The low-cost way to land Down Under
Reveals the secrets to finding the cheapest flights to Australia
WITH A-level results finally in, your thoughts may well be turning to j u n i o r ’s gap year – and that rashly made promise long ago to help fund a long-haul trip as a reward for the right grades.
Alternatively, you may be at the stage in life where you can at last take a more grown-up gap year of your own.
Whatever your situation, if Australia is one of the places tempting you as the perfect destination for such an adventure, now is the time to start looking seriously at flight options. Taking a smart approach to booking could save you hundreds of pounds.
Traditionally, the cheapest time of year for flights to Australia has been between mid-April and the end of June. But a second low season has emerged, with prices in October and November – springtime Down Under – becoming very attractive.
No airline offers consistently good value to Australia, so shopping around is essential.
Start on the internet, checking out the major carriers, such as Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific.
They have regular sales so watch- ing their websites and waiting until a sale is launched can pay dividends. Look for newly-launched routes too, such as the one Qatar started to Perth in July. Good fares are usually offered for the first few months in order to fill planes.
Flights to Perth tend to be cheaper than to other Australian cities, largely because it’s nearer, but as a general rule, a return flight to anywhere in Australia for under £800 is a relative bargain worth snapping up on sight.
For an overview of what’s available, use comparison sites such as Travelsupermarket.com, Kayak.co.uk and Skyscanner.net to seek the best offers. However, some airlines – notably Asiana, Korean Air and China Airlines – are regularly missed by such comparison sites. And these more obscure carriers sometimes have the best prices.
That’s one reason to pick up the phone and go through a specialist agency rather than book online.
The other is that these experts can save you a packet on any tickets that are more complex than a straight return – perfect if you want to mix up your destinations. Want to stop for a while in Asia, Africa or North America in either direction? Fancy adding on New Zealand? Then there are special tickets through co-operating airlines that are almost impossible to put together online.
For example, Roundtheworldflights. com offers a ticket that includes Bangkok, Sydney, Auckland and Dubai from £970, flying with Emirates.
It doesn’t cost too much more to include an extra continent. Trailfinders is selling flights to Australia via Johannesburg and back via Hong Kong, Singapore or Bangkok for from £1,245. This sort of multi-destination ticket tends to be a better bet for flexibility as charges for changing dates are negligible.
You should ask about adding accommodation, too. Sometimes special promotions will make the flight plus a hotel for three nights in the stopover destination cheaper than the flight alone.
It can also be worth adding internal Australian flights as part of the package. They can often be bundled on for as little as £50, and distances are so large that this will almost always be better value than driving or taking the bus.
If you decide to book internal flights separately, Webjet.com.au is great for comparing the options with the likes of Jetstar, Virgin Australia and Tiger Airways. But go direct to an airline’s site to avoid a hefty booking fee.
Most Australia flight options involve going from or through Heathrow, but cheaper deals can sometimes be found with the airlines that use other airports. They include Vietnam Airlines which goes from Gatwick while Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways also fly from Manchester. Emirates also uses Newcastle, Birmingham and Glasgow.
There’s also the possibility of saving money by flying to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, then using budget airlines such as Jetstar, Scoot or Air Asia to go on to Australia.
For example, KLM is offering returns to Kuala Lumpur from numerous UK airports for around £480. Using Air Asia from the Malaysian capital, you can get to Perth and back from £230, or the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Sydney for about £300.
GETTING THERE:
Qantas, 020 8600 4300, qantas.com.au. Singapore Airlines, 020 8961 6993, singaporeair.com. Cathay Pacific, 020 8834 8888, cathaypacific.com. Qatar Airways, 0844 846 8380, qatar airways.com. Asiana, 020 7304 9900, flyasiana.com. Korean Air, 0800 413 000, koreanair.com. China Airlines, 020 8587 3688, china-airlines.com. Roundtheworldflights.com, 020 7704 5700, roundtheworldflights.com. Trailfinders, 020 7368 1200, trailfinders.com. Jetstar, 00 61 3 9347 0091, jetstar.com. Virgin Australia, 0800 051 1281, virginaustralia.com. Tiger Airways, 00 61 3 9999 2888, tigerairways.com. Vietnam Airlines, 0203 263 2062, vietnam airlines.com. Etihad, 0845 608 1225, etihadairways.com. Emirates, 0844 800 2777, emirates.com. Scoot, 00 61 2 8520 1888, flyscoot.com. Air Asia, 0845 605 3333, airasia.com. KLM, 0871 231 0000, klm.co.uk.