Airlines

I want to know your opinions on the airlines that fly the tasman please.

I am taking the boys over in June by myself and want to fly with a good airline there and back that will help me out.

I don't mind flying out of Auckland if I need to.

freedom - well, won't fly from plamy as form the end of march - but in my experience once was wonderful and once was one of the worst service I have ever had - the variance is too much to recommend. Airnz is fab and friends have said emirates is great too

Obvious bias aside...

Air NZ - my preferred airline (I said bias aside!!!), love the staff and have always had great service even when they don't know I'm also staff.

Freedom - Staff were fine, plane was horribly cramped though and not impressed at having to buy snacks and food, beside they are on thier way out from all routes...nuff said.

Qantas - both times we have flown we have had bad bad service. Plane was comfy and the individual screens were a bonus but the service really disappointed us...especially as we were on our honeymoon and it was noted to airline staff.

Thai is pretty good I've found. We've traveled with them a few times and always had great service.

AirNZ and Qantas aren't so great IMO

Natasha and I flew AirNZ when we went on a trip with The Edge so heaps of kids were on the flight, they had no kids meals and they don't have any entertainment packs now (they used to give out cool bags with goodies in them years ago). In the end the poor stewardesses gave all the kids the ice cream from first class.
At the same time DH flew Qantas with our other daughter they had kids meals and entertainment packs!!!
We also flew to LA Qantas and they were great.
So I'd go for Qantas if I had to choose between just those two. But I have heard fantastic things about Emirates from friends who have flown with kids.

lizzle wrote: the flight attendant was surprised he wouldn't eat it - he cried poor thing - Jake not flight attendant.

lol!

We've flown Air NZ both times to the UK and have always been pretty happy with their service (except in Auckland! Awful awful service in Auckland Airport every single time I've been there). I've flown Freedom to Oz once and its very basic- only used it as it was the cheapest but so wouldn't recommend it with kids. My cousin always uses Emirates as do the inlaws and they love them. We can't fly with them as they serve peanuts on the plane We're flying Qantas when we do our big trip in March so hopefully that goes ok!

Ive only ever flown pre children .. .however when DH was posted in the UK one of us would fly over every 12 weeks or so.

Air NZ have terrible customer service ... Qantas had great service (and yummy food) ... Thai Airways ... better service but DH hated the food lol.

I haven't flown with children but as far as service goes Emirates are really good. Qantas I find average and a bit too disorganised. Thai airways I really like (apart from one lady that growled at me for sleeping instead of eating) they are really friendly. Singapore airlines I have to say I just don't like but I don't think they do trans Tasman anyway, not sure. Air NZ is good and I have noted that they seem to treat parents with children very well. Air NZ will treat you better the more you fly with them. And of course making that step from economy to Business class they fall all over you as do Qantas, Emirates and Thai. If it were me I would probably go Thai, then Air NZ then Qantas.
It depends what is more important to you, the cost or the service? (although you always deserve good service IMO) Air NZ have the most comfortable seats and I believe that little bit of extra leg room in economy.

Would love to here which one you decide to go with. We're flying Cathay Pacific in April for the first time so I'm interested to see what they are like.

Qantas suck the big one. I used to always fly Qantas, I would have made more than 2 dozen flights with them when Maya was younger and every time something went wrong. My first flight with her the sheets on the bassinette were filthy

But my last flight with Qantas takes the cake. I ws flying with Maya and the gremlins and my Mum and we prebooked a bassinette. Confirmed the bassinette at check in. Got on the plane to find that the bassinette had been assigned to a 16 month old, and we had been given 'an extra seat' between us to somehow juggle the 10 week old gremlins. They refused to reseat the lady with the older child (who btw also had her husband to help her).I lost the plot and threatened to get off the plane. The lady said we could have the bassinette so the staff moved us around, and then GET THIS - the flight service director brought HER a bottle of champagne for the inconvenience! WTF!

So I wrote a complaint to Qantas with the email address the FSD gave me, got an autoresponse saying they would reply within 10 days, on the 10th day got another autoresponse saying "thanks for your feedback, if you want a personal response please post a hardcopy to..." Could they not have said that in the first place? So I posted a hardcopy and what do you know, no response.

So I have never flown Qantas since, and never will again. That experience, combined with all the other niggly little problems we've had in the past has put me right off.

Air NZ on the other hand have been good, they arrange a meet and assist for me when we land so I have an extra pair of hands which is useful. They don't do kids meals or anything fancy like that on TransTasman routes, but it's only a short flight anyway.

Emirates are absolutely brilliant, IMO the best airline flying that route if you're flying with kids, they have special kids packs, great, healthy kids meals and the staff are really friendly.

More fool Qantas really coz I do fly a lot so they lost a good customer.

Emirates are often the cheapest, which is great coz it's definitely a case of getting more than you pay for, unlike Qantas where you pay a premium for crap service.