Stopovers - Cairns (CNS) to London (LHR)

"Mark of Aus" wrote in message
...
We are a family of four (2adults, 2 children) who are planning to travel
from Australia to Europe next March/April. This is our first trip outside
of Australia and we are trying to arrange a suitable place to stopover en
route to avoid the crippling jetlag of such a long journey.
I have a couple (read infinity) of questions (apologies if they are
stupid):

1. Are stopovers of a standard duration? Is it more expensive to stay a
few days (2/3) rather than 24 hours? I notice airline booking sites do not
have a stopover option when booking.

2. I harbour a long held desire to visit Scotland but am unsure how cold
and/or miserable it might be in Feb/March. Is Iona out of the question?

Any info gratefully appreciated.


I'm a fan of stopovers when time permits. Depending on what you're all
interested in, you could do, say, Hong Kong and Dubai; both are reasonably
family-friendly, I'm told. A few years ago, I took EK SIN-CMB-DXB-LHR
because it was (a) a cheaper ticket and (b) included a place I'd never been.

Stopovers can be of pretty much any length, depending upon flight
availability, and can cost either more or less in terms of air tickets.
(Plus of course the usual hotel charges, etc.)

I imagine Scotland would be cold and wet, but that's possible in July too.

I've crossposted to rec.travel.air because by the time you hit Europe,
you're pretty much at your destination.

Cheers,
George W Russell
Bangalore

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 7 Sep 2008 13:50:46 +0530, "grusl"
wrote:


"Mark of Aus" wrote in message
...
We are a family of four (2adults, 2 children) who are planning to travel
from Australia to Europe next March/April. This is our first trip
outside
of Australia and we are trying to arrange a suitable place to stopover
en
route to avoid the crippling jetlag of such a long journey.
I have a couple (read infinity) of questions (apologies if they are
stupid):

1. Are stopovers of a standard duration? Is it more expensive to stay a
few days (2/3) rather than 24 hours? I notice airline booking sites do
not
have a stopover option when booking.

2. I harbour a long held desire to visit Scotland but am unsure how cold
and/or miserable it might be in Feb/March. Is Iona out of the question?

Any info gratefully appreciated.


I'm a fan of stopovers when time permits. Depending on what you're all
interested in, you could do, say, Hong Kong and Dubai; both are reasonably
family-friendly, I'm told. A few years ago, I took EK SIN-CMB-DXB-LHR
because it was (a) a cheaper ticket and (b) included a place I'd never
been.

Stopovers can be of pretty much any length, depending upon flight
availability, and can cost either more or less in terms of air tickets.
(Plus of course the usual hotel charges, etc.)

Hotel charges increase dramatically after two or three days at some
stopover
destinations. They want you to go there to shop.

And on certain days, too, I think, like Friday/Saturday nights. I think
stopovers are great, but they can be very expensive.

Cheers,
George W Russell
Bangalore

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 7 Sep 2008 13:50:46 +0530, "grusl"
wrote:


"Mark of Aus" wrote in message
...
We are a family of four (2adults, 2 children) who are planning to travel
from Australia to Europe next March/April. This is our first trip
outside
of Australia and we are trying to arrange a suitable place to stopover
en
route to avoid the crippling jetlag of such a long journey.
I have a couple (read infinity) of questions (apologies if they are
stupid):

1. Are stopovers of a standard duration? Is it more expensive to stay a
few days (2/3) rather than 24 hours? I notice airline booking sites do
not
have a stopover option when booking.

2. I harbour a long held desire to visit Scotland but am unsure how cold
and/or miserable it might be in Feb/March. Is Iona out of the question?

Any info gratefully appreciated.


I'm a fan of stopovers when time permits. Depending on what you're all
interested in, you could do, say, Hong Kong and Dubai; both are reasonably
family-friendly, I'm told. A few years ago, I took EK SIN-CMB-DXB-LHR
because it was (a) a cheaper ticket and (b) included a place I'd never
been.

Stopovers can be of pretty much any length, depending upon flight
availability, and can cost either more or less in terms of air tickets.
(Plus of course the usual hotel charges, etc.)

Hotel charges increase dramatically after two or three days at some
stopover
destinations. They want you to go there to shop.

I don't get this comment Martin.

Why is the "they" here and how does your "shopping" (presumably in the high
street) allow hotels rates to be subsidised?

tim

1. Are stopovers of a standard duration? Is it more expensive to stay a
few days (2/3) rather than 24 hours? I notice airline booking sites do not
have a stopover option when booking.

For international fares, normally, a stop longer than 24 hours is
considered a stopover. Once it is longer than 24 hours, it doesn't
really matter, as long as the return trip is still within the fare
rule's limits.

So if you have a ticket with maximum stay of 1 month, you could stay 28
days at intermediary point, then travel to destination, stay there one
or two days and then come back. (minimum stay rules may apply at final
destination though).

Not all fares allow a stopover. The dumbed down web based travel
agencies may not give you the complete fare rules and may not "auto
price" such itineraries. You want to look at all fares, and for each
fare, check the complete fare rules to see if stopovers are allowed.

Some airlines grant a free stopover at their main gateway. For instance,
it is likely that Air Pacific would let you have a stopover in Nadi Fiji
on the way to Los Angeles.

If the lowest fares don't allow stopovers, you need to look at the next
fares and check their fare rules. If the dumbed down web travel agency
won't let you book a trip with a stopover even if you know that the fare
exists and allows a stopover, you may have to go to the airline directly
or through a travel agent.

"grusl" wrote in message
...

