Help greatly appreciated - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

Scabbybones · 08-09-2005, 11:19 AM

Hey I'm planning a trip to OZ with 2 friends for early january 2006. None of us know a thing about travelling and we need to book a flight ASAP. However, we don't know what the hell we are doing. What is the cheapest way to go? Internet sites?? (we are from canada). Also, where is the cheapest place to fly into? does it make a huge difference? Are smaller cities generally cheaper?? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Shelbi

**omisan** · 08-09-2005, 11:47 AM

Oof.. looks like you just missed the end of a lot of internet specials by a week and a half, but I think those rates were only good until early December - you're going smack dab in the high season.

Anyway, you might still be able to swing a good deal on Air New Zealand. Try their Canadian web specials page.

Also, Qantas has had some killer deals lately... Check out their "Plan Ahead Fares" page, but keep in mind these are prices from Los Angeles.

Generally, flying into Sydney is the cheapest, since it's the biggest hub in the country. Occasionally, you'll find prices to Brisbane to be lower, but that usually won't be a nonstop flight.

You can also look at various Asian airlines for flights into Australia - the price might be a touch higher, though, but you can get free stopovers in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, etc. - not bad if you're going on a big-ass trip!

franky84 · 08-14-2005, 01:11 AM

if u live in canada u will most likely end up on the east coast of AUS, so your plane will stop in either brisbane (often cheaper), Sydney (maybe 100 more than brisbane, but as peviously said biggest transport hub in AUS) or melbourne which will be prolly 100 more than sydney, thats in australian dollars. Air Canda has pretty good deals, but they have daily direct sydney-vancouver flights. so yeah the cheapest flights in and out of AUS are from our EAST coast. but that is a good thing cause pretty much all of our population is located on the east coast anyway.

wherever u come in make ur way to places like Byron Bay NSW, Nimbin NSW and trust me on this make sure you go to a place called Airlie Beach in QLD, its about 100 km's north of a town (with an airport) called Mackay, this may be useful as the airport which serves the whitsundays (from the mainland), Proserpine, is scheduled to be shut down and all traffic redierected to Hamilton Island. if your from canada your probly comming here to cop some HOT weather, GO TO NORTH QUEENSLAND, its god damn hot 24 hours a day!...also a note try to go north in february as the wet season will be ending! also beware it still may be stinger season! (box jelly fish) which lurk in the ocean and can kill you!..so ask for a "stinger suit" if u plan to go scuba diving or swimming in the ocean/reef.

hope you enjoy the country, its a great place with friendly people, just dont underestimate the wildlife!, they may look pretty but chances are they are deadly!

cheers!

if you got any questions about major cities Sydney or Melbourne PM me as i live in sydney and know the transport arrangements here

officeangel · 08-28-2005, 03:33 AM

I'm travelling over to Oz late Nov (for six months) from Uk and found the Travelocity website to be great, especially if you wanna book mutiple destinations (i.e Thailand for a week then on to Sydney or something)

Like someone already said I found Quantas to be a good bet, booking direct through them is cheaper then going through a middle man who needs paying too.

Booking from the Uk, I tried all different cities and dates and from here, Sydney was the cheaper option. Also found that when trying to book to go to NZ from Oz, Sydney to Auckland was cheaper then Sydney to Wellington.

One piece of advice I was given was when booking a flight costing a lot of money (if using a travel company) always make sure your payment/ticket is protected, if the company go bust.