Guest sooperlids Posted January 1, 2011 Posted January 1, 2011 Hi, we need to book a validation trip, have until November so no great hurry. Does anybody have any tips on doing it on a budget, the best time to travel for the cheapest flights etc. We are 2 adults + 2 children (one 3 years, one 6 months) Not fussed when we go. Seems no matter what time of year we look up flight tickets the price is about the same. £3000+ for the 4 of us. Cheapish Hotels over £150 per night. We were hoping to go for around 2 weeks. Looking like flights, hotel, car hire etc. will come to well over £5000 without spending money! Is there a cheaper way? there are people advertising RTW tickets for less than it seems a return to Perth is going to cost!
LukeM Posted January 1, 2011 Posted January 1, 2011 Cost seems to be affected by where you fly from and where you fly to! What sort of visa have you got? I'm pretty sure that pretty much any visa requires you to enter AUSTRALIA by a certain date, no particular state specified or anything (although obviously I understand that you would want to go to your chosen state as it's hard to research Perth from Brisbane haha) I believe it's cheaper to fly out of Heathrow than it is from somewhere in the north! Have a look at more specialist or independent travel agencies. I think we used Trailfinders and got quite a good deal with them... and I think we used Malaysian Airlines in August 09.
Pumpkin Posted January 1, 2011 Posted January 1, 2011 If you are flexible on timings, why don't you just keep an eye out for flight sales. Most airlines have them at some time or another and you can sometimes pick up cheap flights then. I have just found flights in May costing less than £3k (on expedia and not in a sale) and I think it is easily possible to get hotels for less than £150 a night, we stayed in high quality hotels for about $200 a night for our validation trip last year. Certainly though the exchange rate is going to make this a more expensive holiday than it might have done.
Guest sooperlids Posted January 1, 2011 Posted January 1, 2011 Cost seems to be affected by where you fly from and where you fly to! What sort of visa have you got? I'm pretty sure that pretty much any visa requires you to enter AUSTRALIA by a certain date, no particular state specified or anything (although obviously I understand that you would want to go to your chosen state as it's hard to research Perth from Brisbane haha) I believe it's cheaper to fly out of Heathrow than it is from somewhere in the north! Have a look at more specialist or independent travel agencies. I think we used Trailfinders and got quite a good deal with them... and I think we used Malaysian Airlines in August 09. We have a 176, as I say we have until November to validate. Not fussed where we fly from. I have been searching for flights from London as it's nearby & I assumed most if not all would depart from there. I have flown from Heathrow on my last 2 trips down under. How were Malaysian Airlines?
Guest sooperlids Posted January 1, 2011 Posted January 1, 2011 If you are flexible on timings, why don't you just keep an eye out for flight sales. Most airlines have them at some time or another and you can sometimes pick up cheap flights then. I have just found flights in May costing less than £3k (on expedia and not in a sale) and I think it is easily possible to get hotels for less than £150 a night, we stayed in high quality hotels for about $200 a night for our validation trip last year. Certainly though the exchange rate is going to make this a more expensive holiday than it might have done. Thanks, will keep an eye out for offers. Just thought booking way in advance may save a few £'s. Things have certainly gone up a lot since we last went in 2005. We have used wotif.com to book Hotels before, hotel prices seem to have trebled in the last 5 years. Last time we stayed in lovely places in Sydney, Melbourne, Freemantle & Perth for a fraction of the $ prices now. As you say the exchange rate makes things even worse. Starting to see the advantage in flying out once for good, rather than a trip mostly just to validate.
LukeM Posted January 1, 2011 Posted January 1, 2011 We have a 176, as I say we have until November to validate. Not fussed where we fly from. I have been searching for flights from London as it's nearby & I assumed most if not all would depart from there. I have flown from Heathrow on my last 2 trips down under. How were Malaysian Airlines? Malaysian Airlines are alright but they're not as good as Singapore Airlines. The planes Singapore get are more comfortable all-round and the food's a bit better but for the price difference, Malaysian is alright too :cute: I guess you might find someone cheaper still but I doubt that you'll have as comfortable an experience with any of the others. Certainly avoid BA and Qantas. :wubclub:
Guest sooperlids Posted January 1, 2011 Posted January 1, 2011 Have flown BA & Quantas before, they were alright never had any problems. Have they gone downhill or will we be in for a pleasant surprise flying one of the others? :biggrin: Have just been speaking to a friend who lives in Albury NSW. Reminded me he once flew London-Perth return for £199 including taxes!! (about 10 years ago) Those days are long gone!! :shocked:
ali Posted January 1, 2011 Posted January 1, 2011 Unless you're doing a recci, you don't have to validate in the state you're going to be living in - just Australia - if you're not too fussed, you could do a validatilon trip to the cheapest place.
Pumpkin Posted January 2, 2011 Posted January 2, 2011 Have flown BA & Quantas before, they were alright never had any problems. Have they gone downhill or will we be in for a pleasant surprise flying one of the others? :biggrin: Have just been speaking to a friend who lives in Albury NSW. Reminded me he once flew London-Perth return for £199 including taxes!! (about 10 years ago) Those days are long gone!! :shocked: To be honest, whilst people can have their preferences, I am firmly of the opinion that 24 hours in economy class is no fun on any airline. If you had no problems with BA or Qantas in the past then I am sure you won't again. I have flown long distance BA and long distance Singapore and have no strong preference. Your mate was lucky even 10 years ago, I first went ot Australia in 1998 and it cost £400 and that was considered a good deal at the time (that was Singapore).
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.