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Right then, just booked three weeks off work for next December, off to Melbourne to visit my wifes family and doing a bit of travelling around / fact finding while were there. I'm struggling at the moment to get a quote on flights for me, mrsmitch and the two youngest kids. Am I being a bit dense thinking we can book so far in advance? Any advice, would be as always, much appreciated.
Bit early, but don't leave it too long. March should see you able to book on everything.
Costs a [b]lot[/b] - we paid £7k for us in mid-December, returning NY Eve.
Everything in Aus is pricey, so be prepared. And the food's terrible (I was overjoyed to get back to Waitrose - a load cheaper and so much nicer).
Flights aren't normally available more than 9/10 months in advance
Emirates. Book early.
Watch out, Oz is full of animals that prey on humans. Friends of Mrs Gti went there and were back within a year because somebody they knew got scoffed by a great white shark.
IIRC it's usually 12 months when flights get released, so you may be OK.
My tip would be to take Qantas, BA or Singapore and have a stopover en route in either HK or Singapore. Those three seem to offer the best blend of service and price to my mind. Have heard terrible things about Cathay economy on long haul. If you're travelling with kids, that might really help to make the journey a little less horrid for all concerned!
Costs a lot - we paid £7k for us in mid-December, returning NY Eve.
😯
I'm assuming that's 1st class?
What a horrible journey it is, whatever class you sit in. Takes like seventeen days or sumat, feels like it anyway. What got me wazunt so much the discomfort, as the confinement. Horrible. If I ever go there again, I'm going to break the journey up by stopping over in different places en route. Can't go through being cooped up like that for so long again.
Flights should be available 364 days befre departure........
I've been to Oz 6 times, flown with Emirates everytime and never had a problem, they fly to virtually every major city there via Dubai.
It's worth taking Emirates just to see Dubai airport. Really.
Depends on the airline, but it's typically about 360 days in advance to avoid any confusion on what date you are booking, so you should be able to see prices now for December.
Where are you looking? The pukka airlines like BA etc. might be holding off giving their prices to the travel agent type websites, but I doubt it.
Might be worth checking out alternative airports in Oz - Sydney etc. as you might get better deals there, and then get internals to Melbourne.
Elf - no, Singapore Airlines economy. Air China was cheaper, but only by £1.5k in total.
The break in Singapore on the way back made a huge difference - the transfer hotel is cheap, nice, and available. And the swimming pool on the roof makes you feel almost human as well.
Cheers for that - I seem to have no problem getting an outbound flight (on or around the 17th of December), it's the return flights in January that dont seem to be showing up yet. As for the nasty creatures, yes, only too aware. Oddly enough, when I was last there, it was the not particularly dangerous but frankly pant shittingly scary huntsman spiders that freaked me out. I know roper would no doubt disagree with me, but they're just not right!
Have a look at Air Garuda (Indonesian airline), I flew to Sydney with them and they were very good.
Elf - no, Singapore Airlines economy
😯
Is that for the whole holiday or just the flights though?
it's the return flights in January that dont seem to be showing up yet.
Ah, that's whats falling foul of the 364 days rule...
The in-laws go regularly, and they swear by air qatar. Trouble is, every time I try and check their prices, the site tells me my 'session is timed out'.
I flew with Etihad in Novemember, Manchester to Abu Dhabi and then to Melbourne. It cost a wedge but that was down to work stuff. I sat next to a woman on the Abu Dhabi to Melbourne leg that said she'd managed to get it for £650ish from Heathrow with an overnight stop over in Abu Dhabi, but she had to be ready to go at short notice. Join their mailing list on the interwebs.
Have heard terrible things about Cathay economy on long haul.
I've been with them to China and they were OK. KLM on the otherhand 😯 .
A stop over in Singapore or Hong Kong could be interesting (in a good way).
A colleague flew with Garuda and by all acounts it was hideous. One of the little winglet things came off the wing tip! ARGHHHH!!!
