How not to handle homesickness
 

I thought our fares to the UK were outrageous, but girl at work has done a beauty, gone and booked a family trip to Uk for Xmas, $13,000 for 5 economy class tickets. :scared: :eek: :scared:

Only one problem - shes yet to tell the husband :D :D

Re: How not to handle homesickness
 

Prices for christmas are absolutely riduculous at the minute.

Looking for my son and brother to come out here for 4 weeks and the cheapest I've seen so far is 1400 GBP each. That one was Manchester to Paris (stop for 5 hours), Paris to Singapore (stop for 12 hours), Singapore to Melbourne (stop for one hour) and Melbourne to Adelaide. They didn't want that one :confused: :D

Next best was 2,000 each with Cathay. Manchester to London (90mins stop), London to Singapore (18 hours stop) Singapore to Adelaide.

It's looking like I may not see them now until April. :(

Bloody airlines, bet they make a killing out of expat families :mad:

Re: How not to handle homesickness
 

Expedia UK still had (2 days ago) UK to OZ even in peak christmas season from about 800 pound inc taxes. Trick is fly into sydney (nearly always cheaper) then get a local flight to ADL on virgin blue or jetstar, (not sure who does adelaide routes). Its often cheaper to go to sydney then get a local even if you want brisbane or maroochydore, think its because there is more flights so availablililty into sydney.

Re: How not to handle homesickness
 

That's made me feel better thanks. I'll take a look :)

Re: How not to handle homesickness
 

Blimey..... It's going to cost at least another 4-5,000 grand on top in spending money !


I wont be able to afford this for years..... for me it's a single "person that is"... trip back... or wait till the kids are older and can pay for themselves.


Still havn't fully recovered financially from last years trip.... things just keep going wrong.... from teeth through to car,.... oh it's a fence now as well.:rolleyes:

Re: How not to handle homesickness
 

We paid around $9000 by leaving one son in australia. But :( thats it now, one kid in private high school next year, cant afford both, well cant afford either really :D but after this we had 'the discussion' you know the one, where you talk about only going back for emergencies, in other words when somebody dies :( If we commit to private education for both of them it will be 7 years till the next trip, I really dont know if I can handle that but its what the budget says.

Re: How not to handle homesickness
 

That is the same situation as we are in with a family of 6 you have airfares plus the car hire at the other end and you can kiss goodbye to at least $18000 :( . The fares back to the UK recently would have wiped out our savings for our deposit on a house had we had to pay, as it is we are still struggling with the results of spending money over there.
It looks like regardless of emergencies in the UK we will have to stay put for a long time to come. I must say though that I am feeling a lot more settled that I was recently and the idea doesn't worry me like it did (funny what family being horrible can do to make you feel better about your choice of place to live :rolleyes: ).
Nicky

Re: How not to handle homesickness
 

Don't know how it compares, but have you looked at www.bestflights.com.au ?

Best regards.

Re: How not to handle homesickness
 

I could think of so many things i'd rather spend that sort of money on, and if i was to spend that on a holiday I'd make sure it was a holiday to remember to somewhere i wanted to go to, not just a guilt trip. I understand how some people feel the need, thank god i'm not one of them :D

Lynn

Re: How not to handle homesickness
 

We have tried them, have rang several times, but never managed to find seats on these cheap advertised deals. Plus the fares are advertised without taxes, qantas as an eg is now $600 tax on top of the fare, singapore airlines $550.

Our problem is as a family with kids we are looking for 4+ fares, usually not at the off peak times advertised but school hols so have to pay peak season, on our advertised fare that bumped it up over a $1000 each.

Flight centre came up cheapest this time, even worth quoting between brances, we found a difference of $100 a person on our final fare.

Re: How not to handle homesickness
 

Very much so, when the wife and kids went back to Canada we were get prices for around the $3500 to $4000 each icl tax. But one girl at Flight Centre spent time and looked hard and found them for $2200 icl tax which was cheaper than 6 years ago when I went to USA.

Re: How not to handle homesickness
 

Try either Murcury Direct or STA Travel these two are usually very good on deals!! - I have booked a good deal for Jan with Murcury Direct 28days 5* Hotel return flight with stop in Hong Kong for £1200pp - or if you are wanting to make a really trip of it all STA Travel do Round the world tickets for less than £800. - Not Bad really!! :cool:

Good Luck!

Re: How not to handle homesickness
 

Duly noted
shall not be telling the rellies about bumped up Christmas prices :)

Jen