My boss was talking about transferring me to Australia in a year or two. Hopefully by then my wife will have British Citizenship. But it certainly would be a lot nearer the Philippines, which makes the idea attractive. What is the flight time from Oz to Manila? Any Aussie people on the forum? I thought I noticed one the other week.
Good opportunity, go for it if you get the chance, especially if you can get an expat package. Never been there myself, but would love to go. There are many flight search engines, one of my regulars is amadeus
From Sydney it's 3900 miles which is not the saving in distance that I would have imagined, even Perth is 3200 miles! The easy two flight solutions from the UK add up to about 6800 miles which is only about a third further. I would guess that it is going to be about a 7 or 8 hours flight time, still pretty long.
I just had this plan dropped on me today. I know they want a bit of a toe hold over there so I can understand the need. But whether it materialises for me is another matter. I perhaps would not have looked upon it quite so favourably except for its relative proximity to South East Asia and the Philippines and my wife's family. Darwin to Davao looks like about 1300 miles......
well it helps that Australia is a big place and so is the Phils in a north to south direction, flight time should be in the region of 2 and half to 3 hours for 1300 miles.
Am looking at flight costs. They aren't (Sydney - Manila) really much cheaper than from the UK to Manila. Yikes....maybe not such a good idea.
Try a site like this one for cheap flights from Australia onwards. Though a bit of messing about, consider a quick stop in Darwin before flying onto Manila - £197.35 for a return flight from Darwin to Manila!! Also, given that Australia usually tops the worlds best places to live charts, I'd consider it alone on those grounds..
The Philippines is heaving with Aussies! I'd move to Australia like a shot - your wife will like it there, the climate is better, and the quality of life is much better.
I've lived in Australia for just over 30 years, came out here for a bit of adventure for a couple of years when I was twenty but never went back.... Australia is a huge place so airfares and flight times depend very much on your location here, Darwin is not a very big place although it is growing quite rapidly, the major industrial and population centres are on the South and East coasts with the exception of Perth in the West where the major industries are related to the natural resource boom.... I just got back from RP on Sunday, return flight Melbourne to Manila no stops was $1500 (990 GBP) and flight time of 8 hrs, at this time of year that is a very competitive price with many flights costing up to $1900, Melbourne to Cebu is more expensive and is genarally via Singapore or one of the other major SE Asian cities. Obviously domestic fares must also be added if travel to the province is required. off season fares for the same trip can be booked for as little as $800. There are other options available however spending 20+ hours much of it hanging around in airports just to save a couple of hundred bucks doesn't appeal to me.... If you get the chance to come here I would highly recommend it, at least for a couple of years, the standard of living is high and it's a great place to raise a family..... the major drawback is the cost of living which I consider to be quite horrendous at times.. I plan to retire to RP within 2 years and should have a very comfortable life style if all goes well... If my wife and two kids came here we would both need to work until I was at least 65... and that definately doesn't appeal....
WOW I had initially assumed flights would be significantly cheaper. Evidently not necessarily so. What do you class as off season, ILPI?
Early December to Mid January is peak, and airfares are often double during this period, June/July is always cheap, and good deals are generally available at anytime outside of this peak period.
Sydney bakes in hottest day on record as bushfires rage :dream: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21072347
Thought I'd resurrect this thread after JohnAsh pointed it out. We in the process of going for an Aussie Permenant Resident Visa (189 visa) and I've had all my paperwork assessed for the skills assessment and will be heading out in August to take an exam on Australian Legislation to complete the conversion of my British license (Master Mariner Unlimited). We've no idea if it will be a long term plan, but we are ready for our next adventure after the big sandpit (Middle East) and they have a major shortage of Captains and Marine Pilots so we have nothing to lose. No idea if we'll ever end up back in the UK, will just take it as it goes.
