buckydee Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Hi, We're looking to head back to the UK for two weeks at the end of June/beginning of July and have been looking at flights for about 3 months now. So far, I've been unable to find anything under $2000, other than China Southern (which doesn't have the greatest reviews and was $1800 so not much cheaper!). Being as it is such a long flight, we've been looking mainly at Cathay Pacific and Emirates as we flew with them on the way out here and found them to be good. I also don't want to spend more than a couple of hours in Hong Kong or Dubai, or wherever. Does this consign me to having to pay through the nose? I keep reading other people saying they've got flights for $1300, yet everytime I check flights, they just seem to be creeping up in price! Getting stressed out now as it's going to wipe us out if we have to pay that much! I've posted about this before and the general advice was to just keep checking and that there's no best time to book, but any other advice or tips would be gratefully received! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salco1982 Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Hey - Im doing a similar search but for late/end of August. I've found united airlines are pretty cheap.. about $1,800 to go via LAX but you are looking at two 12 hour flights.. which doesnt overly faze me. I'm holding out for some sale prices - but dont expect much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chortlepuss Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 I'm suprised they're that cheap - I paid just under $1800 for Singapore flying out April, back June. I'd love to hear about $1300 flights but in my experience $2K mark is about right. Sorry - it does wipe most people out, especially with families - I'm going on my own :jiggy: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diane Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 July and August are probably the most expensive times to fly unfortunately because of the UK school holidays. I keep an eye on sites such as http://www.zuji.com.au http://www.bestflights.com.au and http://www.jetabroad.com.au but yes, everything is around the $2000 mark at the moment. Couple of years ago I did get a flight for my OH to go over for his mum's 80th birthday which is end of July - we booked only about two weeks ahead and got a deal for about $1300 with Malaysian, but that was pretty flukey and of course, just for the one seat. Apparently taxes are really high at UK airports, so you might be able to cut costs by flying via somewhere in Europe instead - Lufthansa had a few deals a little while ago (code sharing with Singapore Airlines from Aus) - but still around $1800. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fifi69 Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Sorry you dont give your location so im not sure where you are flying from? When weve looked (from Perth) it has sometimes worked out cheaper to use a budget airline to get to Singapore and then onwards with a carrier from there. It has also worked out cheaper sometimes flying from Adelaide instead of Perth. Would you be willing to go in May? flights are a bit cheaper then, but jump come June thru to Sept. What fares were coming up with Emirates? i know that they had a sale on until 28th Feb. I dont think this new Quantas/Emirates mearger is going to help any in bringing fares down. Have you also looked at Qatar airlines (if they go from your location). They are a 5* airline and do occasionally come in cheaper than the others. The only other thing i can suggest is signing up for email alerts for when any special deals/sales come round. Best of Luck, i hope you get it sorted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob1 Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Good advice - take Tiger/Air Asia or jet star to KL or Sing then flights from there. Cuts the price but you may have to hang around a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 I think $2k and over is often the going rate. We had to book a last minute ticket in Julylast year and was over $3k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gallah Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 We travelled royal Brunei who were fine...apart from the no alcohol! The flights were $1400 each when everyone else wanted at least $2000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 always buy a return from the UK - you have up to a year to use it and you can change the dates within the year. you can call agents in the UK to buy the flights with a UK debit/credit card and they will be cheaper, thats even flying from Oz to the UK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diane Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 you can call agents in the UK to buy the flights with a UK debit/credit card and they will be cheaper, thats even flying from Oz to the UK I'm pretty sure this has been discussed on here before, and it's not possible. If you start your journey (i.e. the first leg of a return ticket) from Australia, then you have to pay the Australian price. I seem to remember reading about someone whose UK agent told them it was possible, then it turned out it wasn't so they lost out as by then the prices had all gone up anyway. I'll have a search and see if I can find thr thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul1Perth Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Gives you a good excuse not to go though, so there's a silver lining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diane Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Found it! Here it is http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/flights-holidays/139022-how-do-you-buy-uk-flights-australia.html About half way through that thread the poster who had dealt with a Uk agent found they had made a mistake and tried to increase his price by quite a large sum! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GeorgeD Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 I'm pretty sure this has been discussed on here before, and it's not possible. If you start your journey (i.e. the first leg of a return ticket) from Australia, then you have to pay the Australian price. I seem to remember reading about someone whose UK agent told them it was possible, then it turned out it wasn't so they lost out as by then the prices had all gone up anyway. I'll have a search and see if I can find thr thread. I've looked at his before with Emirates...you always pay the local price for the coutnry in which your journey commences. The one in the previous thread was a mistake by the Travel Agent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROO101 Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Try Skyscanner :-) Emirates usually come out with special offers too so look out for those! