyungguy on 22/02/2024 - 23:22
        +1

        Had a quick search, sadly almost no award seats for that time of year.

        • jv on 22/02/2024 - 23:26
          +3

          Hardly any awards seats for any time of the year.

          • try2bhelpful on 23/02/2024 - 11:00

            @jv: When we booked last October to Europe, with Qantas and Velocity points, there were lots of economy seats and a few business and first class seats available. There does seem to be a lot less now.

            • jv on 23/02/2024 - 11:01

              @try2bhelpful:

              When we booked last October to Europe, with Qantas and Velocity points, there were lots of economy seats

              How far ahead did you book?

              • try2bhelpful on 23/02/2024 - 11:47
                +1

                @jv: We are travelling in September/October this year so we were 11months out. However, there was a lot of availability in March/April at that time as well.

                We managed
                September
                Melbourne to Paris - Business Qatar - Velocity

                November
                Vienna to Dubai - Emirates economy - Qantas points
                Dubai to Sydney - Emirates Business/First - Qantas points
                Sydney to Melbourne - Virgin money from a Credit card.

                We had to go Business/First because we couldn’t get two business on the same flight.

        • CharlesSmash on 22/02/2024 - 23:43

          thanks, very much appreciated

          • CharlesSmash on 22/02/2024 - 23:44

            @CharlesSmash: Agreed, i usually convert Qantas points to Woolworths vouchers, which are as good as cash to me
            I've never been able to use my BA points, which I've had for approx 20 years

  • Benoffie on 22/02/2024 - 23:49
    +3

    $1595 mid June to mid July China Southern
    Very long layovers
    https://www.cheapflights.com.au/flight-search/MEL-3996r/2024-06-18/2024-07-16?a=seo_fd&p=seo%2FR-4cQSajPS0HbU$7CPYSQn6%2F%2Fwww.google.com.au#d:19

    About the same with Hainan
    https://www.kayak.com.au/flights/MEL-3996r/2024-06-11/2024-07-17?a=seo_fd&p=seo%2FR-4$kZgo7mS6vO2cW7KlnFt%2F%2Fwww.google.com#_

    • CharlesSmash on 22/02/2024 - 23:50

      thanks, checking it out…

      • hocus on 23/02/2024 - 02:48
        +1

        FYI China Southern provide free layover hotels over ~6 hours (i think). Transit visa is available on arrival.

        Hainan is rated 5 stars on Skytrax, and partner with Virgin so you can earn Velocity points.

        I believe both allow 2x 23kg checked bags.

        • CharlesSmash on 24/02/2024 - 01:04

          Good tips, although I read elsewhere that China Southern only give hotels on certain booking codes, not sure what it's called, e.g. J. K etc.
          Problem with booking on a cheaper website is that i cannot see that detail, so no idea if a 41h flight with 17h layover would include a hotel or not, if not then it's not a good option.

  • Gdsamp on 23/02/2024 - 00:10

    Air India

    • CharlesSmash on 24/02/2024 - 01:04

      Thanks, not got grat reviews, but I have seen some bargians there, although the Chinese airlines are definitely cheaper for the period that I'm looking at.

  • CharlesSmash on 03/03/2024 - 17:01

    Summary here, I tried finding cheap flights and Skycanner.com is a waste of time, very few of their deals seem to be real and able to be booked
    Booking.com is the absolute worst for customer service I have ever encountered, check online reviews for examples of the service that I encountered.

    In the end I paid more to book direct with an airline.

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