Air fares SYD to LHR
 

Hello everybody I'm still over here in the UK if anybody remembers me lol.

Anyway my grand-daughter wants to come and visit me later this year for Christmas and New Year. My daughter has been looking into flights for her and they are around the figure of $2400.00 return, Sydney to Heathrow.

As she is still at school she will also be looking at student travel. Would it be cheaper for me to get a fare from this end or is this not allowed?

Thank you.

Re: Air fares SYD to LHR
 

Doesn't matter. She'll still have to pay the rate for beginning her trip in Aus regardless of where you buy it. STA are pretty good for student flight options.

Re: Air fares SYD to LHR
 

We just booked our flights through a U.K travel agent & it was quite a bit cheaper than using an Australian based one. Flight centre certainly couldn't match it. Deb's Mum contacted her local agent & it was all done in a few mins over the phone.:thumbup:

Re: Air fares SYD to LHR
 

Hmm, you do realise that that is probably THE most expensive time of year don't you? And that in relative terms it's getting late on those flights?

Standard rules for Christmas traffic applies - it's best to travel as early as possible in December to cut the costs. Things really ramp up in the week before Christmas (so before 19th helps), then drop again after the last flight that would get you there before Christmas day.

Be careful of the stopover times - some of the chinese airlines have frankly huge total flight durations (38hours is common). Finnair might be best, but two stops.

I don't think you can play any of the tricks for cheap travel around Christmas (return leg, etc.). Booking in the UK may be a bit cheaper, but not by much.

Re: Air fares SYD to LHR
 

Depart 23 Dec, Air Asia $958 to KL, Sri Lankan Airlines for KL to Heathrow via a couple of places $1134. Few hundred dollar saving. Can't check Scoot to Singapore - website down.

Re: Air fares SYD to LHR
 

The potential problem with that is if either flight is cancelled or late - you may then get stuck somewhere and find you have to pay again for another flight

Re: Air fares SYD to LHR
 

You can often get a better price by flying on 25th December, or 31st January.

Seems people dont like being in the air for the 'special' days - so theres usually a significant drop in price if you dont mind.

Re: Air fares SYD to LHR
 

Contingency plan ..... arrive with plenty of time to spare.

Anyhow .... they were asking how to make it cheap .... that's how ... book separate segments rather than a direct fleecing SYD - LHR

Re: Air fares SYD to LHR
 

Wow, I suspect someone might have made an error - unless the current exchange rate has made all the difference. Flights originating in Aus are always more expensive than flights originating in UK and should be no matter which end you book them from. On another board a family thought they had circumvented that but ended up having to pay more. Hope you have a great trip!

Re: Air fares SYD to LHR
 

This is correct...and exchange rates should make no difference. The AU fare would simply be converted into GBP at the current exchange rate. Perhaps there is a commission coming into play somewhere?

I'm not sure it would be possible for a travel agent to build an itinerary using coupons out of sequence i.e. a UK market fare ticketed as AU-UK then UK-AU instead of the other way around. If systems allowed it it would still be against the rules and subject to audit and cancellation.

Re: Air fares SYD to LHR
 

I just booked a UK trip for Christmas - Departing Sydney on the 11th, returning on the 3rd with Air China. I was a bit dubious about Air China, but I did some research and they seemed to have received reasonable reviews. It was also a very direct flight without lots of legs, meaning it wasn't too long in each direction.

STA travel, all up, including Credit Card processing fee was A$2500.75, which I thought was very good.

The next price point cuts in at about $2800, as far as I could establish. The larger, more established carriers were about $2900.


S

Re: Air fares SYD to LHR
 

If you could put up with a 2 stopper, you could get it for under $2000. Scoot with bag and meal to Sing is $720 return on those dates. Then flight via Sri Lanka or KL.

Syd - KL on those dates is $861.00 with a 20kg bag on AirAsia. Direct flight from KL to London is about $1100. Bit over $2000 when all said and done for a one stopper.

Thinking of the student here ..... Nice way to break up the trip, see and city on the way.

Re: Air fares SYD to LHR
 

We went to our local flight centre & got a quote for specific travel dates for 3 adults 2 children then emailed it to Deb's mum who took it to the travel agent she has used for the last 20 years & they saved us well over $700 bucks so just over $110 per flight.
As BC said it could just be that the commission is lower. Either way we have the itinerary in front of us & they are the same flights.

Re: Air fares SYD to LHR
 

The two stop approach kills it in terms of total flying time - And also provides greater opportunity for missing connections when there are delays etc.

This is a good trade off between flight time, connections and price. I just hope the airline is OK :)


S

Re: Air fares SYD to LHR
 

Thanks everybody and sorry to have wasted your time, the plans have now been revised and I am flying to Australia instead.

Eeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk :blink: