help with flight to AUSTRALIA
 

Hi, i am trying to book a flight to melbourne, australia from NYC in which my brother has to stay there for about 4 months. any discount tix i find, they are only for up to a months stay. usual fares ive been getting have been 2000. the cheapest ive gotten is 1600 through STA, the student travel agency. does anyone have any other ideas? if so, could you post here or email to [email protected]?

[This message has been edited by rgm18 (edited 11-10-2003).]

[This message has been edited by rgm18 (edited 11-10-2003).]

From what I've seen, $2k is avg. for US-AU flights with $1,600 being a really good deal; UA has gone as low as $1,200 with 21-days advance notice in September (the lowest revenue period for the industry). That country happens to be pretty far away so flights are going to cost a bit much. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

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Best regards,
Dairenn Lombard
Los Angeles, CA

Perhaps try a cheap fare to LHR or FRA, then get to Australia through Asia. There are some cheap fares out of London (eg Royal Brunei, Garuda), and cheap Qantas fares out of Frankfurt.

The cheapest time for ex-London fares is mid-April to end-June - you can pretty reliable get fares as low as GBP 500 + tax, usually with max stays of longer than a month.

Although this isn't in the Miles Forum, I'd consider earning up 60k UA miles for the trip. Its a very good deal assuming UA doesn't raise their rates by the time you redeem them (pretty likely IMO). You can get 20k signing up for UA's credit card and 15k for upgrading the credit card to gold. You can get the rest by flying MRs, transfer FFMs from CO using Amtrak, buying stuff (bonds?) on your UA CC, etc. If you value miles at $0.02 then its easy to get your $1200's worth, especially from the east coast.

hi, can you tell me how you get those fares from london...what airline? where should i look?
thanks!

From London, one of the consolidators might be worth checking:
www.ebookers.com
www.trailfinders.com
www.airlinenetwork.co.uk

From the US, it might also be possible to get a good deal on SQ or MH (EWR-DXB-KUL-Australia?), though this is just a guess with no real basis for support.

And try http://www.travelbag.co.uk/airfares as well.

All four of these are reputable companies (Travelbag is now owned by ebookers but operates as a separate unit), so you ought not to have many worries when dealing with them.

From australia I prefer to fly JAL via Tokyo.
When flying to JFK the jal flight arrives earlier than qantas or United.The cost is also a lot less especially their companion fares.
From australia it will be about $us1400 coach or $4000 business.You probably have to pay more from the states.You can get AA points on JAL.There service is pretty good too.