Oz: Long Way For A Senior?

OK, so strike threats aside, the-now Mrs. mdvipond and I have been discussing with the Senior Ponds the possibility of their joining us for Christmas in Australia.

Don't get me wrong, we don't want my parents with us for our honeymoon as such. We're renting a beach-house north of Sydney for Christmas week and thought that the Seniors could stay in the city for a week or so then come out to visit us (and, of course jr.) for a couple of days.

I've found them decent D fares - although they'd have to go all the way through LHR-SYD-LHR without a stop-over, and would have just over a fortnight in Oz. Mother is rather keen; Father, on the other hand, feels that at (a very active) 66 he's far too old to spend '24 hours cooped up in a metal tube' and is resistant to the whole idea to say the least.

Has he got a point? I'd hate to talk them into it and then have Father re-creating a scene from 'Night of the Living Dead' for all of Christmas.

Both mt grandfather and my mother visited Australia and New Zealand in their dotages. My Grandfather was 80 and my mother was 75 (different journeys by the way!)

No problems with the flights, but both had problems with the heat a little bit.

I do not know if they would have been able to do the flight in Economy though.

Both went with BA

[HighFlyer]

Even I, as a fairly young and fit person, would bolt at the idea of a direct LON-SYD flight. I'd really have to stop off at HKG before i went insane. I guess its up to the Senior Ponds to be fair. A fortnight is a long time to recover, and flying J isnt too bad, but i can understand Father's hesitations. Although, if you have Mother on your side, i am sure she can talk him round if she really wants to go. Mentions of 'missing Juniors face when she sees/does X' will probably work.

Have either been to Oz before? If not, i'd say that was a good reason to push for them to go while they still can. If they have, i guess its up to them.

Thanks,
Sarah

Alan - if an 80 year old can do it, I'm sure my dear Father can make it.

Sarah - I'm being a Very Stupid Boy here, but by 'stop off at HKG' do you mean a few days stop over as opposed to the hour or so refuel stop? I know it's a long time, but why would a young and fit (not to say vivacious and alluring) thing such as yourself have a problem, especially in J? We're doing it in one hop on the way back and although I was expecting a long slog I was preparing to chill, iPod, sleep, eat, V-port etc. and stay the right side of sane for a day.

None of us have ever done Oz before, so it's all very much 'once-in-a-lifetime', shot-in-the-dark kinda stuff.

And if it comes to it, don't for a second think we're above employing a little granddaughter based bribery along the way...

[HighFlyer]

Yes i meant stop over for a few days in HKG. I love flying, but after 12 hours, even in Upper Class, i'm just about reaching my threshold and boredom starts to set in. I dont think i could ever manage a SYD flight in one go as i have a short attention span - unless we get the Internet onboard and then i'd be very happy for at least 18 hours . I guess its a personal thing as i cant usually sleep onboard. Maybe a few Nytol with a large Port is the answer?

Thanks,
Sarah

Originally posted by HighFlyer
Yes i meant stop over for a few days in HKG. I love flying, but after 12 hours, even in Upper Class, i'm just about reaching my threshold and boredom starts to set in. I dont think i could ever manage a SYD flight in one go as i have a short attention span - unless we get the Internet onboard and then i'd be very happy for at least 18 hours . I guess its a personal thing as i cant usually sleep onboard. Maybe a few Nytol with a large Port is the answer?

Thanks,
Sarah

Short attention span? Ah, the pandemic of your generation, dear girl...

So it's more a boredom thing than a physical endurance thing? If one were able to lose oneself in a film or three, tackle a good book and have a decent kip - preferably without the use of Nytol and port (phenegan and gin are much more effective) - then it wouldn't be too bad?

I need to be able to sell this to my Father and at the moment if I show him your posts we're stuffed (I'm not shooting the messenger here, by the way, and I'd rather you told me the awful truth than give dad an excuse to moan at me for the next 3 months).

[HighFlyer]

I can edit my posts if you wish? "Tell your Dad that he'd be mad not to ..." etc, etc.

Okay, personally, I'd try to avoid a direct Oz flight myself. However, if enduring it meant that i could have a wonderful and memorable vacation with my family in Australia, and the chance at an opportunity i might not get again, then i think it would be worth it. Maybe that's the way to pitch it to your Dad? Its his choice, and if he really doesnt want to be 'cooped up in a metal tube' then fair enough, he doesnt have to, but is it worth the suffering (albeit in J ) to spend Christmas with family, to see Junior playing on the beach in Oz, and to have their picture taken outside the Sydney Opera house? Yes, i think so.

Thanks,
Sarah

Ooh, you're good Sarah. 'See jr. playing on the beach in Oz'. Masterful. Little wonder there is naught that Richard can deny you

Thank you for your honest and informative replies, dear lady, I would have expected nothing less.

Now, if we could just have a quick chat about this editing thing...

Having done this flight on SO many occasions along with my parents and grandparents for years, (beauty of an English family) I would say that especially in J Class they will be fine. It is a long way but the time does go very quickly with a movie, dinner, gin, gin, gin, and more gin! We have often done the long flight in one go due to time restrictions. It is a lot easier doing it than the thought of it.

On our recent trip V-Monkey did SYD-LHR and then straight to work! With the aid of sleeping in a bed it isn't that bad, like others have said if they were in Y, I couldn't do it let alone your parents!

Some of you will remember that I flew down to Perth via Singapore a couple of years ago. This isn't as bad as SYD in the sense it's one long 12 hour slog, followed by a shorter 5 hour-ish hop.

