Flights to Australia

sparklylime

Hey everyone,

OH and I have decided to save up for our first ever holiday together and we would like to fly out to Sydney to visit my rellies out there then have a week or so to explore by ourselves.

I was just wondering if anyone had any tips re: flights for me as we will be on quite a tight budget!

Is there any time of year that is cheapest to travel?

Manchester is our closest airport but would it cheaper to fly from
somewhere else, like London maybe?

Any airlines in particular that you would recommend using? Or avoiding?

Would you advise a stop-over on the way and if so where?

Apologies for being a bit clueless! I've never planned anything like this before so I don't really know where to start or how to recognise a good deal when I see one.

Any help would be very much appreciated

RedCanadaHat

hiya!

i have been searching as well every day but i'm flying in December and I can tell you that early december is cheaper than mid-late december.

i believe the cheapest time to travel to oz would be now as it's winter. my mate just got back from there (she lives in edinburgh) and her flight cost £500 return. the flight i have my eye on in december (dec 4th - jan 8th) is around £760 with air china but then you look at dates 3 or 4 dates aside the one i chose and it goes up to £1200. it really depends. you just need to know where to look. i usually go to expedia.com or kayak (through MSE). it would be worth checking out your local flight centre as they usually do really good last minute deals.
Oh another good site for Oz flights is travelmood.com . they specialise in australian/nz flights and are quite cheap and i believe they are able to match flight prices.

airlines i can recommend to you for oz flights are:
Asiana (korean - will stop at incheon airport in seoul..i'd recommend a couple days in Seoul the people are really friendly and the scenery is amazing)

Cathay Pacific (nice food on board, 5 star service)

Singapore Airlines (not flown with them but i've heard great things)

my mates are currently on an Emirates flight back from Sydney when they're back i can let you know if they're a good airline or not..i've heard good things about them.

hope this helped!

sparklylime

Thanks for your help, much appreciated! That will get me started with a few places to start looking

RedCanadaHat

give me a shout if you need any more info!

richardw

Avoiding Heathrow

Singapore Airlines fly MAN-SIN-SYD http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_UK/index.jsp
Emirates fly MAN-Dubai-SYD www.emirates.com/uk
Qatar Airways fly MAN-Doha-SYD www.qatarairways.com