I'll probably try again in about a month, but will feel more settled once it's booked. Is it too early to start a 'what tyres for leathering a huntsman' thread?
Interested to hear different peoples' opinions! I flew Cathay a very long time ago and they were great, but standards may have slipped since I guess. We flew Singapore last year because they had a dirt cheap sale on, the seats have marginally shorter leg room but service was fine / good (i.e. Asian airlines-style service, better than European, much better than US IME).
+1 for staying overnight for a day or two at least one way (I would say on way back), I personally would go for an East Asia city on your timescale.
+1 for the Singapore hotel within the airport (you don't go through immigration / customs). The pool was a good way to spend a few hours and broke up the journey.
I personally found Dubai airport no better for transfers than anywhere else (except perhaps Singapore for the hotel and city tour offered from the airport), but thats just my opinion.
And I recommend using kayak.com to search for different airlines, routes and durations of flights to give you an idea of your options, once your return dates are released. You can search for flights to and from various airports too which is good.
Flying back and forth between the UK and SE Asia this past few months, I'm finding www.kayak.com good for flights. You might have to wait until closer to the time though.
It's not always the case that earlier is better. In fact it's often not. In my experience they have a set fare to start off with, and then as they get a better idea of numbers they put the prices up or down depending on how many people have booked which flights.
What I do is wait til about 6-8 weeks and start watching the fares, some bargains will start to appear, and will pop up anything up to 2-3 weeks before. They only start to get significantly more expensive in off-peak times maybe 10 days beforehand.
Also, KLM aren't great. Just landed back from Singapore this morning. Not a lot of legroom. Air France have been better for me in the past.
Flew Garuda Indonesia from Bangkok to Bali at Christmas and it was one of the best shortish flights I've been on.
Thai Airlines are ok, but I've been preferring Jet Airways when service is concerned.
Qantas are the obvious choice, but their online flight booking leaves a lot to be desired. I bought Singapore to Aberdeen via Qantas and went through the entire process down to the Mastercard secure pay thing and they claimed not to know anything about the booking when I tried to check in. That's how I ended up with KLM this time...
Been twice in last 12 months, once with Singapore, Once with Emirates.
Both flights cost around £1500 return, needed to be booked in advance so no late deals.
Travelling on the A380 makes for a far nicer journey than the B777, Both airlines run both planes butEmirate had A380 all the way 🙂
What I do is wait til about 6-8 weeks and start watching the fares, some bargains will start to appear, and will pop up anything up to 2-3 weeks before. They only start to get significantly more expensive in off-peak times maybe 10 days beforehand.
I wouldn't recommend waiting, in December the flights to Oz significantly increase in price and become less available, it is their high season!!
When my brother in law emigrated, he flew out on christmas day, which he insisted was the cheapest time to fly, as nobody wanted to be on a plane at that time. I have no intention of testing out this theory, as it's my sons birthday on christmas eve, and I want to actually be there before his birthday and the rest of the celebrations.
Oh, and we'd hoped to spend new years eve in Sydney - having checked out hotel prices for this date, I dont think we'll bother!
opodo are having a sale, might be worth a look
Cheers Dave, just tried that link and am still unable to find return flights for January.
Ask for a Bulkhead seat... You get a load of extra legroom.
i have to take exception to the comment about the food being bad, by the way. i've got family in perth and melbourne and go to both fairly frequently. the food is almost without exception fantastic. 😕
Never fly with Garuda they have an appalling safety record. If you are fixed to travelling pre Christmas get it booked ASAP. Go to your local Trailfinders as they have access to more fares and can hold you options for a few days. In order of preference I would fly Malaysian, Emirates, Singapore and Ba/Qantas
bulkhead seat you get more knee room but less stretched out legroom
i have also only had very bad experiences with Qantas, but they are mainly due to my wife's access requirements which they basically don't get along with. but they're a massive bunch of ****s, sadly.
