Are there cheap flights to Oz?

Jon_01

My lads off over there for 6 month+and we're looking for cheap flights.

I realise with the distance and taxes that there may very well be no such thing as a 'cheap' flight. But is anyone aware of anything less than around a grand ??

He's looking to travel around the end of Nov, I've based my searches on an outward date of Nov 20 (Sunday) but any date is good (if it's cheap enough !!)....

lfc321

To where from where?

Opodo shows plenty of flights under £1000 for outward on 20 Nov returning 6 months later (I ramdomly picked 27 May).

e.g. £914 with Malaysia Airlines LHR-SYD-LHR

Jon_01

Sorry...

From any London to Sydney or Melbourne.

We set the return to August 2012 (any Sunday as that seems the best day to travel for cost), but he may need to amend that when he's over there.

He's looking for something less than £900 (which I feel is probably not possible!).

lfc321

Jon_01 wrote: »

We set the return to August 2012 (any Sunday as that seems the best day to travel for cost), but he may need to amend that when he's over there.

That might make a difference - generally you pay more for flexible fares. The cheapest fares usually don't allow changes, at least not without a hefty fee. You need to really look carefully into the T&Cs of whatever ticket you're planning to buy.

Flying back in the (UK) school holidays might be increasing the prices you're finding. Mind you, I get the same £914 on Malaysian 20Nov/17Aug. I don;t know what the conditions for changing are.

£900 was easy to find a few years ago. It's still possible in some circumstances, but that's pretty bottom-end now, at least for full service airlines. The tax alone is over £500. I doubt you'll get much under £900, esp if you need the return dates to be flexible.

Might be worth looking what you can do on Air Asia - although I have never used them others on this board find they have good prices.

loobs40

Might be worth looking at Round the World tickets. I suspect they are more expensive than £1000, but they are very flexible. The one we used which included BA and Qantas (one Alliance ?) pretty much allowed to change any of the flights at any time except for the departure one from London. Just looked at STA Travel which is a popular agency

http://www.statravel.co.uk/top-routes.htm

cheeky_monkey95

I booked a flight recently, and when I put in "Friday 13th" as a date, it was much cheaper than any others, for obvious reasons!

Fine if you are not superstitious...

shaunskankdog

air asia one way as of 2000 16 oct

£363 all inc exc baggage charges if booking through as one journey

or

about £20 cheaper if doing separate but if flight is late arriving in Kuala Lumpur for connection....

also check out kuwati and saudi airlines, they do return to Kuala for about £400 ....then sort out connecting flights to Aussie.

whatyadoinsucka

sign upto to STAtravel weekly email as deals come through every week, about 3-4 weeks ago emirates had return to christchurch nz for £450 return.
i have seen quite a few at the £550 £600 mark to oz too.
but nov/dec/jan is a popular season so you will likely pay more

use a website like kayak or expedia and enter a few dates.
emirates / etihad etc have free stopovers in singapore (very safe fun place) / bangkok etc which break up the journey nicely

don't forget to go via quidco or topcashback to get 1-2% cashback on the flight.
I also found telephoning flightcentre would beat the online rate by £10

mrshassall1987

http://www.opodo.co.uk/opodo/flights/search?CMP=uk-dc-SYD&departureAirport=LON&arrivalAirport=SYD&numberOfAdults=1&numberOfChildren=0&numberOfInfants=0&tripType=R&cabinType=E&departureMonth=201111&returnDay=01&returnMonth=201206&departureDay=30&arrivalAirportCode=SYD&departureAirportCode=LON&departureTime=ANY&returnTime=ANY

http://worldwideflights.farebase.net/worldwideflights/schedules2/schedsearch_results.asp?dept1=LON&destination=SYD&flight_type=return&class=Y&date_day=30&date_year2=2012&date_day2=01&date_month2=06&date_year=2011&date_month=11&via=none&airline=all&orderby=returnfare,onewayfare&sortorder=asc&number=20

These prices aren't too bad but I don't think they are felxible

Jeff_Bridges_hair

As been said for dirt cheap use air asia but remember to book soon as thats getting into their summer season at that time of the year - roughly so loads of folk are wanting to go.

claire16c

Its because Nov Dec and Jan are most expensive times to go to Oz. Someone at my work is trying to get a flight in Nov and she found one with Emirates for around £850. BA and Quantas were about a grand, I think Air China were cheaper but not sure if youd want to go with them. There was also another middle eastern airline but it stopped somewhere in the middle east for hours and the plane was a pretty crappy one for going that far, no IFE or anything. I think shes booking the Emirates one.