• The forums will be unavailable for a few hours on Saturday 6th June, when they do return they will initially be in a degraded state with some features missing, but normal posting/reading will be possible. The main website will not be affected by these updates.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.
    Some other features of the forum are also currently disabled.

going to Oz for the Ashes

Eggman said:
Yep. My missus went to the cricket on day one and three, shopping on day two. The antics of the Barmy Army generally kept her amused, while I enjoyed Australia being 98 all out and Jonathan Trott scoring 168
Click to expand...

I’ve tended to do first session on my own, meet Mrs NCB for food in the middle session then go in with her for the final one when it’s beery and decent crack.

Reckon I’d quickly get an allocation of zero if I tried a full day…
 

Eggman said:
Couldn’t agree less.

Both times at the MCG I was easily able to get seats in the lower tier, in a long on, long off position.

Later in the game, when the ground isn’t anywhere near full, you can move around and take in different views of the action.

We got reasonably priced flights and city centre accommodation, at a fair price.

Do you really need someone to decide your itinerary on non match days ?

It’s more fun to go where you want and when you want.

For flights, use the internet orCourtenay Airsavers.

For hotels,book direct for the best prices.

One thing that almost caught me out was arriving in Oz at 2am - you need to book a room for the preceding night, so when you turn up 3am, you have somewhere to crash out and begin to suffer the jetlag
Click to expand...
Yep you echo my comments
Buy a tier 5 ticket every time and mingle into the lower tier
There’s always spare seats
 
89,000 there on Boxing Day 2006 but by the 3rd day it was easier to sit in different parts of the MCG. Wasn't a fan of the SCG although the Pavilion is decent. As earlier, I'd avoid the Barmy Army and package tours personally.
 
Right starting to think seriously now about Perth. Any advice on where to find the best flights? Preferably get there in less than 24 hours with no more than 1 change. Oh and in the region of less than 1k
 
Last edited:
Silly Point said:
Right starting to think seriously now about Perth. Any advice on where to find the best flights? Preferably get there in less than 24 hours with no more than 1 change. Oh and in the region of less than 1k
Click to expand...
Can Fly direct from Heathrow with Qantas. Malaysia airlines may be the cheapest with one stopover though. Just use Google flights/skyscanner to compare then book direct with airline of your choice.
 
Silly Point said:
Right starting to think seriously now about Perth. Any advice on where to find the best flights? Preferably get there in less than 24 hours with no more than 1 change. Oh and in the region of less than 1k
Click to expand...

Tag a second test on if you’re going all that way. Miss day 1 of the first one and day 5 of the second as you’ll get cheaper flights each way.

That’s normally how we do it. Don’t think I’ve been stung yet on the second of the tests.
 
Silly Point said:
Right starting to think seriously now about Perth. Any advice on where to find the best flights? Preferably get there in less than 24 hours with no more than 1 change. Oh and in the region of less than 1k
Click to expand...
Emirates from Newcastle to Dubai, with roughly a 2 hour wait, then connections from there takes about 24 hrs - personally I’ve done NCL to Brisbane and Sydney.

You’ll do well to get it for less than a grand return, but if you travel outside of mid December to Jan 3ish, you may get a deal.

Courtney Airsavers in Newcastle are quite helpful as a sounding board to get you a few options.

In 2002, to get a cheap deal, we used China Airlines and it still cost £770, took 40 hours, and spent 3 hours flying north from Bangkok to Taipei. I wouldn’t do it again or put cost ahead of comfort/time (unless you are really strapped for cash). I found out later they had a poor safety record 😬

By 2010, using Emirates, it was around £1500 from NCL to Brisbane.

Hope this helps
 
Last edited:
Went to the MCG for the last ashes series during covid times. Was decent but a little bit anti climatic, mainly due to the reduced crowd and the fact we got a good hiding! Now in Sydney so hoping to get to the SCG for the next series.
 
Eggman said:
Emirates from Newcastle to Dubai, with roughly a 2 hour wait, then connections from there takes about 24 hrs - personally I’ve done NCL to Brisbane and Sydney.

You’ll do well to get it for less than a grand return, but if you travel outside of mid December to Jan 3ish, you may get a deal.

Courtney Airsavers in Newcastle are quite helpful as a sounding board to get you a few options.

