Cheap flights from Auckland

[Kiwi-family]

Look at what I found today. Excellent prices. Even if you leave in the first few days of May it's only $100 more, but cheapest seems to be taking a starting flight in April. I'm hesitant to post this in case someone goes and books the last seats before I get to talk to hubby - but in the camino spirit I'll put this us now!

 

[Camino4Bon]

Good luck fellow Kiwis - hope you do get those flights - that is a very good deal. I will be able to compare for 2017

 

[gittiharre]

Very cheap indeed. Beware of the long layover times though. One ends up spending money at the airport....I booked a few weeks ago thinking prices were at the bottom but they seem to have dropped further.

 

[Carol06]

Look at what I found today. Excellent prices. Even if you leave in the first few days of May it's only $100 more, but cheapest seems to be taking a starting flight in April. I'm hesitant to post this in case someone goes and books the last seats before I get to talk to hubby - but in the camino spirit I'll put this us now!
View attachment 21847

Ha ha. We booked ours the day it came out from Air NZ. Fabulous. And no long lay overs.

 

[annakappa]

The traveling time horrifies me!!! I would be shattered!

 

[Kiwi-family]

The traveling time horrifies me!!! I would be shattered!

Those are not so bad times - some are 47-48hours! The worst we ever did (and would never repeat) was 80 hours from when we got up to when we went to bed at 6pm local time! That included returning a canalboat to a wharf, taking a train to Reading and then on to London, attending Vespers at Westminster Abbey, taking an overnight bus to Paris and then a Very Cheap But Very Long Flight with a 9 hour layover in LA and another in Tahiti. We thought we'd take a trip down to Santa Monica Beach - and we did - but we were so exhausted, having been up for 60+ hours at that point that noone really enjoyed it and the Shortest Child lost the plot entirely.

On these flights to and from Madrid the 7 hour layover is a good one in both directions coz it falls when we would want to be sleeping so we just hunker down - as in LYING DOWN - for a few hours so it makes for good travelling for us.
Gitti, you are right - we always carry some food when we need to spend time in the airport!

 

[KiwiNomad06]

Just be careful with the stopovers with this airline though- and that you have the correct visa if you need it for somewhere other than Beijing or Hong Kong. There was recent publicity about two young women who were flown back to Turkey after being detained in some obscure part of China, as their stopover was somewhere you needed a visa that they didn't have...
Margaret

 

[Kiwi-family]

China visa info in case it is of use to someone. Just gotta be careful not to have a refueling stop somewhere obscure.

No visa is required for ordinary passport holders from Singapore, Brunei and Japan to visit China for up to 15 days for business, sightseeing, visiting relatives and friends or transit.

If you are passing through Beijing(PEK), Chengdu(CTU), Chongching(CKG), Dalian(DLC), Guilin(KWL), Hangzhou(HGH), Guanzhou(CAN), Kunming(KMG), Shanghai(PVG, SHA), Shenyang(SHE) or Xian(XIY) airports you can stay for 72 hours, provided you hold visas for onward countries, final destination tickets, have booked seats and you have a passport from Albania, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, United Kingdom or United States.
A visa on arrival can be purchased for visiting Shenzhen at the border. The visa is available for most except people from USA. The cost starts at 150RMB.

This visa is only valid for 5 days and only for the Shenzhen area. It can be obtained from the border crossing with Hong Kong and Shenzhen airport.

Visas can be obtained easily at most embassies and takes around 4 days. Prices vary depending on your nationality.

 

[KiwiNomad06]

This is the recent case that highlighted the need to be careful about visas when going via China: two Kiwi women had a problem when they flew with China Southern, and refuelled in Urumqi (which is not on your list.) http://m.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=11527827

"Watson and de Jong had applied for 72-hour transit visa exemptions, which they planned to use to sightsee in Beijing on their way back to New Zealand from Turkey. However, those plans were derailed by a one-hour refuelling stopover in Urumqi, a city of four million people in the autonomous region of Xinjiang, 3700km from Beijing."

Happy travels! I will read your accounts from home this time;-)
Margaret

 

[2kiwis]

Where are you starting your Camino from ,I looked at flights to Madrid also but want to start at Sjpdp but is a long way from Madrid and if you want to fly it is via an international airport ,so many choices !

 

[2kiwis]

Look at what I found today. Excellent prices. Even if you leave in the first few days of May it's only $100 more, but cheapest seems to be taking a starting flight in April. I'm hesitant to post this in case someone goes and books the last seats before I get to talk to hubby - but in the camino spirit I'll put this us now!
View attachment 21847

Hi Kiwi family did you book the tickets ,it's about the same dates I think I will go ,have found you can train to Pamploma and stay in hostel there and they will take you to Sjpdp ,which is what I think I will do ,

 

[Kiwi-family]

Hi Kiwi family did you book the tickets ,it's about the same dates I think I will go ,have found you can train to Pamploma and stay in hostel there and they will take you to Sjpdp ,which is what I think I will do ,

Yes, we booked, but we are doing the Via de la Plata and so head down to Seville. Your plan sounds good.

 

[Saint Mike II]

The traveling time horrifies me!!! I would be shattered!

Me too - that's why I pay a bit more and go Emirates - just under 24 hours and only one stop. Plus the food and the service is far superior (imho)!!

 

[AlwynWellington]

The traveling time horrifies me!!! I would be shattered!

30 hours is good going from New Zealand to anywhere in Europe, including layovers en route. To that you add the journey to the airport.

The easiest trip I had was to leave home from an inner Wellington suburb about 9 am on a Monday and be strolling down Princes Street, Edinburgh about 9 am the next day. This was 35 hours and included a layover at Singapore and a mad dash between terminals at Heathrow.

I suspect arriving at my destination at the start of the day may have tricked the head into coping.

 

[VNwalking]

I have been successful in booking quite reasonable multi-city itineraries from AKL to Europe through Bangkok, KL, and Singapore--choosing the connecting airports rather than depending on the search engine do the leg-work for me (thinking outside the box is not something computers do so well). There are many direct flights to various European cities from those cities; then once in Europe, flights to Spain from Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Zurich, etc. are not hard to find. So uncovering the right permutation and combination of these cities can sometimes bring surprising results. But it does take time.....

(And I have to say, I've not managed anything nearly such good value as Kiwi-family was able to find. But without going through China there are no visa issues.)

 

[KinkyOne]

Check the flights to Paris. After armed attacks prices lowered substantially. For example: Venice (Italy) to Paris is 10€...