If you’re flying out to Australia after the 30th of March this year you’ll need to be aware of a number of new enhanced security procedures the Australian Government has introduced.

From 31 March 2007, the Australian Government will introduce enhanced security screening measures to limit the amount of liquids, aerosols, and gels that can be taken through the security screening point for passengers who are flying to and from Australia.

Liquids, aerosols and gels include, but are not limited to:

Carry on Baggage Restrictions

All containers must fit comfortably in a transparent, resealable plastic bag.

Medication and Baby Products

Prescription medication and prescribed medical devices may still be carried on board. Reasonable amounts of non-prescription medication required for the length of the flight are permitted.

Baby products to be consumed in-flight including baby milk, sterilised water, baby juice, baby food in liquid, gel or paste form and wet wipes may be carried on board. All medication and baby products may be subject to additional security checks.

For further information on the Australian regulations you can visit dotars.gov.au.

Information source: Qantas.com

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Well, we’ve decided to go for it an book our flights.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to plan accommodation and what not when we had no idea what day we’d be flying out their so we’ve decided to go for it (despite the fact that we still haven’t sold the house) and book the flights with Singapore airlines.

We now fly out from Manchester Airport to Perth Australia (via a two hour stop at Singapore) on Friday the 24th November, arriving in Perth at 2:25pm on Saturday the 25th.

One thing that nearly scuppered our plans was the fact that we didn’t get the double baggage allowance with Singapore Airlines that we were expecting.

We would have done had we emigrated when we validated our Visa’s in February, however as our Visa’s were now classed as ‘used’ we no longer qualified for the double baggage allowance.

This proved a big problem for us as the stuff we were shipping out to Australia wouldn’t be there for 14 – 16 weeks so having two cases each would have effectively enabled us to take sufficient ’stuff’ for the first couple of months.

I must say though that the customer services at Singapore Airlines is as excellent as the airline themselves.

The lady offered to increase our baggage allowance to 30kg per person which would have given us an extra one and a half bags. Personally though I thought their policy was a little short sighted as I’m sure there must be 1000’s of people who go to Australia to activate their Visa’s before moving permanently so I politely declined and said I would write into Singapore Airlines customer services to see if I could get our full double allowance.

Then, there was a light at the end of the tunnel…. In my current line of work I do a lot of flying within the UK (mainly between Leeds and Edinburgh) and have clocked up quite a few air miles. I’ve managed to gain Gold Frequent Flyer status with BMI who are part of the ‘Star Alliance’ (sounds like something out of star wars).

Having gold status brings with it a few perks, Business lounge access, faster check in and Double baggage allowance.

Guess who is also a member of the ‘Star alliance’ Yep – Singapore Airlines and thankfully I can use my Frequent Flyer Status to get us double allowance anyway.

Really glad that I bothered collecting all those air miles now.

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Some interesting snippets of information that I found out in preperation for our rekkie to Perth is the discounts and additional allowances airlines will offer travellers when they make their final, one way, emigration flight down under.

Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Qantas all offer new migrants discounts on one-way airfares for flights departing from the UK to Australia. Singapore Airlines also offers the discount on flights departing fron Amsterdam.

Qantas and Singapore Airlines provide an extra 20kg baggage allowance per person when emigrating. This should prove useful when waiting for the rest of your possessions to arrive. Something tells me we’ll need two trollies at the airport though!

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