Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Australia, NZ finding flights

The family will be in Aus and NZ around Xmas into Jan, and we need to plan an itinerary and find inter-island flights (and NZ-Aus and back). What's the best source of economical flights to key cities and tourist sights?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by married 2 miles:
The family will be in Aus and NZ around Xmas into Jan, and we need to plan an itinerary and find inter-island flights (and NZ-Aus and back). What's the best source of economical flights to key cities and tourist sights?</font>

www.qantas.com.au (http://www.qantas.com.au)
www.travel.com.au (http://www.travel.com.au)

Basing on 28th of December, Qantas have one way SYD-CHC for around AU$800

Basing on 28 of December, but returning 2nd January, Qantas have SYD-CHC-SYD for around AU$1400.

Travel.com.au have return on Air NZ for around $1400 also.

Coming closer to the date, you're sure to pick up cheaper flights tho.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dannyr:
Basing on 28th of December, Qantas have one way SYD-CHC for around AU$800

Basing on 28 of December, but returning 2nd January, Qantas have SYD-CHC-SYD for around AU$1400.</font>

If you are travelling to Australia from overseas, look into the Boomerang Passes.

Prices could be as low as A$330 for SYD - CHC and A$660 SYD-CHC-SYD, subject to availability.

You probably could still do better by waiting, but you may want to lock in.

http://www.qantas.com.au/regions/dyn/us/specials/boomerang

A travel agent can book them for you as well.

Not sure what cities you plan to visit but we traveled PHX-LAX-SYD-CNS-MEL-CHC-(overland to AKL)-AKL-LAX-PHX for about $1800/each. Booked through Goway (http://www.goway.com/). That was in Nov 2002.

If have FF miles on a *A carrier, for 20K miles you can get an award ticket for travel between AU and NZ. Good deal depending on your destination. I am using that award to fly AKL-PER and SYD-AKL in August.

Within AU VirginBlue (http://www.virginblue.com/) has great fares. Unlike US airlines, one-way fares can be purchased at half the RT price. Check it out.

[This message has been edited by swflaboy (edited 07-08-2003).]

[This message has been edited by swflaboy (edited 07-08-2003).]

Cheap flights Australia-NZ, apart from Qantas and Air New Zealand:

www.freedomair.com (http://www.freedomair.com) - bookable online
www.thaiair.com (http://www.thaiair.com) - *A carrier
www.garuda-indonesia.com (http://www.garuda-indonesia.com)
www.malaysiaairlines.com (http://www.malaysiaairlines.com)

Royal Brunei is currently advertising a A$399 return AU-NZ, only valid through Brisbane-Auckland (BNE-AKL). I don't think this fare is available online, though...

I'm planning to visit Sydney (probably flying from CHC), Ayers Rock and the Great Barrier Reef (thinking of sailing from Airlie Beach with Prosail) and need to get from SYD to AYQ and then to Airlie Beach (or SYD to Airlie and Airlie to AYQ)(Prosail recommends Proserpine Airport or Hamilton Island Airport (this seems a bit more complicated) and then to Auckland, NZ for departure to home. I'm having all sorts of trouble finding flights. This must be fairly regular destinations - I assume. Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks!

There is nothing about your post that leads to "economical way".

Family multiple tickets
Jan, near Christmas summer time competition
Ayers Rock an expensive trip by itself
Sydney a very expensive place to stay and eat
Cairns Big triangle of travel
NZ too, asking to pay
A sailing too?

I echo the advice given hear by others, but wish to suggest one more item:

Reconsider your trip! You may wish to make a financial budget and a time budget. Run some hotel, flights, ground transportation, food and misc costs with the data you have found so far. See where you are at. The states in Australia are not so close to each other as they are on the East Coast (US). If you stay with the January time period, not only will it cost more,but you need start thinking booking soon, very soon (all ready). You might call a travel agent that speciallized in the So Pac. They can give you a fast and dirty estimate.

Finally, there are so many web sites on Australia, all the cities, most of the attractions. Each of our 5 approximately 21 day trips (no more that two areas per trip) have taken 200 web hours with high speed internet to plan. This current on Brisbane and Tasmania, closer to 250 hours.

Good luck.

Air New Zealand has just announced the sale of one way fares from NZ to Australia (and vice-versa) - you can look at www.airnz.co.nz (http://www.airnz.co.nz) or www.airnz.com.au (http://www.airnz.com.au) depending on the direction you want tickets. This will cut the costs down a little further for you hopefully.

I don't know if you are still watching this posts, but having looked at some of the options for my own trips, here they are:

1. Pay thru the nose the ridiculous price to go and stay at Ayer's Rock and cry alot.
2. Buy either a Boomerang pass or a Kiwi pass to cut the price down to fly to ayer's rock, but still cry.
3. If you have American miles and are really really lucky, spend 20,000 miles sted $400 to $500 to fly from like syd to ayer's rock to Cairns and pay for any other flights which aren't as bad and then cry about the hotel prices at ayer's rock.