We want to book the flight from Hamilton Island to Cairns on a specific day in October (Friday the 12th to be exact.) When I checked, all the red specials were gone and the cheapest seats were $360/per person (and that is ONE WAY--Yikes!!!) Even with the dollar exchange, that is muy expensivo for a one hour flight! Does Qantas ever put those type seats on sale or should we just suck it up and pay since we want to be in Cairns on that day? Thanks to experienced Qantas flyers for any advice. BTW, I checked webjet.com and virgin flies that route through Brisbane and it takes 10 hours--NOT. And it isn't even that much cheaper.
Sally in Seattle, wishing we had booked this earlier

Almost worth trying to change your bookings. They are $194 on Sat. 13th.!

Ouch! $360 one way! Just looked up Proserpine to Cairns, to see if that was cheaper and it's $263 and also via Brisbane.

I've never had much luck with bargains with Qantas, and I've found it hard to get reasonable deals on Fridays and particularly Sunday nights. I guess it's the weekend traffic. Can you switch days at this stage as Downunder suggests?

All flights go back to Brisbane and then on to Cairns. If you want to get a better price then go from Hamilton Island to Mackay by bus then fly to Cairns OR get to Townsville by bus or train from Proserpine and fly from there. Quite a nice way to go actually and probably not that much difference in the time factor.

Suggest you join their on-line newsletter www.qantas.com.au.
There are often specials. You might also see if their budget carrier, Jetstar flies to Hamilton Island.
www.jetstar.com.au

Thanks for the great alternative suggestions, I will see what we can come up with. Although we don't want to spend 9 hours in airports, either. The 9:00 from Hamilton Is. goes direct to Cairns, BTW, and is only an hour flight, whereas the one via Brisbane has a long layover and gets in to Cairns too late to drive to Chillagoe, our destination that day. I'll sign up for the newsletter and see what they come up with. Also call them and see what we can arrange.
Sally

Sally, it's not on topic, but I sent you a personal email to your yahoo account a few days back - can you check and see if I ended up in your spam box?

Thanks, Kelly

Kelly, I did not! Unless you are Mature Lover or 5th Grader!!LOL Could you send it again? Send to this address--swswash at yahoo The original email address is Randy's and he isn't good about sorting spam.
Sally in Seattle