My plan is to fly NZ - Singapore (10 hours) stopover 4 nights then Sing - London (13 hours).

Should I get an overnight flight or a daytime one for each leg?

I have never flown a long haul before.

Thanks for your help

What do you get to see along the way? I'd be fascinated to look down on all that geography (okay, on the NZ to Singapore leg, it's mostly water), assuming a window seat and clear weather.


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If you have the chance, go daylight and with Singapore you should have that option. I find it very hard to sleep on planes and would much rather not try. If you can get a window seat, there is a possibility of you enjoying the view the whole way. I once flew BA from Bangkok to London in daylight; it was clear virtually the entire trip and it was like watching a map unfold.

Another thing, when you arrive in the early evening your hotel is ready for you. When you arrive in the early morning the best you can hope for is to be allowed to park your suitcase somewhere. I also feel that daylight flights are better for battling jetlag.

I agree somewhat with Tangata, however, you lose an entire day rather than a restless overnight!

If you've never flown long haul before I would definitely recommend flying during the day. We flew Kuala Lumpur to Auckland (and back) and got to see the whole of the top of the Australian coastline during daylight. The Auckland - KL legs weren't too bad (and KL is virtually next to Singapore) but the Singapore - London leg will be a long one, pack a book in case the movies are boring! You go through so many time zones on this type of flight that your body is completely zonked when you arrive. At least if you arrive when the new country is heading towards nightfall you can catch a few hours' sleep and start getting your body to adjust its rhythm. On the way back, are you stopping off again or flying straight through?

Thanks for your advice.

I am not flying back. One way ticket. Doing the big OE.

I know from experience that I am better off not in a window seat (I tend to convince myself that the mountains are too close and we are going to crash - stupid I know but i do it everytime). And an aisle seat i can get up more easily.

Do I reckon I'll definately do a daytime NZ-Sing.

Are there overnight flights from AKL to SIN? Remember you gain 5 hours, and it's only a 10 hour flight anyway. So "overnight" would involve really horrible arrival or departure times.

OTH, the view bu day isn't that exciting (a wodge of undefinable Ozzie desert last time I did that flight. At 35,000 ft it really wasn't worth watching). The issue of best deals apart, the crucial thing has to be to avoid getting a flight leaving after midday, NZ time. Arriving anywhere - even somewhere as blissfully painless as Changi - after midnight your body's time is never a good idea.

For SIN-LON, there are flights leaving at 2 am and 6 am - departure times that strike me as constituting cruel and unusual punishment (and apart from anything else, most of Changi's duty-free shops aren't open for those flights).

Although the route passes over some of the most exciting places imaginable, you still don't get to see much by day, even if the plane flies over the Hindu Kush-Himalaya belt (though it normally goes west of the best of the mountains). Actually, I get more excited knowing from the map thingy on your screen (always more interesting than the movies) that I'm over, say, Samarkand then looking at the few lights visible at night down there than by looking down and seeing nothing remotely recognisable

The flights leaving around 10 pm- midnight might sound OK. But they arrive in London round 5 am, and hotels never have rooms ready: jetlag management also tells you to stay awake till at least 8-9 pm London time. I'd have thought wondering round London trying to stay awake would be as close to purgatory as it's possible to get.

There are a couple of flights leaving between 1000 and midday, getting into London in the early evening, London time (though way after midnight your body's time, whether it thinks it's in Singapore, NZ or just plain lost). These flights let you get to wherever you're sleeping in time to decide between hitting the boozers, watching an up to date episode of Coronation Street, or just curling up in bed. Id'd have thought they were the best.

Wilees - Whenever we fly from Australia to London, we always try to take daylight flights, and always have a stop over somewhere in Asia.
Enroute to London, and depending who we fly with, we usually stay a night at the Amari Hotel right at Bangkok Airport, or the Pan Pacific Hotel, again right at the KL's International Airport. Just great to get out the plane, have a shower, crawl into bed, then in the morning have an early morning swim in the pool, relaxing breakfast, then stroll into the airport a few minutes walk away, then board a "Daylight Flight" right through to London, arriving in London around 6pm, all very sensible.
Unfortunately, you can't do the same on the return trip home.
The reason we stay at Airport hotels, is that we have visited those Asian cities & their countryside before.