Dont buy your Australian visa from the travel agent!

hwesty

Hi all

I thought i'd share my money saving tip

My boyfriend and I are heading off to Oz next month for 2 months, and as such require an Australian visa for entry.

The travel agency offered to package this up, along with the other usual add ons! (Travel Insurance, Car hire etc etc!)

We decided to do a bit of shopping around; and found a great deal can be saved as a result.

The travel agent quoted £25 each per visa, ie. £50

Here's the results of out comparison;

Visas Australia: £12 each Nice website but difficult application system
Australian Embassy direct: £15? each Poor website - got lost!
Visas 4 Oz: £6.50 Nice website, straight forward

(There are more - but you get the idea)

Visas 4 oz came out the cheapest and easiest, as far as we could find.

We went ahead and purchased them from their website at £13 for both of us, saving £37! Not bad for half an hours work.

The system was very slick and we had the visa within a few hours, although they quote 24 hours.

I hope this information is of use to fellow travellers.

Their web address is https://www.visas4oz.co.uk

Thanks
Hols
:T

Heva2015

Just be careful with outside companies where a legal document such as a visa is concerned.

dzug

Interesting - it's actually cheaper than the official Australian government site http://www.eta.immi.gov.au/ (£8.40 ish each)

Bear in mind travel agents and the like do not pay the Australian government for ETAs - the fee they charge you is pure profit (well less of course wages and computer running costs)

You may be able to check on the official site that they have actually issued your ETA.... (possibly not - it says ETAs issued through the site)

richardw

This looks like a kitchen table business, get your ETA from a reliable source.

£25 is a very high price for an ETA what is your source for this?

I had no problems with the Australian Embassy website, what do you think is wrong with it?

blindman

hwesty wrote: »

Hi all

I thought i'd share my money saving tip

My boyfriend and I are heading off to Oz next month for 2 months, and as such require an Australian visa for entry.

The travel agency offered to package this up, along with the other usual add ons! (Travel Insurance, Car hire etc etc!)

We decided to do a bit of shopping around; and found a great deal can be saved as a result.

The travel agent quoted £25 each per visa, ie. £50

Here's the results of out comparison;

Visas Australia: £12 each Nice website but difficult application system
Australian Embassy direct: £15? each Poor website - got lost!
Visas 4 Oz: £6.50 Nice website, straight forward

(There are more - but you get the idea)

Visas 4 oz came out the cheapest and easiest, as far as we could find.

We went ahead and purchased them from their website at £13 for both of us, saving £37! Not bad for half an hours work.

The system was very slick and we had the visa within a few hours, although they quote 24 hours.

I hope this information is of use to fellow travellers.

Their web address is www.visas4oz.co.uk

Thanks
Hols
:T

This is old news, NEVER buy ANYTHING from a TA.

You have 'saved' £4.00 on a possibly dodgy Visa that you only find does\doesn't work when you land in OZ

Not my idea of good moneysaving

dzug

No - if it doesn't work at least they won't get on the plane in the first place. The airline have to check the passport against the Oz government computer when you check in. No visa, no flight.

lottee

blindman wrote: »

This is old news, NEVER buy ANYTHING from a TA.

You have 'saved' £4.00 on a possibly dodgy Visa that you only find does\doesn't work when you land in OZ

Not my idea of good moneysaving

Never buy ANYTHING from a Travel Agent ? Why? I'd be out of a job if that were the case. If you are referring to the fact that 'sometimes' we come out a little more than say an internet quote - how many times do we have to make it clear - a lot of us will now match or even try to beat the price if we can. I won't even start on the fact that it's not the same level of service that an agent would give you anyway.

As for charging over the odds for an Aussie ETA, not all TA's do, we charge £12 per person - which is a lot cheaper than the £25 as stated above.

bazza1603

Hi,

Have you got the right kind of visa?. Visitor visa's are free, but business visa's are about £26

I am an agent but dont charge for visitor's as long as the visa is processed at time of ticket issue. We do charge if a referal is required.

With regards to Dzug post, I have seen people use airlines without ETA systems and then been refusing the connection flight onto Sydney.

Regards

Barry

blindman

dzug wrote: »

No - if it doesn't work at least they won't get on the plane in the first place. The airline have to check the passport against the Oz government computer when you check in. No visa, no flight.

I think you're wrong there, the check is made in Oz at your point of entry.

dzug

blindman wrote: »

I think you're wrong there, the check is made in Oz at your point of entry.

Nope I'm not wrong:

'When you arrive at an airport for check-in on a flight to Australia, the airline check-in staff can electronically confirm that you have authority to board the flight to Australia.'

(from Aus Govt ETA site)

They'll check again when you get there of course.

Sam_Bee

blindman - I have to correct two things -

ETA's are checked at the airport, and you CAN be denied boarding if you have not processed it correctly (and has happened several times). In reality, it is is such a common thing that people forget (why would you need a visa for Oz afterall??) the airline staff will frequently process it for you (for far more than £25). But, if your visa is 'referred' you will be kicked off your flight. You get referred if you share a name with someone on an Australian Embassy list (i.e criminals, previous backpackers that overstayed their visa). I know this as as ex-client was called John Smith and got referred. So, basically, anyone called John Smith who turns up at the airport without an ETA will not be able to get on board.

Airlines are strict, as they face massive fines from the OZ government, and have to return the person back to their homeland if they do not have tha correct visa.

Secondly, you say 'This is old news, NEVER buy ANYTHING from a TA.' when referring to a company who are not Travel Agents, but probably, some bloke with a CRS set up at home. You can criticise Travel Agents till the cows come home for all I care, but at least make sure you are criticising the right type of people in this case.