Hi All
Can anyone shed any light on a question I have. We want to travel to Melbourne in the easter hols 5th April to 21st April. (family of 6 - 4 adults & 2 kids)
Ive been looking daily at flight prices on the major airlines namely Emirates, Cathay, Singapore, Qantas/BA.
Emirates is horrendous, Q/BA expensive, Cathay ok and Sing ok BUT...
I wanted ideally to go Singapore and 2 days ago the price was £4k yesterday £4.5k and today £6k!!
Couldnt book till today due to finances so am really miffed but my question is will the price keep going up or will the others drop nearer the time ?
Maybe its a "piece of string" question but if you have any experiences (bearing in mind its a holiday period) I would be very grateful to hear

Many thanks
TS

Hi,

I think from what I have seen, generally flights go up closer to the date. Have you tried going on to a airlines website like singapore and playing with the dates. Sometimes you can get a few hundred off a family price if you play around with times and dates.

Hope this helps

I am no expert in the travel industry but I did read that once the plane has allocated enough passengers to make the flight profitable then any latecomers pay full wack, since you are travelling so close to the date I would not expect this price to come down, I would think about changing the date you travel or pop down to a high street travel agent and see what kind of deals they can offer you....

Hi,

1. Firstly double check your dates against the UK travel seasons with a travel agent. If you can get your departure idate nto a low or shoulder season, the flights will be cheaper (the return is less relevant).

2. If your dates are flexible, consider changing them (unlikely if you have children) or using a TA to check a range of dates rather than fixed departures. Try to fly mid week as demand is usually lower and for 6 of you the difference is very likely to justify the extra days leave/unpaid leave.

3. I would look at a consolidator rather than looking on each airline website. Expedia will usually give you a rough idea and I've found Dial a Flight very competitive. Another good website to consider is Jetabroad.com.au which will also let you pay in GBP as well as AUD.

(FYI for those in Oz already - Jetabroad has been the cheapest place by far for flights that I've found ex Oz but also check Best flights deals as well)

4. Consider a less direct routing or a stop over. eg:
- fly via Sydney as more choice of carriers
- fly via Europe eg Heathrow - Helsinki- Hong Kong - Melbourne
- fly a less well known airline

5. Check Malaysia as they had a really really good sale on late last week and are excellent.

HTH and you enjoy your stay in Melbourne

Edna x

Many thanks for everyones views. I decided to book this morning and re-checked singapore whos fare is now £4.2k -- result!! Maybe had some seats on hold for 24 hours or something that are now released?
Any way thought that was reasonable for Easter Hols for 6 seats especially compared to the other quotes. Thought about Cathay but new seats put me off!
This is not only a holiday but our reccie as we may well be moving to Melb soon.

Thanks again
TS

Hi..
Not sure if those are business prices .. but if you want cheap try www.airasia.com .. but from stansted.

Glad you got sorted!For anyone else Netflights has Perth for £492 return at the mo!

We're looking for prices in August so that OH and son can validate visas (I have Aussie passport!) OH reckons that each time I look it registers with the providers and so price goes up!!!!! Bless I can't believe how much more it is going to cost than it did only 2 years ago. (Almost £200 per person more than it was in 2007) I was hoping that we wouldn't need to validate, but due to house prices in UK it is looking more and more likely!

Trouble is we HAD to book in the Easter Hols from 5 April to 21st. A week either side and I could have got them for 3K. Lifes a beach but at least we are all set now.

Funny how during school holidays the prices seem that much higher! All our boys are now grown up but still tied to school holidays as I am a teacher for my sins! Wish I could go out of high season but there you go......
Hope you enjoy your trip anyway - once you are there, the cost of getting there doesn't seem to be so important! Enjoy x

Youre dead right! I would have gone if it was more - not desparate but close!!
We could have saved many thousands in holidays over the years if it were not the case
Anyway alls done now so we'll just save some money elsewhere!!
BTW heard some very good reports about Sing Air so will report back when we return.

I'd love to fly Singapore, especially 1st Class on the A380 where you can actually have a little pod all to yourself - chance would be a fine thing! I always wish I were going first class when we get on the plane, but when we disembark I am always glad that I didn't pay the extra - after all, we all get there at the same time and when we have arrived, I can think about the money I have saved on the fares and justify spending it on shoes!!!!!

Seriously, would love to travel first class but unless I win the lottery, there is not much chance of that.

Hope you have a good trip. If you are flying out of LHR, what time do you go? We are off to Thailand on 5th April for a holiday - could be our last from UK (with any luck!) Maybe will pass you in the duty free!!! x

Not neccesarily, just start putting a bit of effort into saving those frequent flier miles......you can find yourself in business or first remarkably quickly and for just the cost of the taxes!

Probably not a Singapore Suite though as I think $$$$$'s are the only way into one of them, or maybe several billion frequent flyer miles!

Hi
We fly midday ( BTW suites and first clas on the same flight are 7K PER PERSON hmmm only £42,000 for us all maybe next time )
When do you go?

Cheap then!!!!
We are also flying on 5th April around midday (but only on holiday toThailand) Hopefully going to Aus for good later this year, but that will depend on house sale maybe renting it out for a while is the way to go? Anyway, hope you enjoy Singapore Airlines whichever seat you're in! They are supposed to be very good, but haven't flown with them - yet! ( still hankering after the suites, but will have to dream about that for a good few years yet!)
Take care x