I could have had the option of a tight connection in SIN, literally jumping from one plane straight to the next, with a high chance of misconnecting if there was a delay, and arriving at PER at about 2am.

Instead, I opted to a longer (about 6 hour) stopover in SIN, and I rented a napping room at one of the lounges for a few hours.

SIN also has a "transit hotel" in each terminal, situated airside, and is ideal for stopovers which aren't long enough to justify going into Singapore itself but just a bit too long, or great for people who can't sleep on planes and just want to sleep in a real bed for a few hours before continuing their circumnavigations.

I'd have been happier with a transit hotel room for the stopover, but they were already full (I should have reserved in advance), so the napping room (it's a room divided up into compartments with Japanese-style tatame screens) was okay and made me feel a little more human.

Mike

Well I have done LHR-CHC with 3 hours in SIN before and to be honest it is not that bad (and did it in Y).

Reason the direct flight isn't as bad as some think:
1. Both flights are overnight. Therefore get on LHR have dinner, take sleeping pill, wake up in time for lunch, land, walk around, get back on, take sleeping pill and wake up in time for breakfast. So its not really like a daylight flight to the States, say, where you are just sat there willing the hours past.

2. AVOD is fantastic- especially on SQ.

3. You get to Australia quicker. I was dreading the flight the first time but once you get into the mindset its fine.


Okay so I know as a 20 something I am a spring chicken and supposed to be able to deal with it! My parents, brave souls, have done this route on a number of occasions and are very much of the opinion that if you do the above, so dinner, sleeping pill routine it is fine.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[honey lamb]

Well, as the elder statesman (or rather, stateswoman) and the one nearest in age to the Senior Ponds I feel obliged to give my 2 cents worth. OK, so when I went to Oz we stopped over in Hong Kong but having spent most of that flight sleeping, I felt I would have been able to cope with the onward flight and perhaps be able to snatch another hour or two of sleep.

On the return flight I was determined to stay awake for the flight from SYD and I am sure I would have slept peacefully for the onward flight to LHR.

One of the things that I felt on the LHR-HKG legs was that because the flight was so long, there was no pressure to try to get some sleep like there is on the flights from the east coast of America. I was therefore much more relaxed and inclined to drop off.

Oh, and copious libations of G&T, wine, port etc, helped enormously

Yes it is a long slog (even in J).However,if Mr Pond Snr can sleep on a plane it's a doddle (as Mr DL and Dragonbaby can atest to). However if he is in the "can't sleep camp" (like Highflyer and myself)he might be a tad miserable for some of the journey if it's all in one go.However there are distractions(like gin) and the anticipation of seeing you all will,I'm sure, more than make up for any transient and temporary grumpiness that Mrs Pond Snr might have to endure.
My mother- in- law (at the age of 65+ )took herself off to Australia (alone) as my father -in law had refused to go with her citing similar reasons to Mr Pond Snr (too old ,cooped up etc).Perhaps you might suggest a spot of solo travel to your mother? This worked a treat with my father -in law. The next time she went he went with her and then moaned that he'd wished he'd done it before (and he's not been well enough to go since much to his regret).

[HighFlyer]

I think you have summed it up perfectly there DL.

Thanks,
Sarah

Yes, I'll second that - very succinctly put DL. Although the suggestion of solo travel for my Mother might receive an unwelcome response of the four letter variety.

I'm going to show your post to my father this evening, see if we can't shame him into making the right decision...

Originally posted by honey lamb
One of the things that I felt on the LHR-HKG legs was that because the flight was so long, there was no pressure to try to get some sleep like there is on the flights from the east coast of America. I was therefore much more relaxed and inclined to drop off.

This kind of touches on an another question I was going to ask: When's it best to sleep on these flights? The LHR-HKG leg is the one the confuses me most, as it's a night flight, but it will be evening by the time we get to our Hong Kong hotel? Sleep or stick it out so that you're tired when you get there?

And I guess the best thing for the return trip (SYD-LHR) is to stay awake as far as HKG then sleep on the LHR leg? This is all assuming that our dear daughter has read the script first and agrees to play along with us...

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by mdvipond

Originally posted by honey lamb
One of the things that I felt on the LHR-HKG legs was that because the flight was so long, there was no pressure to try to get some sleep like there is on the flights from the east coast of America. I was therefore much more relaxed and inclined to drop off.

This kind of touches on an another question I was going to ask: When's it best to sleep on these flights? The LHR-HKG leg is the one the confuses me most, as it's a night flight, but it will be evening by the time we get to our Hong Kong hotel? Sleep or stick it out so that you're tired when you get there?

And I guess the best thing for the return trip (SYD-LHR) is to stay awake as far as HKG then sleep on the LHR leg? This is all assuming that our dear daughter has read the script first and agrees to play along with us...

I found that I slept well enough on the LHR-HKG leg and after we had checked in, Aer John and I strolled around the place, had something to eat and went to bed around 11:00 which would be our normal time. I found i slept well enough that night and was as fresh as a daisy the next day.

On the return leg from SYD to HKG I was determined to stay awake, partly because it is not like a transatlantic flight and we were not going through as many time zones and partly so that I would be able to sleep that night when we got to HKG. The same principle would have applied if I were continuing straight on the LHR

More or less what I thought, HL, but I'm not sure I'd sleep normally in Hong Kong if I'd already had 5 or 6 hours on the flight there.

Then again, who am I kidding? That's what they invented gin for isn't it?