Guest littlesarah Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Hello I'm planning on making a 3-4 week trip to the UK some time between 7 June - 19 July (due to work commitments that's my only 'window of opportunity'), & I'm not sure whether it's better to book flights ASAP, or whether I could get a better deal if I wait a few weeks. If it helps, I'm flying from Sydney to Birmingham or Heathrow (whichever is cheaper). If possible, I'd prefer to fly on the A380, as I found it to be the best plane I'd ever been on when we came out here last year. Thanks for your help. Sarah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Hi Sarah Our resident travel agent (Nigelinoz) would be a great person to advise, unfortunately he is currently away, hopefully he will be back by the weekend. Kate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wanderer Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Hello I'm planning on making a 3-4 week trip to the UK some time between 7 June - 19 July (due to work commitments that's my only 'window of opportunity'), & I'm not sure whether it's better to book flights ASAP, or whether I could get a better deal if I wait a few weeks. If it helps, I'm flying from Sydney to Birmingham or Heathrow (whichever is cheaper). If possible, I'd prefer to fly on the A380, as I found it to be the best plane I'd ever been on when we came out here last year. Thanks for your help. Sarah If it's cheapest you're after, you're not too fussy about the 380, Stansted is near enough to Birmingham and you do not mind a connection flight to either Melbourne or Brisbane, check out www.airasia.com June/July is high season and you'll be best to get what you can as soon as you can, what they call earlybird specials being out since late last year. www.bestflights.com.au is always good with range they have available to compare and then once you have what looks like best flight, you can always check with the airline re booking direct to save a booking fee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest littlesarah Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Thanks for your help. I have looked at Air Asia, but I have to return to work very soon after we return, so I'm not sure how I'd fare after the trip. I have a little time to sort it out, so I reckon I'll be spending some time searching the net! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wanderer Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Thanks for your help. I have looked at Air Asia, but I have to return to work very soon after we return, so I'm not sure how I'd fare after the trip. I have a little time to sort it out, so I reckon I'll be spending some time searching the net! Main drag re flights is doing it all in one hit and why not schedule if possible to have a couple of days as an asian stopover. Airasia can involve longer stops at KL too. Booked a flight in December for late May, just getting in to shoulder season, and Singapore Air worked out about the best at $1834 ret. for Brisbane to Zurich. Sydney to London would be much the same except for high season loading of several hundred $$$$. They have reasonable stop times of about four hours in Singapore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest littlesarah Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 The problem with a stopover, for me, is that it will either reduce the amount of time I get to spend with our families and friends (on opposite sides of the UK) or mean taking more holiday - which I can only do if I take leave without pay. Seeing as my husband doesn't get paid holidays I'm releuctant to take days off with no money coming in unless we really really have to (i.e. in an emergency). To be honest, I'd rather get it all over with in one go on the way out, & then have a break of 8-10 hours between flights on the way back. Any less than that & I've found in the past that it only makes the journey longer & more arduous. Luckily for me I usually sleep a fair bit on the plane anyway (& next time I'm going to get some sleeping tablets just to be sure!) I remembered that a friend of ours works for a major airline, & she's promised to see what deal she can get for us. Think we'll owe her some babysitting if we get a good price! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ista Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 The problem with a stopover, for me, is that it will either reduce the amount of time I get to spend with our families and friends (on opposite sides of the UK) or mean taking more holiday - which I can only do if I take leave without pay. Seeing as my husband doesn't get paid holidays I'm releuctant to take days off with no money coming in unless we really really have to (i.e. in an emergency). To be honest, I'd rather get it all over with in one go on the way out, & then have a break of 8-10 hours between flights on the way back. Any less than that & I've found in the past that it only makes the journey longer & more arduous. Luckily for me I usually sleep a fair bit on the plane anyway (& next time I'm going to get some sleeping tablets just to be sure!) I remembered that a friend of ours works for a major airline, & she's promised to see what deal she can get for us. Think we'll owe her some babysitting if we get a good price! Hi sarah, I think you should really be looking to book something sooner rather than later...June/July is peak season however there are currently some pretty good deals over - especially with the fact that BA is having its sale (which has been extended until 8th of Feb or something like that!). Flying from London is usually cheaper because there are a lot more flights from there and so more competitive. If you want to fly on the A380, you're obv a bit more limited as to which airlines you can take but Qantas/British Airways currently have some really good deals. Also, if you are flexible as to when in June/July you need to go, it's useful to know that the actual 'peak' season begins sometime around the 21st June or something like that? So you can often get cheaper deals earlier in June. For example - quick look at ebookers: flying early/mid-june, and Qantas has a LON-SYD return for c.£660 whereas late June/early July and it jumps up to over £800. It's prob worth ringing a travel agent and seeing if they know of any sales coming up..if not, check out the BA sale and have a look on the best websites (I personally like kayak.co.uk, ebookers and skyscanner.net - the first two are great also as they let you see which plane you will be travelling on so you can opt for the A380!). Hope that helps! ETA: Sorry Sarah, I just saw you're flying the opposite direction from what I assumed - it's late so I can't read! I'm not sure if the above still applies though things like the peak season etc prob do as you'll be dealing with international airlines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest littlesarah Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Thanks Ista. I realise it's peak season, but I have no choice at all in that - unless I'm willing to visit for 2 weeks or less. I can have time off between 2nd week in June to 3rd week in July, which at least gives a bit of a window. So far I've found that the earlier the better in price terms! I'll wait & see what my friend at BA comes up with - to be honest I have a preference re aircraft but it's no more than that. The price will be the major factor! Thanks all for your help. Sarah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest proud2beaussie Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 Hi sarah, I've only just got back in the country so have a bit of work to catch up on but I will run some numbers for you and send you a quote via PM. Regards Nigel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest littlesarah Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 Thanks Nigel - you are a true gent! Sarah xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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