robowen

Hi All,
We have recently been granted our visa. Contained in the visa letter was a statement which said we may be entitled to concessionary fares through an organisation called 'International Organization for Migration'.
They have said that they have agreements in place between airlines to give concessionary fares and extra baggage allowances to migrants travelling to Oz, and to contact them for further information.

I'm posting this as early as I can, before I've looked into it myself, because it might save some a few bob ! Who knows ?
Have a look down the list and see if you come under any catagory, make sure you contact them.....ask !..........If you dont ask...you dont get !

http://www.iom.int/australia/projects.html

I think I may be under this catagory.....
"Concessional Fares for Immigrants Travelling to Australia and New Zealand

Every approved immigrant (under the categories Skilled Migrration, Business Skills and Parent Migration) is eligible for a special reduced one-way economy fare and more generous baggage allowance from IOM. This has been the result of negotiations with a large number of international carriers on specifically designated routes. Fare reductions are available from most international carriers from any destinations and for this special service, IOM will charge a reasonable service fee.

Once payment has been received, IOM Canberra will organise your flights according to your preferred date of travel. Depending on your departure city your airtickets will either be made available to you locally at the airline town office or couriered to you.

If you are interested in receiving more information on IOM concessional fares, baggage allowance and eligibily criteria, please do not hesitate to contact us or send us your details. "

Dorothy

We looked into this but saved ourselves a hugh wad of $$ as well as got to choose when and where we stopped. With the IOM you don't have any choice in flights. Or at least didn't when we looked into it last year. Call the airlines yourself as well, as Air New Zealand did us a great deal.

hottroc

Thanks for the info. It doesn't say how much of a reduction though. 1%? For which you then have to pay a fee? Sounds like a marketing scam even if it isn't.

The_Effys

We are looking into this also, but from what I can make out, I think you have to fly direct with no stopovers! no flexibility

Chris

.

Pollyana

There is very little flexibility, from what I've seen over the years. i think thats the choice you make - you get the flight cheap (relatviely speaking) but to balance getting the extra baggage you miss out on stopovers, and you don't get a wide choice of airlines.

Air travel these days is very much "get what you pay for"

oliverandlisa

we went with IOM, we gave a list of 3 dates we were prepared to travel, got our first choice. We didnt want to do stop overs as we wanted to get out here and get on with things. At the time of travel we paid £800 and everywhere else we looked we were quoted £2700 as it was arriving in time for the new year. we were well impressed with them,

Lisa

hottroc

Wow that's quite a discount. What "reasonable fee" was involved? Or was that included in your £800 figure?

oliverandlisa

TBH i dont actually remember there being a fee... but i may be wrong. Ive tried checking in old emails but cant find it. I went though a stage of deleting all the visa application stuff when we got here, it was very liberating!
You can always email them and get a quote without obligation from recollection, they were really helpful. We did it all by email.

Lisa.x

micnic

I have just e-mailed for a quote for 2 adults, 2 children LHR to brisbane this October. I will keep you all posted

micnic

Have now received quote from IOM - 2 adults, 2 children, LHR to brisbane in October = £1761 This is with 40 kg baggage allowance per person. The down side is the flight is with Qantas!!!!

Don't know if we will fly with them or not. Having searched for flights i can get a similar price with Singapore but of course that does not have the increased baggage allowance

oliverandlisa

tho you prob could get the increased allowance with singapore if you asked for it...

Lisa.xx

hottroc

Yes that's not too special. I've seen similar prices elsewhere on the net if you're not too fussy. Big difference to the £800 that Lisa got. Wonder why?

oliverandlisa

Probably because we were fairly last minute bookings and they were filling up spaces on flights. But who knows for sure....

Lisa.x