Joe

I posted this on the Australia board but got only one response that was not very helpful, so I thought I would try here. I only have enough frequent flier miles for my wife and me to get to Asia but we want to go to Australia. Does anybody know which city in Asia would have the cheapest tickets I could purchase to go to Australia?

Craigy

I think your question is too vague. For a start it depends where in Australia you are heading to. The simple answer to 'where in Asia' would you get the cheapest fares to Australia would in reality be' Bali to Darwin' as it's about a 2.5 hr flight. But I doubt you are heading to Darwin, it could be Jakarta if you were to fly onwards on Garuda to Perth, Melbourne or say Sydney. There are very cheap fares to Sydney from HCMC on Vietnam Airlines, but you might not be able to get there on the airline that you are using for your f/flier miles.<BR>Fares overall into Australia from Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok are generally a little cheaper than from Hong Kong. Average fares to say Sydney from Bangkok or Singapore are, very roughly as it depends on airline, time of year, availability etc, roughly USD 500-600 return. You probably will need to book this in advance if you are using the Asia point simply to get another flight. Try www.airfares.com.sg

Bill

<BR>Which FF program, Joe? I assume that you are getting coach awards?

Joe

Craigy - we especially want to see the Great Barrier Reef, but would also include Sydney. The rest is undecided at this point. I had thought that Indonesia would be the cheapest because it would be the closest, but fares were coming up $800+. <BR><BR>Bill - Would be going business class on a Delta partner (95k miles each ticket). It takes 150k miles for Australia. The purchased tickets to Australia would be economy. I think we can tolerate it for that distance.<BR><BR>

Bill

<BR>Depending on where you are coming from, you would likely to be adding several hours to your flying time each way.<BR><BR>Nonstops one-way:<BR>Hong Kong - SYD is 9+ hours<BR>Kuala Lumpur-SYD is 7 hours<BR>Singapore - SYD is 7+ hours<BR><BR>The total travel time that you are looking at might be the same as a coach flight straight to Australia, but you will be paying $1000 or more for the two of you in addition to the award. Maybe Delta FF has a buy one get one free award?<BR>

Bill

<BR>Coach from LAX is only !! 14 hours or so. Tolerable considering the FF miles savings?

Joe

Bill - Coming from Florida so that's another 5 or so hours to LAX if can get a non-stop. I would rather not fly that many hours in coach. Besides we would stop for a few days wherever in Asia before heading down to Australia.

Bill

I understand. Hong Kong might be a good place for your purposes, since I understand that it's a 4/5 day vacation destination city (like two days before and two days after your Aussie trip, or 4 days together).<BR><BR>I see that you can get to Hawaii for 60K miles, first class. But HNL-SYD is 10+ hours (I was surprised to see) and more expensive (not surprised) than your other options.<BR><BR>Good luck.

Joe

Bill - Thanks for your help.<BR><BR>Craigy - looked at the website you suggested and found that they have better fares than I was getting from the US based websites. Thanks.

Craigy

Joe, they are Singapore based, I always use them. Roughly a return ticket Economy from Singapore is Sin$650-900, about USD 400-550.<BR>Ok, now I knw where you are comming from. Try and get as far as Singapore. www.airfares.com.sg are uite reliable. But if you are traveling around Australia some important pointers.<BR>First there are just 2 airlines within Australia, Qantas and Virgin Blue. Virgin Blue are a 'Southwest' type operator, since they arrived on the scene Qantas has reduced greatly their domestic fares, but the distances are substantal so you need to get as much value as you can. <BR>Qantas do a fare from Singapore ( available from those same guys ) that would give you a couple of domestic sectors, so you could do Singapore-Cairns(for Barrier Reef )-Brisbane-Sydney-Singapore.<BR>That would probably be the best ticket deal.<BR>Singapore Airlines will let you fly into one city and come back from another, so you could fly with them to Cairns and say return from Sydney, they get domestic tickets between the points.<BR>You need to work out the best deal.<BR>You 'have to' either have aticket includeing the domestic sectors OR use Virgin Blue's cheap fares or the 'Red specials' that are special fare offers on Qantas, trust me, a normal Economy fare even for a 1hr 30 minute flight in Australia could cost several hundred USD each, one way!<BR><BR><BR>www.virginblue.com.au<BR><BR>www.q antas.com<BR><BR>I'd have a good look arounf airfares.com.sg to see their packaged fares to Australia.<BR><BR>Cairns is a simply lovely coastal town with lots of small beaches to the north, they have boats and small places across to the Barrier reef islands. It's a 2.5 hr flight south from there to Brisbane.

Craigy

Joe, they are Singapore based, I always use them. Roughly a return ticket Economy from Singapore is Sin$650-900, about USD 400-550.<BR>Ok, now I knw where you are comming from. Try and get as far as Singapore. www.airfares.com.sg are uite reliable. But if you are traveling around Australia some important pointers.<BR>First there are just 2 airlines within Australia, Qantas and Virgin Blue. Virgin Blue are a 'Southwest' type operator, since they arrived on the scene Qantas has reduced greatly their domestic fares, but the distances are substantal so you need to get as much value as you can. <BR>Qantas do a fare from Singapore ( available from those same guys ) that would give you a couple of domestic sectors, so you could do Singapore-Cairns(for Barrier Reef )-Brisbane-Sydney-Singapore.<BR>That would probably be the best ticket deal.<BR>Singapore Airlines will let you fly into one city and come back from another, so you could fly with them to Cairns and say return from Sydney, they get domestic tickets between the points.<BR>You need to work out the best deal.<BR>You 'have to' either have aticket includeing the domestic sectors OR use Virgin Blue's cheap fares or the 'Red specials' that are special fare offers on Qantas, trust me, a normal Economy fare even for a 1hr 30 minute flight in Australia could cost several hundred USD each, one way!<BR><BR><BR>www.virginblue.com.au<BR><BR>www.q antas.com<BR><BR>I'd have a good look arounf airfares.com.sg to see their packaged fares to Australia.<BR><BR>Cairns is a simply lovely coastal town with lots of small beaches to the north, they have boats and small planes across to the Barrier reef islands. It's a 2.5 hr flight south from there to Brisbane.

Joe

Thanks Craigy. Singapore Airlines is a partner with Delta, so I can easily get to Singapore.