flying to Australia - how early can I book flights and how best to do it

aah

Hello everyone

My 17 year old daughter is saving up all her hard earned pennies to visit Australia for about 5 months in late 2009/2010 once she has finished her A levels.

I know its really early but she has heard that she gets the best deals on flights if she books about 12 months in advance. Is this so - and can she book her return flights at the same time - after all that would be 17 months in advance.

And can anyone help with the cheapest or most cost effective way to do this - she doesnt mind travelling over Xmas....

gerrynimo

Hi,

You can normally only book flights up to around 330 days in the future. Airlines normally don't show any flights of fares further than that.

Xmas is the most expensive time to travel, so your daughter probably wants to avoid that period.

I guess some more experienced MSE'rs or travellers can give you some more advise, but I think it is just too early to find out any real quotes.

Nearer to the time, I would suggest you just use every search engine/travel agency you can find to compare prices.

Hope this helps.

Voyager2002

Fares are likely to be at their lowest when no-one else wants to travel, probably around November. March is probably a good time to book for travel then.

Skint_Catt

I flew to Sydney via Bangkok (don't recommend that one!) in 2002 for £580 (flew out 16th Jan). This was an open ended ticket - I think we had to state a date we wanted to come back on when we booked (Travelbag I think it was), but I changed this three times with no additional fees to pay (needs to be open ended otherwise you may have to pay each time).

Get her to think about a 'RTW' (round the world) ticket - sometimes its cheaper to come back through the States (with an extra holiday thrown in) rather than back through Asia.

As a rough idea I spent £1,000 per month (inc flights et al) for 8 months in Thailand/Australia) - that wasn't slumming it neither was it living the high life, but it was a good average (seeing and doing everything I wanted) that I wouldn't be unhappy about doing again.

troodles

We got flights via Dial a flight for £568 to NZ in Nov 05 with Cathay Pacific and in Feb/March 2008 into Perth Oz and out of Sydney with Malaysian via KL for £748. November December seem much cheaper.

aah

Hi all

Thanks for your replies, and any more would be really welcome. Prices look really good although I am aware that they are likely to go up.

We have been advised that Xmas - possibly even travelling Xmas day - is a cheap time to travel as nobody wants to spend it in the air. But thanks for your experiences anyway.

the 330 day rule is helpful - looks like 330 days from her return date then?

Thanks again

A. x

LondonSurgeon

As the flights are for your daughter a good place to start is the student travel agents (STA Travel)....they will have student fares, which are slightly better than adult fares.

If she does not mind taking the long way down, there are now many "Budget" airlines doing quite cheap runs to the Far East, with connections to Australia, e.g Jet airways through India and Thailand