Trying to get best deal in J to Sydney
 

I am looking to go to Sydney next October/November - hopefully in J. Probably leave in the last 2 weeks of October for 3 week trip.

They cheapest "deal" at the moment i can find is approx 2150 out of Oslo or Stockholm on Qatar which i quite fancy.

Is that a "good" price? We will be starting the trip in Edinburgh - any other options people have used/recommend?

Anyone know if these prices allow for a couple of days stop over?

Buying this far out you are unlikely to get the best prices. That price might come down to around 1800 but then prices have been higher in the last year. If you like the price nook it and don't compare prices at a later date.

I am travelling on Qatar J at the end of this month to Oz. Out from Oslo and back into Stockholm. I also paid £2150 back in July.and if I get another chance at that fare next year when I go again I will jump at it!

Some (hopefully) last advice from people who have flown both Qatar and Singapore Airlines.

Singapore Airlines is currently 2,200 from Oslo to Melbourne (we had a change of plan about Sydney) - while Qatar is 2700.

I understand in the past Qatar sometimes have a sale in January - which has benefit of BA miles, BA status and only one stop in Doha.

Singapore is firstly to Copenhagen - then onwards with a stop in Singapore.

What would you do?

I'd hold out and see what is in the various January airlines sales expected in January whilst keeping an eye on my back-up option.

Please take a look at the Premium Deals thread (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...9-edition.html), a deal was posted there today:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30594732-post2.html

Have you looked at Singapore Airlines out of Stockholm? Their fares from there are often very competitive. That said, IMO they have fallen far below Qatar for service these days.

I have friends doing the ex-Oslo next month. They paid around £1900 last September. Can't recall if it was a sale period. They do spend time in Oslo before hand (1 or 2 nights), but then do the trip direct to SYD.

What is the departure, transit & arrival times? Overall travel time?
DOH-MEL arrives at 18:45 (may be different later in the year)
QR has a good reputation.

Route--->Great Circle Mapper

The certainly used to be.

These days I'm not so sure. QR loads are lower because of the embargo in the GCC, and I've found service levels have gotten better as a result.

It certainly used to be better but in the last quarter I had two returns LHR-SIN-SYD and as a LPPS member - highest and lifetime tier of their scheme I found it lacklustre and inflexible with robotic, disinterested service. After the first sector I thought I'd had a poor crew, after eight sectors I had to accept things had changed for the worse - much worse and future bookings are spread around a bit (CX, NH, QR mostly) to test the options but for me with almost 30 years of regular travel on SQ the mighty have well and truly fallen.

In January 2018 I was able to get OSL-MEL on QR (travelling in November 2018) for £1,450 return. There's no guarantee that there'll be a similar sale this year, of course, and in fact the gate agent at Doha on the return journey (who was aware of the appeal of that route for TP running) told me that I would be very unlikely ever to see such a fare again, but it's a benchmark.

At that fare, choosing QR is pretty much a no-brainer, although in my experience the very good hard product was undermined by robotic and obsequious service.