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 We flew from Perth to Edinburgh with KLM in July last year for around $1500 - the first leg was code share with Malaysia and Singapore on the way back. KLM itself was fine too though we upgraded our seats to 'Economy Comfort' for $150 each on the KL to Amsterdam leg. You can do the whole trip on economy airlines if you book it yourself and fly via India. Or fly to Beijing and go by rail from there - takes about a week but costs about $750. The fact an annual family trip to the UK has us broke the rest of the year is one of (the many) reasons we are going back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Well I just bought a flight from Perth to the UK (bought through UK web site) and believe me it was much cheaper. I paid with my UK credit card though Most flights are bought one way anyway these days. A return was cheaper but the one I bought was still cheaper than buying here in Oz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diane Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Can you let us know which website you used, Dustyroad? I have just priced up a trip from Adelaide on a uk site (I used opodo.co.uk) and although the price is given in pounds, when I convert it, it comes out exactly the same as the same flight purchased here in Australia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bensdad Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 I'm pretty sure this has been discussed on here before, and it's not possible. If you start your journey (i.e. the first leg of a return ticket) from Australia, then you have to pay the Australian price. I seem to remember reading about someone whose UK agent told them it was possible, then it turned out it wasn't so they lost out as by then the prices had all gone up anyway. I'll have a search and see if I can find thr thread. That was me yes lol learned my lesson The way to do it IMHO is take the hit buy a one way back to the uk, then when coming back buy an open ended return from uk then you will always have the ticket back to uk available. Then you are only paying reasonable uk prices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul1Perth Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 We flew from Perth to Edinburgh with KLM in July last year for around $1500 - the first leg was code share with Malaysia and Singapore on the way back. KLM itself was fine too though we upgraded our seats to 'Economy Comfort' for $150 each on the KL to Amsterdam leg. You can do the whole trip on economy airlines if you book it yourself and fly via India. Or fly to Beijing and go by rail from there - takes about a week but costs about $750. The fact an annual family trip to the UK has us broke the rest of the year is one of (the many) reasons we are going back! A trip back to the UK every year would definitely have you broke. We were here 10 years before we went back and had to take a loan out then. We were severely under pressure to go back as everyone had been here at least once. We really wanted to go to Hawaii but thought we had better do the "right thing". Have to go again this August for a wedding so we'll be broke again for a while. There are just too many nicer places to go for a holiday than the UK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest51810 Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 I dont think i could cope without going back at least every 2 years, i'd need to make sure i had the money to do it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockDr Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 I dont think i could cope without going back at least every 2 years, i'd need to make sure i had the money to do it! If regular trips back are a priority, you just have to budget accordingly. It's perfectly doable, but you need to decide this and set the budget from the outset, otherwise your expenses will expand to fill your available money, and then it's much harder to cut back on things, because you've already saddled yourself with two cars or a more expensive rent/mortgage, or have got used to eating/drinking out often (or whatever you tend to spend money on) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockDr Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 to the OP, if you're happy with Cathay or Emirates, also try airlines like singapore or malaysian. cheapest I've found flights (From adelaide, so more limited options for direct flights than from other cities) was with malaysia in may, we booked during the earlybird sale last year and got returns for $1630pp. Standard prices (from Adelaide) do tend to be around the 2-2.5k mark, rising to around 3k for the Christmas run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 A trip back to the UK every year would definitely have you broke. We were here 10 years before we went back and had to take a loan out then. We were severely under pressure to go back as everyone had been here at least once. We really wanted to go to Hawaii but thought we had better do the "right thing". Have to go again this August for a wedding so we'll be broke again for a while. There are just too many nicer places to go for a holiday than the UK. As an only child of parents in their 80s too old/ill to travel it was part of the deal of migrating for us. I do resent my only proper holiday each year being to the UK, we used to do a lot of travel. Hawaii is over-rated IMHO, at least Oahu is, if you do go then try to visit a couple of islands - we did it as a five day add on to LA. It also doesn't help getting an annual reminder of what you are missing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest51810 Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 If regular trips back are a priority, you just have to budget accordingly. It's perfectly doable, but you need to decide this and set the budget from the outset, otherwise your expenses will expand to fill your available money, and then it's much harder to cut back on things, because you've already saddled yourself with two cars or a more expensive rent/mortgage, or have got used to eating/drinking out often (or whatever you tend to spend money on) I think it'll be a long time before im thinking of leaving the UK or having to worry about these things but its good to think about the future. I'd definitely make sure i budgeted for the flights or that i could at least pay towards my mums flight over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keily Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 if its just for adults and you dont mind the non direct route ....try getting a cheapy flight to bali and then flying from there .....malaysian are currently priced at around the $1300 mark flying to heathrow at the end of july (skyscanners) mrs keily Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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