karenvirginia

has anyone done this? seem to remember reading that the law changed and you should be able to purchase a return ticket to uk whilst over here. i have sent a couple of emails one to travelbag and one to a local agent i used to use in birmingham but no response yet.
karen

Buzzy--Bee

I have done this a number of times. However I do have a friend who is a senior manager in a UK travel agency and can bend the rules. I'm not sure there was ever a law preventing this, but if an Oz travel agent finds out you are doing this, they would probably complain about the UK travel agent to the airline as the UK fare would probably be cheaper.

So keep it quiet!!!

Cheers

Buzzy

Hutch

Would be interested to know about this also. I do recall there was talk of changes made so you *should* be able to purchase a ticket wherever you are. Not sure if it ever happened though.

MartinLuther

The law was changed at the beginning of 2005 (to allow this) and applies to everywhere except Japan (including flights stopping over in Japan).

I've not yet needed to do it but I would be interested to find out if someone has.

jjonboy

try www.expedia.co.uk

jjonboy

just checked prices are almost identical whichever way you do it...

(look at expedia in the uk and zuji.com.au in oz) in fact due to special offers on zuji at the moment it is cheaper by about 200 dollars to book in oz

ozzieeagle

I wonder what happens in to the Flight centre guarantee, to beat any price, especially if you find a cheaper price from an oseas booking ?

NickyC

You've always been allowed to do this. I booked and paid for tickets for my mother to travel Uk/Australia/UK from a travel agent (in Sydney) back in 1985. Anyone can buy tickets from anywhere to anywhere - you don't have to be located in the country where the flight originates to do this. I can book and pay for flights from New York to Timbuktu if I want - I don't have to be in New York to do this!

The problem is not that you cannot do it - it's the price that you pay for the tickets. You are still charged the local fare for the flight - I paid the current fare for my mother's flight (whatever it was in pounds at the time) converted to Australian dollars.

You should be able to buy a ticket Sydney/UK/Sydney from any travel agent in the UK. You will be charged the local fare for that flight (which will be whatever the fare is in Australia - ie usually more expensive) converted to pounds. Unless you're lucky, that is, and have a travel agent friend who can do you a better deal..

Edited to add

zuji.com.au are quoting 1550 USD to travel SYD/LON/SYD and quoting 1316 USD to travel LON/SYD/LON (both Qantas). Both journeys are available and can be bought now via this Australian site.

karenvirginia

thanks to you all for the feedback, i will see how i get on when the time comes and report back!
karen

Buzzy--Bee

When we travelled to visit my outlaws in NZ in 2003/4, we booked on the Air New Zealand website. The flight we wanted to book was a half hour domestic flight. One of the drop down menus was "which country do you live in?". We selected "England" and the price came out at £120 each!!!!! So we tried selecting "New Zealand" and the prices was NZ$90 each - about 1/4 of the cost. Needless to say we booked that and nobody was ever able to check where we really lived!!!

Cheers

Buzzy

G'day_Australia!

Hi Karen,

Good luck with your bookings! My only advice would be to contact at least a few travel agencies and search a few web sites to see what quotes you get. I am always on the lookout myself for cheaper flights and have compiled a list of sites on my website (www.meijboom.co.uk/australia.htm#ozflights), so feel free to check those out. There are also some specials on there. There were some charter flight places last week that were selling for GBP380 one-way, but I thik these have sold out.

Good luck!

Erwin

Gill Palmer

Hi

When I looked into this last year, in the UK, I was told by my local travel agent that I could not book Perth/UK/Perth from within the UK. The guy may not have been right - I don't know - but he was insistent about it. Is it possible that UK Law differs from Australian Law on this point or something?

Also, I think you should check whether the price quoted for the ticket includes airport tax in London. Just before Christmas 2005, the airport tax at London Heathrow was £189, on top of the ticket-price. I guess that that would be around $400 in AUSD.

Good luck

Gill

NickyC

Yes, that's just nonsense.

You can book and pay for a SYD/LON/SYD flight via the Travelocity.co.uk site for 809 pounds with Qantas. The same trip in reverse is 651 pounds.

It's not that you can't book these trips - it's that you can't pay the same UK (ie cheaper) price for them.

JAJ

Are you saying that a Sydney/London return flight is just priced differently than a London/Sydney flight, and where you live is irrelevant?

There are work-arounds if you are planning to do the trip more than once (because then you can book a flight in the other direction as part of your itinerary).


Jeremy

h2oskineil

No problem at all.

We just called Trailfinders and purchased tickets for April, flying UK to Perth return. We bought them in the Christmas Eve seat sale and paid 325 pounds for a child and 450 (ish) for the adult, Emirates out of Birmingham.
We intend to keep buying returns from the UK and our rental property will pay for them, not sure about the tax implications of that, but life is too short to worry!

Neil.