The cost of fares to Sydney in September

[gdiphil]

Can anyone explain why the cost of return airfares to Sydney from London for a journey in economy next September are currently some £200 to £350 more expensive than the same time last year? To illustrate, I bought an MAS ticket for last September for £560 in round figures. For the past two months fares have variously been quoted as from £792 to a high of £1007 on the usual internet sites I've researched (eg lastminute, opodo, expedia, ebookers, airline network as well as BA, QF and other airline sites). I'm pretty flexible with dates but I cannot find anything under £700, the maximum I ever paid in the past.

[GEAR_DOWN]

many reasons why. - fuel has gone up, taxes have gone up, APD tax hax gone up, The airline last year may have hgad a promotion going at the time of booking your ticket. there may be more pax booked on the flight now, therefore no cheap seats left.

[Big Harvey]

If it's purely price you're interested in, China Eastern often have some good fares on that route. Check their website to find out when they go, and try the dates on www.lastminute.com (http://www.lastminute.com) or www.travelocity.co.uk (http://www.travelocity.co.uk) to see if you can get it cheaper. I think it's an overnight in Shanghai on the way back, but the airline will put you up in a hotel. Reviews are a bit mixed, but seem to be improving of late.

Failing that, try Royal Brunei. They're certainly offering fares well below £700 in September. Once again, try their website to find the dates they go, but don't book from there until you've tried the likes of www.asda-travel.co.uk (http://www.asda-travel.co.uk) with the dates. You'll almost certainly find you'll get the same flight cheaper from Asda. Once again an airline that gets mixed reviews. It involves two stops, but the Dubai one is just a quickie for refuelling.

[GEAR_DOWN]

:8Or even try Oasis Hong Kong airlines from LGW . prices start at £75 one way to hong kong, then get a flt from there on to sydney:8

[Big Harvey]

Good call! You could do the whole thing using no-frills carriers. From Hong Kong, you could fly Jetstar Asia to Singapore. From there, Tiger Airways go to Darwin for next to nothing, and you could then go Virgin Blue to Sydney! :8:8:8:8:8

Before you ask, I haven't checked out the actual practicalities of doing that, and suspect it might take a while!

[gdiphil]

Thanks for your messages everyone. I am an experienced flyer and user of the internet but have just been very very suprised at the hugely inflated cost of this September's flights as compared with the last five years or so. Taxes and fuel are not so high as to justify an almost 90% increase in pricing in some extreme cases. When buying a ticket I always make a very large comparison with up to a dozen sites so last year's fare was not out of line with other fares with other airlines. I notice for instance excellent prices to the States, middle east and far east for the same period this year but as I commented in my first post fares to Sydney are in some cases almost Christmas prices. Hence I wondered if anyone as any idea what is going on with the Oz route. I have wondered if there is a sporting event or some other reason why the high prices but cannot discover anything special about this September as compared with the previous five years. The advice on China Eastern and Royal Brunei is welcome. And Big Harvey, I too have thought the same thing and it will be fun researching it just to see if it is worth while. I'll let you know. In the meantime I will keep searching and once again thanks for your comments.

[gdiphil]

At the weekend I finally found a decent ticket through Travelmood.com at £664 with Asiana Airlines. Perfect timings as far as my schedule is concerned with a 5* Skytrax rated airline. Like JAL they provide a hotel complimentary on the way back, (in Seoul of course).
Big Harvey - I saw the Royal Brunei fares around the same sort of price but the timings were wrong but thanks for your help. Also I had fun planning out the low cost alternatives. If I had the time (only two weeks to complete the travel) I would have used them and paid about £750 in total. More would have been spent on hotels as of course timings between carriers are all over the place so the cost would have gone up alot. However I might try that one day and make a complete holiday of the whole trip.
I think I may have discovered the reason for the generally high price to Oz from the UK this September as compared to previous years. My brother in law in Sydney tells me there is some big intergovernmental meeting planned for late September and hence there is high demand for tickets. A local public holiday is also being given so as to get people out of the city.

[raejones]

Several LHR-SYD flights stop in Singapore (BA being one of them) - and in September the are hosting the first ever F1 Grand Prix night race through the streets of Singapore. Maybe just a co-incidence, but I suspect not.!

[Arrowhead]

The easiest loco way is Oasis LGW-HKG - arr circa 4pm

Connect on airport ferry from HKG airport to Macau (1 hour ferry) - cost £10-15

Then Macau (MFM) to SYD on Viva macau (www.flyvivamacau.com.au) leaving circa 10.30pm

Way back is day flight to Macau, then ferry to HK Airport from Macau, and late night flight to LGW

Viva launches 15 August

[gdiphil]

Arrowhead, thanks for the tip, I certainly will be taking a very close look at the HK/Macau routing in future, particularly as I have friends in HK. As I go to Syd twice a year anyway, to break up the journey or make it itself into a holiday is always welcome.
Raejones, I hadn't heard about the F1 hosting so you are probably correct, that must have an effect on fares all round in the region.

[AlphaWhiskyRomeo]

Excuse my ignorance, but the Macau route may be of interest to me in the future.

Do you need a special Visa for Macau, or will a UK Passport suffice as it does in HK?

[Arrowhead]

Macau has no visa requirement provided you only stay 30 days. Just turn up and show your British passport.

BTW, there is virtually no tax on booze in Macau, and hotel accomodation is v cheap Mon-Thu. Check airport ferry times here: http://www.turbojetseaexpress.com.hk/e/sailing_schedule_fare_table.asp?vname=sailing_schedule_fare_ table

Otherwise you will need to get the train into central HK and take the Macau ferry from the Shun Tak centre (leaves every 15 min). Website here: http://www.turbojet.com.hk/turbojet_sailing_rev.htm

Cab (or bus) from Macau ferry terminal to airport also cheap, since whole SAR is only the size of Guernsey...

[Arrowhead]

12 FORMULA 1™ Petrol Ofisi Turkish Grand Prix (Istanbul) 24-26 August
13 FORMULA 1™ Gran Premio d'Italia 2007 (Monza) 07-09 September
14 FORMULA 1™ ING Belgian Grand Prix (Spa) 14-16 September
15 FORMULA 1™ Fuji TV Japanese Grand Prix (Fuji) 28-30 September
16 FORMULA 1™ Sinopec Chinese Grand Prix (Shanghai) 05-07 October
17 FORMULA 1™ Grande Prêmio do Brasil 2007 (Sao Paulo) 19-21 October

No Singapore?

[mphysflier]

Hi - as a Sydneysider I can tell you that the first week of September is the APEC leaders meeting which may well be having an effect on fares as it seems to involve several thousands of extra hangers-on being here. It's certainly a big enough deal for the government to be warning us all to expect major disruptions to CBD life :hmm:.
Could another possible underlying cause for generally increased fares be the strength of the Aussie dollar compared with this time last year? Interesting to note that a few years ago it was comparatively quite a bit more expensive to fly SYD-LHR-SYD than to fly the same airline LHR-SYD-LHR but at the moment there's not much in it.

Glad you found a decent fare, anyway!