Australian Airlines

Fly during the week

During peak periods: the weekend and school holidays, the cost of the price of a flight ticket increases considerably, so if you can it’s best to depart and return during the week, during the school term – you won’t believe how much money this can save you – and more than likely your accommodation will be cheaper too.

Purchase early

Long haul airlines tend to offer the lowest prices on 21 day advance tickets. However, in many cases advance purchase fares can often be secured in as little as 14 or 7 days ahead of your departure date. If you wait until fewer than 7 days, you’re unlikely to find a good deal.

Not too early

If you are attempting to book months in advance and you can’t find the fare you want, be patient.

Flexible times

Even if you’re unable to change your dates, consider changing your flight times. Most flight booking sites have an “anytime” option for flight times, and that often produces cheaper flights at less popular times of the day.

Airline sites, last minute deals

Folk lore has it that airlines issue last minute Web fares between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, and they’re often good for travel for that weekend. They usually require you to leave on a Saturday and return Monday or Tuesday. This is usually best for main hub airports so great if you’re close, if not don’t forget that what you save here may be added on the first part of your journey.

Pick up the phone

You know sometimes when you get the world’s most helpful person on the phone and all of your troubles disappear… It works for flights sometimes as well. Don’t forget to do your research online first to know what a good deal looks like and if they’re not able to shift on price then shoot for the upgrade, someone has to get it!

Avoid buying a seat for your luggage

Cheap tickets have rigid restrictions not least your luggage allowance. Airlines can charge upwards of £30 a kilo so those presents could cost twice as much if you’re not careful. Maximise your cabin baggage (which will only be weighed if it looks big or heavy) and weigh before your go to the airport – this traveller paid £200 excess (on a £300 budget ticket) for his son’s sitar when retuning from India… it would have cost half that to Fedex it!

Extra Leg Space

Be careful when asking for extra leg space, the chances are you could be placed next to the toilet area on the plane, and you will then have to endure the constant queue of people standing next to you waiting for the toilet while you try to sleep. Just let them know that you do not want to sit next to a toilet.

Jet Lag

Can mess you up! make sure that you adopt the ‘rhythms’ of your Australian destination to help adjust, so set your watch to the Oz time as soon as you are on board. Flights east generally cause worse symptoms than those westbound. A made up rule of thumb is that the number of days needed to recover is equal to two thirds of the time zones crossed, but this is pretty defeatist! If you arrive early morning then don’t sleep until local bed time better to go to bed tired than alert!

Become a frequent Flyer

You’re flying half way round the world so join your airline’s frequent flyer program and bank those miles, in many cases it’s enough for a domestic flight or better still and upgrade next time you fly!

Who are Virgin Atlantic?

Who hasn’t heard of Richard Branson’s ever expanding commercial airline? Bold, brash and really up for it Virgin are the airline who openly want to be better than the rest.

Virgin Atlantic came in to being to challenge what it’s founders saw as a lazy, complacent industry. Whether it was and whether they did we don’t know but if you have to sit on a plane for 24 hours they are worth a look.

Where do Virgin fly to in Australia?

The major international destination airports for London departures are Sydney, Perth and Melbourne.

Eastern stopovers from the UK are plentiful and well worth the effort if you’ve got the time.

Virgin also operate Virgin Blue offering a wide range of internal flights so they are always worth a look if you’re considering traveling around Oz on your trip.

How good are Virgin?

Virgin won the best Premium Economy service in the world by research consultancy firm Skytrax confirming it’s aim of bringing higher quality air travel to the mas market.

Virgin Atlantic is one of our favourite airlines, the service culture just oozes out of everything they do. Staff are amongst the most helpful in the sky coming a close second to some of the Far Eastern airlines.

If you’re prepared to spend a bit more Virgin will do their best to give you a good return on your money. They’ve changed the game a little bit by moving business a bit closer to the Economy traveller in the form Premium Economy and First Class to the very top of the tree with Upper Class. In our experience those who pay the extra are seldom unhappy with their choice.

Their prices are pretty competitive both direct and via travel agents but don’t expect to see them appear too often in the bucket shops – they don’t really play that game.

What else should I know about Virgin?

Whilst Richard Branson is the figurehead of the airline 49% is owned by Singapore Airlines another company who are embedded in the culture of excellent customer service.

Virgin Galactic has 30 employees and is based in New Mexico. Far from being another mad cap scheme it could see long haul journey times slashed and significantly reduce fuel consumption and pollution.

Who are Qantas?

Qantas is the national airline of Australia and is the largest Oz based flight provider.

Nicknamed “The Flying Kangaroo”, the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport. It  is the world’s second oldest continuously operating airline starting shortly after Dutch national airline KLM. Qantas is headquartered in the Qantas Centre in the Mascot suburb of the City of Botany Bay, Sydney, New South Wales.

Where do Qantas fly to in Australia?

It’s fair to say that if there a is a stretch of tarmac long enough to land a plane anywhere in Oz there will almost certainly be a Qantas flight inbound or outbound.

The major international destination airports for UK departures are Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.

Eastern stopovers from London are plentiful and well worth the effort if you’ve got the time.

Along with Virgin Blue they offer a wide range of internal flights so are always worth a look if you’re considering traveling around on your trip.

How good are Qantas?

In 2009, Qantas was voted the sixth best airline in the world by research consultancy firm Skytrax, dropping from third in 2008 and after managing second place in both 2005 & 2006.

We’ve had the pleasure of flying to Oz a number of times with Qantas in both Economy and Business and we have no complaints at all. The service is very good and in flight entertainment is class leading. They are one of those airlines who make your holiday start when you get on the plane, not when you get off it!

Business Class is excellent with full length flat beds and superb services. If you can afford the extra expense Business and First Class really do give you a day back on this sort of long haul journey, there’s nothing like arriving fresh!

Their prices are pretty competitive both direct and via travel agents.

What else should I know about Qantas?

The name was originally an acronym for “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services”.

Quantas is one of the most misspelled searches on Google totaling about four and a half million a year! It is so prevalent that Qantas bought the web address so that they didn’t miss put on the business.

The urban myth about Qantas never having crashed was cemented by the great Dustin Hoffman in the film Rainman, in fact Qantas have had a few scrapes although it is true that outside of World War Two they have suffered no fatalities.