[tonymc]

Bev - how about having a stopover on the flights?

We were booking using Avios, and did consider breaking our journey at Singapore outbound for a night. Depending who you fly with, there could be the option of a daytime flight from Singapore to Sydney, therefore giving you a decent nights sleep in between flights.

On the return journey, we also looked at the option of daytime flights - we did consider flying from Sydney to Tokyo (dep 09:00, arr 18:00 local times) on Japan Airlines (using Avios), then Tokyo-Heathrow-Manchester (on BA) the following day (dep Tokyo approx 12:00, arr Heathrow approx 17:00, dep LHR 20:00 arr Manchester 21:00). There is also an earlier flight out of Tokyo around 09:00 on BA.

However, as I was on-line at 1am on the days of booking, we could get the through LHR-SYD flights so we went with these.

May be worth using the MATRIX ITA website to see what stopover options and possible daytime flights could be available. You could also choose a number of Australian Airports (in the screenshot below I have shown Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane) if you were planning on a road trip. Happy planning.