In 2002, to get a cheap deal, we used China Airlines and it still cost £770, took 40 hours, and spent 3 hours flying north from Bangkok to Taipei. I wouldn’t do it again or put cost ahead of comfort/time (unless you are really strapped for cash). I found out later they had a poor safety record 😬

By 2010, using Emirates, it was around £1500 from NCL to Brisbane.

Hope this helps
Click to expand...

My in-laws live in Melbourne and we went to there for Xmas in 2019 just before covid and the flights were 8k for 4 adults using Emirates.

We haven't been back since and are hoping to go next year so my son and I can goto the boxing day test.

Used Courtney's everytime we have went to Australia as you say they were really good but they closed a few years back.

Flights will be out in the next month or so as I looked yesterday they were up to Dec 7th 2025
 
Eggman said:
Emirates from Newcastle to Dubai, with roughly a 2 hour wait, then connections from there takes about 24 hrs - personally I’ve done NCL to Brisbane and Sydney.

You’ll do well to get it for less than a grand return, but if you travel outside of mid December to Jan 3ish, you may get a deal.

Courtney Airsavers in Newcastle are quite helpful as a sounding board to get you a few options.

In 2002, to get a cheap deal, we used China Airlines and it still cost £770, took 40 hours, and spent 3 hours flying north from Bangkok to Taipei. I wouldn’t do it again or put cost ahead of comfort/time (unless you are really strapped for cash). I found out later they had a poor safety record 😬

By 2010, using Emirates, it was around £1500 from NCL to Brisbane.

Hope this helps
Click to expand...

I’m sure our flights were still ‘only’ £1k in 2013 but did our usual thing of missing Day 1 (Adelaide) to get more flight choice. Still get loads in if you’re doing a second test.
 
I’ve managed to convince wor lass to do Australia for the new year. Going to be in Sydney so conveniently it falls for the ashes 5th test. Has anyone booked separately and got tickets (I’ve signed up to cricket Australia for ticket info) from what I can see barmy army only sells tickets as part of tours or hotels neither of which I need.
 
Raich Carter said:
I’ve managed to convince wor lass to do Australia for the new year. Going to be in Sydney so conveniently it falls for the ashes 5th test. Has anyone booked separately and got tickets (I’ve signed up to cricket Australia for ticket info) from what I can see barmy army only sells tickets as part of tours or hotels neither of which I need.
Click to expand...

Get an Aussie resident registered if you know one as they get a window ahead of UK residents.
 
Me and the wife went out in 2010 and did the Boxing Day test, good decision to pick that year in the end. She likes the cricket and did all of it with me although she decided to go to the loo when the aussies were on the brink of defeat and missed Hilfenhaus nick off that sealed us retaining the Ashes.

We booked a trip through a company,
You must be logged on to see external links
, where you could book packages for the cricket but they also had other packages that could all be joined together to make up the holiday. We ended up flying out before xmas into Melbourne and did their Great Ocean Road package that covered the stops in decent motels each night and car hire as we drove from Melbourne to Adelaide then a flight back to Melbourne. Booked a trip over to Philip Island on Christmas Day then tickets to all five days of the cricket. Hotel in Melbourne was really good, included breakfast and then it was a nice 20\25 min walk down to the MCG each day for the cricket. Also had got to know an Aussie lad through him coming over to play as an overseas in club cricket in the years before our trip so met up with him in Melbourne a few times as well. We then added a few days in Sydney for New Year on the end.

We were away about 2 and a half weeks in the end and was a brilliant trip. Worked really well having a bit of holiday then the cricket as not sure the other half would have gone for 2 test matches. First week travelling we were driving through some great scenery and coastline while we had our one bad test that series at Perth.

Looking at the company we used they seem to have packages available for the upcoming Ashes so could be worth a look. No idea what they are like as a company these days as it was 15 years ago we went but back then they were really good.
 
Just booked flights with emirates to visit my in laws in Melbourne.

Going for 4 weeks from 10th Dec as it was almost 350 quid cheaper per person than if we went a week later like we had planned, both kids are at university so just fyi students get10% discount with emirates - thankfully my wife and I have understanding bosses who said it was a no brainer to go earlier.

Tickets for MCG are released in Australia mid June so will be sitting with my Aussie in-laws.

Probably go day 2 and 3.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top