Sydney to Edinburgh

[Ryan N]

What is the most direct way to fly to Edinburgh, Scotland from Sydney? Would it be Sydney to Asia, then onto London for a connecting flight to Edinburgh, or would it be easier via USA?

[Gareth Forwood]

I imagine the quickest would be with QF/BA SYD-LHR-EDI. The QF schedule has a 1h45m stop in Singapore and a 1h40m transfer in LHR on the BA codeshare. Total time is 26h05m.

Going via USA I'm guessing the quickest would be with QF107 to JFK via LAX. Problem there is I think the only flights from USA to EDI are from EWR, requiring a nice quick drive through the quiet NY streets... SYD-JFK is already over 21hrs, so I think LHR or other European stops will be the quickest.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Another option would be to take the QF5 to Frankfurt via Singapore and then something like Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Edinburgh.

Qantas QF5 Sydney-Frankfurt Dep 1655 Arr 0515 with 1hr 20min in Singapore - Total Flight Time 22hr 20min

Lufthansa Frankfurt-Edinburough Dep 1205 Arr Edinburgh at 1300 Flight Time 1hr 55Min

Total flight time 24hr 15min - The connection time in Frankfurt will eat up some of the 1hr 50min left to make up the 26hr 5min via LHR.

I also thought Emirates might be faster, however I could not find a westbound non-stop flight from Sydney to Dubai (maybe the direct flights are only eastbound).

[Anthony T]

Emirates don't fly to Edinburgh, they go to Glasgow and then a short train ride.

Also if you do a search on the EK website by price, you get flights on the one-stop services to DXB, if you search by schedule, you get the fastest flights, the non-stop ones, but these are more expensive.

[Michael Arentz]

FYI if you go the Glasgow solution, it's a 20 minute shuttle bus to the train station then 45-60 minutes on the train to Edinburgh Waverly, at least the train dumps you smack bang in the middle of the city.

[Ryan N]

So I guess Glasgow is not far from Edinburgh. Might be an option for me instead of flying into Edinburgh.

[Scott L.]

Having just done this trip in August, if I was to do it again, I will certainly be avoiding changing in Heathrow. BA/QF/SQ flights all arrive in Terminal 4 for which there is a 20 minute bus ride to Terminal 5. This is where the fun begins. I would allow two hours transit time in LHR as the queues were for both immigration and security, horrendus. Our return flight from Edinburgh to London was delayed, nearly causing us to miss our return flight to Australia.

My parents recently took the Emirates service via Dubai and then onto Glasgow. They then hired a car to then travel to their final destination. Happy Days they say.

[Owen H]

Personally I'd go through Frankfurt. Great airport, and it works. Avoids the disaster that is Heathrow.

[Nick Te Mata]

There is another option out of left field and it seems to be the quickest and cheapest too; on EY (Etihad) you can make your transfer through Manchester which is reasonably pleasant and certainly much easier than the mess that is LHR. That'd make your intinerary SYD-AUH-MAN-EDI, and by punching in some dummy dates in March of next year, I found a return for $1590 AUD which is very competitive. Timing is 31 hours up and 28 hours back, and the codeshare MAN/EDI is on BMI.

If you're doing the trip on one itinerary via FRA I'm thinking that you'd need Star carriers right through from SYD-EDI, and the only way to do that would be SYD-BKK/SIN on SQ/TG, then BKK/SIN-FRA-EDI on LH. LH codeshare on the SQ and TG services so it's fairly easily done -- just looking at it now and LH's cheapest fare is almost identical at $1598 using the SQ codeshare via SIN. Slightly longer at 35 hours up and 32 back, but certainly not prohibitively so. [edit to include the following] The taxes on the LH itinerary add up to more than $800, so it actually becomes much more expensive.

[Scott Loveday]

No quite as direct, but there's an option with KLM which allows travel through almost any SE Asian city, then connection through Amsterdam.

The published fare is $1102 ex tax. I guess taxes would depend on routing.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Another option, from Bangalore Aviation (http://www.bangaloreaviation.com/2009/12/qatar-airways-commences-doha-melbourne.html) .....

Qatar Airways launched its first flight to the Australian continent with its non-stop Doha Melbourne service using its latest Boeing 777-200LR delivered just a few days ago.

At 21 hours and 40 minutes, Qatar Airways offers the quickest scheduled flight times between Melbourne and London.

[Rhys Xanthis]

Doha airport is not the best experience you could have. I could think of many better places to be after a good 14 hours from Melbourne!

Buses to and from planes tends to delay things a bit there, as do the generally inadequate facilities.

However if you're flying premium classes, then it's fine as they have a premium terminal.