airline info please

[kumimonster]

i'm looking at airlines for a long haul flight
(Athens to Christchurch, New Zealand).

united arab emirates
anyone flown with them before?

i'd be taking a flight from
athens to dubai (long layover - 8+ hours)
then dubai to sydney with a stop in bangkok.
then finally over to christchurch.

otherwise, for only 100 euro more, i can do athens to dubai, then change with a direct flight to sydney and an hour or so wait before heading off to christchurch. this sounds a lot better!


i'm also looking at another option with qantas
again a long haul, but since the option is mostly between british airways and qantas, i'll most likely stick to BA if i have a choice between the 2 for the main part of the journey.
this would mean flying to london beforehand which isn't too appealing to me, unless necessary.

---

any other ideas or suggestions with other airlines heading EAST from Athens rather than NZ via the LAX route?
obviously avoiding any of those countries were it's prolly not a good idea for US citizens...

Comments

[snakesinspace.livejournal.com]

I went from Vienna to Dubai to Thailand and back again on UAE. Their baggage restrictions are quite restrictive and depending on where you are leaving from (such as Austrian Airlines running the UAE desk in Vienna) they were going to try and charge us 30 USD per each kilo we were over.

Other than that it was fine, the people were very nice and Dubai is one of the easiest airports to get through and one of the nicest places I have ever wandered around for a few days.

[derleiermann.livejournal.com]

If you have to choose between Emirates and Qantas, go definitely with Emirates, it's way more comfortable, even BA is more comfortable than Qantas, at least that's my experience flying to Sydney.

[gumboot.livejournal.com]

Hi Kumi,
Have you ever used: mobissimo.com
It aggregates information from most every airline to show multiple routes, airlines, etc. I found great trip route to osaka, jp from atlanta, ga earlier this month that shaved nearly 8 hours off my flight/wait time both ways. Good luck with that.
Coming to Atlanta any time soon?

Genevieve
(G) Bartel

[sleek-imager.livejournal.com]

Emirates is definately a quality airline (the name is just "Emirates", the "United Arab" bit forms the name of the country). And the great circle route ATH-CHC pretty much overflies DXB anyway! (The stop in Sydney would take you a whopping 75 miles or so out of your way -- on a 10,000 mile flight; mind you, Melbourne is even better, at only 4 miles off the circle).

The snag with Emirates is that you'd basically have to forgo some 21,000 miles.

One point to consider may be a "round the world" thingy: ATH-CHC-SFO-ATH; these usually aren't priced "easily" on-line, althoung "oneworld.com" does have something on those fares. Maybe it wouldn't work well this time around, but it's worth remembering the next time you have commitments in NZ, South Africa, New York and Peru... (heh -- like you're going to get off your greek island anytime soon!)