Emirates are good, we booked through Austravel and it was all grand and about £700-800 a person return, can't remember. Dubai airport is hell, so try and minimise time spent in it.
We found the big huge Airbus from Dubai-Heathrow really horrible in economy class, 3 rows of 4 across, the stewards took over an hour to clear lunch which meant you were trapped in the seat at the end of a huge row. Imagine sitting in a full cinema but flying, it was a bit like that. We'd managed an upgrade to business class from Melbourne to Dubai by playing the I'm really tall card, and luckily having a shirt which they asked me to put on to get the upgrade, so thats always worth a try if you can, it was really great to be able to lie right down and drink endless fizz and wine and beer with noise cancelling headphones and a big screen.
i have to take exception to the comment about the food being bad, by the way. i've got family in perth and melbourne and go to both fairly frequently. the food is almost without exception fantastic
Maybe it's just the supermarkets I went to, but it felt like I'd gone back to Poland c.1985. Loads more processed "fresh" meat, and the sausages, even from allegedly premium butchers, were utterly appalling.
By the way Elf, the prices I quoted for flights really were just for return to Syndey, nothing else. We flew A380 on all legs though, which made a bit of a difference. Had to book 7 months in advance as flights were getting full - we had to go on specific days and couldn't really flex them, plus I needed to go out a week later than wife/kids so I was flying just a week before Christmas. Very busy time.
As above I'd happily fly Emirates, BA, Quantas, Singapore, Virgin (do they go to Oz only flown US with them?). I haven't flown with Cathay for years but they were very good.
I used to love flying Emirates after being in the Middle East for a bit. Nice Hosties.. sorry not very PC but when you've been away for a bit... The food and service were always good as well. Choose from the above then it's really about where you want to break your journey.
I'd avoid Garuda, Malaysia any China, KLM, Iberia and the rest.
I've just booked a US trip in the BA sale. World Traveller Plus upgraded to Club with airmiles for ~£900. Bargaintastic! So keep your eyes peeled.
just booked for march/april with quantas/BA after a lot of trawling and saved £700 if we had booked it a week earlier. Through austravel
www.seatguru.com
When my brother in law emigrated, he flew out on christmas day, which he insisted was the cheapest time to fly, as nobody wanted to be on a plane at that time.
True, according to my mate who worked at trailfinders. His advice was also to book as early as possible if you can't be incredibly flexible. He sorted last minute flights for us last December, as our original flights were cancelled. They were £1400 each. His recommendation for a cheap airline was Asiana, whilst my mum, who's done the trip at least 8 times now, swears by Emirates. Any reason why you have to go at christmas? School hols time there as well. BTW, take a side trip to Tasmania, awesome place 🙂
Definitely consider a stopover somewhere. Cathay for HK; BA, Qantas or Thai for Bangkok; Malaysian perhaps for KL? Just gives you a day or two to get the circulation flowing again before you set off on the next leg.
Apart from that, shop around?
By the way Elf, the prices I quoted for flights really were just for return to Syndey, nothing else
Oof!
Still, I spose for the whole family, at Christmas time, that's to be expected I spose.
When my brother in law emigrated, he flew out on christmas day, which he insisted was the cheapest time to fly, as nobody wanted to be on a plane at that time.
True, according to my mate who worked at trailfinders
Not so true, tried to get out on christmas day back on NYE this year - prices all the same 🙁
+1 For Emirates as you dont have to go via London.
Not so true, tried to get out on christmas day back on NYE this year - prices all the same
Maybe it depends on the airline - it was about £200 cheaper with Asiana, but I decided that I hadn't seen my family at Christmas for 10 years so paid the extra. Then my flight was grounded so didn't get there until the 29th anyway 🙁 I'm not sold on the stopover idea tbh, although I'm a bit biased because I want to see my family for as much time as possible. Who cares how tired you are when you come back though. I've done a 30 hour transit landing in the afternoon and been working the next day. Didn't fall asleep once 😉