Hello, travelers

After reading many posts I came to define my itinerary and the lenght of my stays in several places in Australia. Now, I am trying to buy the tickets on line but prices are really high ( around 300 to 350 dollars). Do you know about any other airlines I can check to see if I find better fares ? or should I wait until I get there this coming December to purcahse them?

the flights I need to get are

Sydney - Cairns Dec 18
Cairns- Darwin Dec 21
Darwin- Alice Springs Dec 24
Alice Springs- Sydney Dec 27

Any help will be appreciated, Thanks

There are a limited number of airlines here - your options may not be too great! This is a country the same size as mainland USA - but with only 20 million people.

Have a look at travel.com.au or webjet.com.au - they usually do comparison fares.

Darwin to Sydney - Qanas, I think, is your only option.

You are travelling in peak holiday season. Everyone (almost) travels at this time of the year and the whole country is on holidays. The fares will not get any better than they are now - and will almost certainly get more expensive closer to the date.

Do it now!

Webjet is a good site to go to also www.flightcentre.com.au is worth a look. Jetstar (a discount branch of Qantas) usually has the cheapest fares. Virgin Blue can also have some bargains especially during their Happy Hour. They all have websites of course. Flying in Australia is not cheap and we certainly don't have a Ryan Air eqivalent pricewise.

Just returned from Australia, where I booked Virgin Blue's Happy Hour fares for four internal flights. Each day from noon to 1 pm AEST VB puts selected routes on sale on selected dates at unbelievably low fares. For example, we flew from Hobart to Sydney for A$59. I booked our flights far in advance of our trip, but maybe you'll get lucky!

www.virginblue.com.au/bookings/happy_hr/

Hi Betsy

Do you know what time zone the noon to 1pm happy hour is in?

Thanks

Have you called Qantas? I recently booked a flight from Melbourne to Hobart and Hobart back to Sydney. When I told them I was flying into Australia on Qantas, they quoted me a much better rate than on the Internet. There is a separate $10 charge, but still, for $288 for both flights, I was happy. Furthermore, when I fly from Hobart to Sydney and back home, Qantas should check my bag straight through. Last year I waited three hours in line at the Sydney airport to check in.

Steve, when it's noon in Sydney (Australian Eastern Standard Time--AEST), it's 5:00 pm here in San Francisco. VB Happy Hours are displayed from noon to 1 pm AEST, so if I want to check the fares, I go to their website from 5:00 to 6:00 pm here.

I hope this answers your question. If not, post again.

Oops! I erred. I can access VB HH fares from the US West Coast from 6:00 to 7:00 pm. If you're on the US East Coast, that's 9:00 to 10:00 pm. The fares are offered seven days/week. Good luck.

As an example, here are today's VB HH fares:

* Hobart ↔ Melbourne $59
* Brisbane ↔ Mackay $65
* Sydney ↔ Coffs Coast $69
* Sunshine Coast ↔ Melbourne $89

Travel Period is in February: 01/02/07 - 28/02/07

Tomorrow the site will publish four different destinations and another travel interval. Sometimes the destinations and travel period remain the same for more than one day.

If your flying in with Qantas, they have Aussie Passes that offer cheaper internal flights.

I think it may be worth a look as Darwin and Alice Springs tend to be more expensive and are not well served by the discount airlines already mentioned

Geordie

So, OK, Betsy, where's that trip report??????