"Mark of Aus" wrote in message
...
We are a family of four (2adults, 2 children) who are planning to travel
from Australia to Europe next March/April. This is our first trip outside
of Australia and we are trying to arrange a suitable place to stopover en
route to avoid the crippling jetlag of such a long journey.
I have a couple (read infinity) of questions (apologies if they are
stupid):

1. Are stopovers of a standard duration? Is it more expensive to stay a
few days (2/3) rather than 24 hours? I notice airline booking sites do
not have a stopover option when booking.

2. I harbour a long held desire to visit Scotland but am unsure how cold
and/or miserable it might be in Feb/March. Is Iona out of the question?

Any info gratefully appreciated.


I'm a fan of stopovers when time permits. Depending on what you're all
interested in, you could do, say, Hong Kong and Dubai; both are reasonably
family-friendly, I'm told. A few years ago, I took EK SIN-CMB-DXB-LHR
because it was (a) a cheaper ticket and (b) included a place I'd never
been.

Stopovers can be of pretty much any length, depending upon flight
availability, and can cost either more or less in terms of air tickets.
(Plus of course the usual hotel charges, etc.)

I imagine Scotland would be cold and wet, but that's possible in July too.

I've crossposted to rec.travel.air because by the time you hit Europe,
you're pretty much at your destination.

Cheers,
George W Russell
Bangalore



I would strongly recommend talking to a *specialist* travel agency. In the
UK one such I would recommend is Trailfinders. I can't find the reference
on their website but Google says:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF...=1 &ct=result

Also try STA.

The reason why most web sites don't provide tools for the kind of trip you
want is they fall outside the 80/20 rule. The websites are designed to
provide 80% of the bookings that people want (which are usually simple
A/B/A. The other 20% have too many variables to be handled through the
web.

Generally, you will find that airlines will offer generous terms if you stop
at their hub. So, Cathay will be good for a stop in Hong Long, Singapore
for... Singapore etc. Unfortunately, they also offer the best fare if you
travel everywhere with them. Thus Cathay will expect you to come home via
Hong Kong. But, that's where an agency can come in. They can sometimes
put together (for example) an Australia/Singapore/Bangkok fare on Singapore
with a Bangkok/Dubai/UK fare on Emirates. But you take a risk doing things
like this. If the EK flight mis connects at Dubai they will simply put you
on another flight. But, because you will have two separate tickets a
misconnect in Bangkok could end up with having to buy a new ticket so leave
time (like a night minimum) where you change tickets in both directions.

Think about where you want to fly from in Australia then do the same in the
UK. Emirates have flights to a number of UK airports (Heathrow, Gatwick,
Newcastle and Glasgow come to mind but do check). Most airlines will allow
you to fly into one place and out from another without penalty so you don't
*have* to go through London both ways, if you don't want to.

Consider a round the world fare. Probably slightly more expensive than a
simple round trip but the way they are structured you might be able to do
something like Australia, Hong Kong, Dubai, London, New York, San Francisco,
Australia using a combination of Qantas, Cathay, British Airways and
American Airlines (who are all members of the oneWorld alliance) or
Singapore, Cairo, London, Washington, Los Angeles using Star Alliance
carriers. gain, a good, specialist, agency will be able to guide you
through the maze.

But remember, agencies are there to sell. You need to ask all the
questions you want answered. You do also need to know some of the
questions (like where do you want to go). Don't always accept their first
answer. Hang up, think, call again, get someone different to talk to, ask
different questions. Ask more than one agency.

Scotland (even the UK in general) in February. Daylight will be short (and
get shorter the further North you go). Weather has a fairly strong
possibility of inclemency and that applies to the whole of the UK, not just
Scotland. But that's a big generalisation and different parts of the
country have significant microclimates. The positive side is that there
will be fewer tourists around so you get more space and (hopefully) better
rates.

The government subsidises the stopover holidays. Do you think it is
charity
Martin

What planet are you from ? There is no such thing as government subsidised
"stopover holidays" here

Rudy wrote:

What planet are you from ? There is no such thing as government subsidised
"stopover holidays" here

I am not 100% sure, but I think that the Fiji government provides
incentives to Air Pacific when customers stop in Fiji. A stop in Fiji
provides good return on investment since you will be spending money
locally on local goods, food and services. (as opposed to a stop in
Singapore where just about everything you would buy is imported from
abroad so it has lesser impact on local economy)

In message Martin
wrote:

Hotel charges increase dramatically after two or three days at some stopover
destinations. They want you to go there to shop.

I've never seen that, but if it were the case, wouldn't you just move
hotels?

Once it is longer than 24 hours, it doesn't
really matter, as long as the return trip is still within the fare
rule's limits.

So if you have a ticket with maximum stay of 1 month, you could stay 28
days at intermediary point, then travel to destination, stay there one
or two days and then come back. (minimum stay rules may apply at final
destination though).

Not all fares allow a stopover. The dumbed down web based travel
agencies may not give you the complete fare rules and may not "auto
price" such itineraries. You want to look at all fares, and for each
fare, check the complete fare rules to see if stopovers are allowed.

Some airlines grant a free stopover at their main gateway. For instance,
it is likely that Air Pacific would let you have a stopover in Nadi Fiji
on the way to Los Angeles.

If the lowest fares don't allow stopovers, you need to look at the next
fares and check their fare rules. If the dumbed down web travel agency
won't let you book a trip with a stopover even if you know that the fare
exists and allows a stopover, you may have to go to the airline directly
or through a travel agent.

Excellent points. Thanks for the info, particularly about gateways
(hubs?) and fare rules.

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