When are flights cheapest?

We actually found the best deals by speaking to Trailfinders. Brisbane is an awfully long way from Sydney so just focus on that as a destination (unless you are staying somewhere almost exactly in the middle of them both).

Trailfinder have been OK before, just a question of when do I ring them...
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Yep, pretty much bang in the middle, Armidale. Would prefer Brisbane simply because I've not been there before but I've not been much north of Sydney at all so the trip will all be new and interesting whichever I go to

Flights certainly used to be demand based so the sooner the better, these days I'd be surprised if there was much change between 12 months and 2 but bear in mind mid October is likely to be half term so flights will be costly and demand will be higher so, if there's much loading, they'll get more expensive more quickly too.

It also sometimes works better to book to eg Munich, overnight there then book a completely separate flight from Munich to Aus, instead of a single flight from the UK. This is more likely to be true in school holidays which won't necessarily align from country to country.

you can track prices on google flight search.

its probably worth waiting till all the likely carriers have released their flights - you might find that some of the middle-east airlines only release 6 months out, so that availability will make a difference.

there's no strict date. some airlines just price on days out vs seat availability, some have peak pricing on top of that, which can reduce.

you can get a good idea of a "good" price by flicking through the dates on the flight picker (a quick check suggests £1000 return is a good amount), and you can also add multiple to/from cities in there too

eta : I would also check the cost of doing a separate flight\train from the north -> lhr and then flights out of there. Theres a LOT more choice on that route so prices are more competitive.

mid October is likely to be half term so flights will be costly and demand will be higher so, if there’s much loading, they’ll get more expensive more quickly too

whilst true, long-haul tends to be less affected by half term cos not as many people are heading off to aus for a week. short haul goes up loads but long isn't significant

Fly from Newcastle with Emirates (now back to 7 days/daily flights) to OZ.

I only fly with Emirates because their services are good and price wise reasonable.

Hopefully, you get to fly A380 from Dubai to OZ. (from Newcastle to Dubai is Boeing 777 if I can recall)

whilst true, long-haul tends to be less affected by half term cos not as many people are heading off to aus for a week. short haul goes up loads but long isn’t significant

From NCL or EDI though many of the flights will be short to first transfer, result being the first short leg can actually outweigh the longer one. Otoh I have found NCL via lhr is often cheaper than the lhr leg alone...

I did more or less that journey last month (Heathrow to Sydney). I went via the States, United Airlines all legs. Heathrow to LA (3hr layover) to Sydney. Return was Sydney to San Francisco (5hr layover) to Heathrow. Significantly cheaper than going the "normal" way and only about 3hrs longer.

Sydney is served by more airlines so is (generally) cheaper than trying to fly to Brisbane direct. There are loads of connecting flights in Sydney for all the major cities.

Best option is to get onto Google Flights and put some search stuff in - mine was emailing me every couple of days with new deals, price changes and so on. I booked in March 22 for flights in September 22.

Airline pricing works off complicated algorithms around demand, who is searching for what and when so actual "deals" aren't that common, the prices will fluctuate a lot.

Have to say that United were fine, no issues at all although 13.5hrs on a rather tired Boeing 777 wasn't the most fun I've ever had. The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on the way out was far superior.

You will need a US Transit Visa ($25 via US Immigration website).

I only fly with Emirates because their services are good and price wise reasonable.

emirates are nice, but looking at the route in question, their economy price (close to £2k depending on date) is pretty much on a par with other airlines premium economy.

Use kayak.co.uk to mess with the options (airlines, airports / regions and dates). Via US is risky cos you need to clear immigration and recheck which means queues, admin and risk of missing your connection (they DNGAF).

Emirates will be obvious choice from northern UK but worth comparing Newcastle/Scotland flights with Manchester (3 daily Emirates plus Etihad Qatar and Singapore) and Heathrow, to see if you’re paying a northern tax.

Do you have a local independent travel agent?
If so go in there, write down the itinerary you want and ask if they can price it for you. Tell them don't need the price today so they have a few days to look in their slack periods. When I went to New Zealand I saved about £100 over the internet and got exactly the itinerary I wanted, not the way the big booking companies wanted to push me.
Worth a go and less hassle if it works.

Via US is risky cos you need to clear immigration and recheck which means queues, admin and risk of missing your connection (they DNGAF).

I had a few misgivings but there was enough layover time to give me some leeway and actually it was completely seamless.
Immigration took a few minutes, collected the bike box and rechecked it about 20m further down the hallway! LA had some sort of priority lane for passengers connecting to Aus and NZ flights.

Really efficient, no issues at all, straight through security again and airside with another 2hrs before boarding for the onward journey.

It took a bit longer coming back, there was more of a queue at San Francisco security so maybe 90 mins from disembark to back airside - that includes immigration, bag collection and recheck.

I guess it depends where you are flying, short haul flights are pretty much like busses, the price fluctuation isn't really worth worrying about.

emirates are nice, but looking at the route in question, their economy price (close to £2k depending on date) is pretty much on a par with other airlines premium economy.

Yes, it depends on the journey and dates/time. I normally fly to far east to KUL with less than that and around £1.4K economy.