BobbyDazzler

Can anybody suggest the cheapest way of getting flights for the above trips?

Plan is to spend 1 week in Perth, followed by 1 week in Melbourne, followed by 2 weeks in Brisbane, before flying home to the UK

As per an earlier posting of mine, we'd also like to have a stopover somewhere between the UK and Perth and on our way back from Oz

The cheapest option I've found so far involves getting an Emirates flight from MAN to PER, VirginBlue from PER to MELB, VirginBlue from MELB to BRIS, VirginBlue from BRIS to PER, Emirates from PER to MAN. Cost for 2 adults & 2 kids at end of March 2006 for this lot is just under £4k

Bizarrerly, a one-way trip from MAN to PER with Emirates is around £6K !!!!!

Any advice & tips welcome

Thanks

BD

of2oz

I would suggest you book flights to australia and back using emirates, but that you arrange the internal flights yourselves by booking them on line with virgin blue, quantas or jetstar, internal flights from melbourne to brisbane are approx $200 each way.

Check out their websites, it will be cheaper to do it on line.

LindyLoo

Get the cheapest flight from UK - Australia, a few people have posted on here about the different airlines.

The main stoppovers are Thialand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Dubai, depending on the airline. Just choose the one which takes your fancy.

Internal flights are pretty cheap here. I couldn't get a cheaper deal before we entered the country about a year ago. So booked on the internet.

Virgin Blue
Quantas
Jetstar ( cheap subsiduary of Quantas)
Zuji (good all-round aussie holiday site)

movetoperth

I don't know how fares work these days, but, when i was in the industry Qantas used to offer a fare that allowed not only a stopover in Asia each way but also i free sector in Australia. This would allow you to pay the fare to Sydney and stopover in an Asian city, onwards to Perth, then Sydney, the fare to Brisbane wouldnt be covered so you'd just choose whatever was the cheapest for that sector, then Brisbane back to UK or another Asian stopover. This was always the cheapest way to do it by far, but as i have not been in "the business" for a few years maybe these fares are no longer available. I'd contact Qantas direct and ask if they still do those sorts of fares then search the consolidators to find who can do it most cheaply!

Hope this helps and doesnt just confuse the hell out of you

Lynn

jjj

I know our route isn't the same as yours but just to give you an idea
3 adults and one child (age 11)
London Singapore Perth Adelaide Melbourne Singapore London
Total £3033.00 booked direct with Qantas for next week

Perthforme

i did similar trip last year uk-perth-sydney-uk
used virgin blue perth-sydney and Emirates in to perth and out of sydney
very easy trip realy and if you can fly straight back to uk from brisbane then do that to save the time and cost of getting back to perth
I paid approx £700 with emirates and A$ 200 perth- sydney on VB .

BobbyDazzler

Thanks (to all of you) for the info provided

Flying back from Brisbane to the UK (as opposed to flying back to Perth) would be ideal but I got the impression from the Emirates website that this would be an incredibly more expensive option. This is probably down to my ignorance as opposed to any shady practice on Emirates' part


What threw me was that I only seemed to have the option of a return flight to Perth as a one-way flight was ridiculously expensive

What would be the best way of ensuring that I *could* fly back from Brisbane as opposed to having to go back to Perth first??

Many Thanks

BD

movetoperth

Most airlines should be able to offer you an "open jaw" ticket which allows you to fly in to one city and out of another, you should pay either the higher return or a mean fare of the 2.

Lynn

BobbyDazzler

Just tried this on the Singapore airlines flight ->multi-city option:

Manchester to Perth (Mar 2006)
Brisbane to Manchester (April 2006)

Cost for 2 adults & 2 kids was a bargain £17,000

poppet

I can't work out why multicity trips with NO return to the UK are so expensive. If you add in a return to the UK (whether or not you plan to use those flights doesn't really matter!) the cost drops dramatically. Difference worked out to quite a few £k with some airlines. Has the world gone mad.... or is it just me as usual?!

movetoperth

BD

check by talking to the airlines as opposed to on their web sites, with the website you can't tell what the problem is, ie if the flights are full for anything other than full fare tickets or what, if you are checking round about easter holiday time that could also affect it.

Possibly airlines don't offer open jaw tickets these days, i have been out of it for about 4 years.

Lynn

Merlot12

This is why you call STA, Trailfinders or any of the other agencies that were mentioned in your other thread. Many of them have call centre hours outside of 9-5 - CALL THEM!!!!

It will make a lot more sense to talk to them, I promise