LHR - PER best value

[Dozza2k]

similar to tcr2 i am afraid. Just want to kno the cheapest or best value for money airline one can take. Plus they must still have spaces for this christman time! 5 adults, at quite short notice I know!

Emirates are asking for £5500 for 5 ppl, thats a lot more than I thought. Comments/advice v welcome!
Dozza

[BAe 146-100]

Hi,

Try Qantas (http://www.qantas.com.au/regions/dyn/home/qualifier-region-uk).

BAe 146-100

[redsnail]

Christmas time to Oz is always expensive. You'll do well to find a reasonable fare, let alone a cheap one. Good luck. QF or Royal Brunei may be able to help.

[Globaliser]

Even if you book at the best possible time, £1000-1100 per person is a pretty good price for getting to Australia for Christmas. It is the most expensive time of the year to go. You can usually get much cheaper December fares if you can travel before about 8 or 9 December - after that they go up to their peak for the year.

If you want cheap, you could try to find a travel agent who can book you Garuda who often have the lowest fares in the market.

But good value is another thing altogether. If you have availability on EK for that price, I'd go for it. Prime dates for Christmas are now selling for £1500+ on BA and QF. (Yes, that's in economy class.)

Just one tip though. If you get a choice of an A330 instead of a 777, choose that. The 777s are laid out 10 abreast (as opposed to industry-standard 9 abreast) and can be uncomfortable as a result particularly for broader people. The 330s are conventionally laid out.

[airmail]

You may want to consider a round the world ticket. We went last year on Boxing Day, routing via Singapore to Adelaide, then went on to Cairns, Sydney, Auckland and New York (via LA) for a weekend before back to a very cold LHR.

The flights were BA/Qantas/AA and the cost was £880 per adult including all taxes.

airmail

[Globaliser]

The mention of Boxing Day reminds me. If you don't have a need to be in Oz on Christmas Day itself, the first cheaper day for flying is usually 24 December - on the basis that you can't get there before the evening of 25 December. (For the real Christmas-phobe, if you fly LHR-LAX-SYD/AKL on 24 December, you can miss Christmas Day entirely because of the Date Line.)

[Pax Vobiscum]

Don't know if you're planning to travel within Oz, but if so bear in mind that you may be able to get a better deal on internal QF flights if you fly out and back with them. Don't know if there's a similar deal with SQ and Virgin Blue ...

[DX Wombat]

Virgin Blue only fly the domestic routes into Perth, they still don't have an international flight there. Have a look at my reply to the other thread (today's date) if you are thinking of flying to Perth.

[Dozza2k]

brilliant, guys thanks a lot. thats is good to know. It seems as though were gonna defer the Oz trip by a year, just so we can go before the 8th of December.
Ur replies have been v useful, I'll review the situation in bout 9 months wen we'll book.
Hopefully fly emirates, in a 330. But i don't think they use 330's out of LHR. I have only ever seen 777's.
Thanks again.
Dozza

[OzPax1]

Emirates fly the 330 from BHX

[BAe 146-100]

Hi,

Emirates fly the 330 from BHX

From MAN as well, but they also send 777-200's and 300's (occasionally).

BAe 146-100

[Globaliser]

From MAN as well, but they also send 777-200's and 300's (occasionally).Also from LGW.

[FormerFlyer]

Dozza2K

Why review in 9 months when a lot of the cheaper seats will be gone again?

Xmas & new Year for 2004/5 will be on sale early 2004. PM me if you want me to check any fares (this year or next) as I work for a flight consolidator.

cheers ;)

FF

[PAXboy]

All that you have to weigh up is the balance point of paying early and getting cheaper seats and not having the money in your bank (and possibly on your credit card!) and paying later, with more expensive tickets but having the money longer!

[airmail]

PAXboy

The deal that we got (as outlined in my earlier post in this thread) meant that we paid 10% when we booked (approx 8 months in advance) and the rest 8 weeks before departure.

Dozza2K, we booked through Trailfinders (do not work for them and no financial interest in them) but I am sure that there are plenty of others out there that would give the same deal.

Dave

[OzPax1]

I concurr with airmail . I too booked my flight to OZ with Trailfinders. Paid a £70 deposit, then the rest is due 8weeks before departure. If you book a ticket and the travel date is within that 8 week period you have to pay the full amount at the time of booking Most Travel agents (in the UK) will have similar policies.

[Globaliser]

There will be some consolidator fares (ie those sold by places such as Flightbookers, Trailfinders and Travelbag) where you will have to pay the full amount at or soon after booking.

If I understand it correctly, the system is basically that the travel agent doesn't have to pay the airline until the ticket is issued. The deposit is held by the agent to lock you in to the booking you've made. Normally, tickets tend to be issued by the agent about 2 weeks or so before travel. If they have taken the balance from you 8 weeks before travel that locks you in even tighter but also earns the agent a little bit of interest before they have to hand it over to the airline. (Don't complain too much - this is a very competitive market and it tends to help to keep your total fare down.)

Increasingly, airlines are requiring these agents to issue tickets earlier. Most of my QF tickets to Australia now have to be issued 6 weeks before travel, by the airline's fare rules. As I understand it, this is because of the high level of bookings cancelled at a late stage but before ticketing, resulting in greater yield and capacity management problems for the airline (remember that the airline simply doesn't collect the money for the ticket in this situation). In some markets this practice is at epidemic levels, particularly where the agent does a deal with its (repeat/loyal) customers not to take a deposit before ticketing so that there's no lock-in.

Some of the cheapest fares, and those on some routes (IME, US routes in recent years) have now gone further than this, and gone over to "instant purchase" rules similar to those which apply if you buy the cheapest tickets directly from the airline. Typically, tickets have to be issued within 3 or 7 days of booking or something like that. The agent therefore needs to take all the money from you straight away because the airlines requires payment on ticket issue.

So if you come across a demand for full payment at the time of booking, there may be a legitimate explanation like this for it - it is not necessarily a fiddle. But if you are dealing with a company that you don't personally know and aren't sure about, take all the other precautions that you would take in any similar situation. If you have paid the full amount at a very early stage, you might be comforted by making sure you get your ticket in your hands at an early stage too - just don't go and lose it.

[OzPax1]

Globaliser Thanks for that info. Also some airlines are now moving to so called 'E-tickets' on some routes. This means that the actual ticket is held on the airlines reservation system. All you have to do is show up with your passport! My flight to Oz in early December with SQ is one of these. It's not just the low cost airlines doing this anymore!