We are planning an Australia trip with very flexible departure dates - the end of September or early October. I've spent many frustrating ours with glitchy web sites and conflicting information. Any ideas where we will find the best deals?

That's our spring and usually shoulder season in terms of flight costs. Sign up to the Qantas website for notification of their deals. They sometimes have real bargains from the US, particularly via Asia (a friend in SF got a return fare to HK for $US 800 very recently.

Generally, there aren't enough airlines doing the route from US to Australia for it to be consistently cheap.

Virgin Australia will most likely be the cheapest (it's the no frills budget airline along with Jetstar)--currently it lists $US 1,400 as the fare.

http://www.virginaustralia.com/us/en...y=LAX&dest=SYD

Do you know about www.iatasoftware.com? It will show you fares from most airlines for a whole month. You can't book on that site but can then go to the specific airline's website for your booking. (Always the best way IMHO).

The only 'glitch' I've encountered is that for some reason Cathay Pacific fares always show as several thousand dollars more than others , but in fact can be the cheapest.

Virgin airlines is a full service airline and not a no frills low budget one like Jetstar. The airlines that fly from Lax to Australia are Qantas, virgin, United and air New Zealand . As well as suggestions already given look at jetabroad that compares fares

Try SkyScanner, they usually come up with the best deals.



http://www.skyscanner.com.au/

Thank you everyone. Plenty of things to try there. I've searched Virgin Australia quite a bit but have run into problems with a web site that seems to occasional random glitches.
Thanks again