Internal Flights
 

Now that we are heading to Sydney in November, we are planning to fly up to Cairns and than to Melbourne or Adelaide. After reading other comments on flying within Australia, should we book our flights before or should we wait to book when we get to Australia? Not very easy to find out information on the air passes from either Qantas or Ansett!!!!

I was wondering the same thing when planning my trip to Australia this spring. But when I was booking our flights from the US to Sydney (and thinking I would do the internal stuff later), the girl on the phone asked me if I was going to do any internal stuff, and then she included in my orignal ticket for free. By this I mean she did a round-trip to Cairns, with a week stop-over in Sydney on the way there. I was very impressed, and thankful, there were five of us and the internal flights were going to get expensive fast. She even told me we could have done it with two stop-overs, up to like 99 days. If you haven't booked your US-OZ tickets, yet you might want to ask if anything like this can be done.

G'day John,what Anna suggested sounds like a great way to go,but if you can't do that you might like to try Virgin Airlines when you get here as they are very cheap,sort of a no frills airline,ie no meals...but if you're flying for about 1 hour who needs to eat?

Anna- <BR>Which airline was this through? That sounds great!

The best way to book internal travel is through the qantas web site. <BR> <BR>They have Web Hot Specials which can only be accessed through the web, and are usually 60 - 70% cheaper than what you can get through a travel agent or even over the phone to the airline directly. check out www.qantas.com.au

John, <BR>The companies we sites both have their internet deals; <BR> <BR>www.qantas.com.au ; select red-e-deals <BR>www.ansett.com.au ; select websaver fares <BR> <BR>Anna raises a good point, we are from scotland and when we booked our international flight we received two internal flights for GBP£40 each, that was for the two of us, which is very cheap. <BR>I think this was only available on certain British Airways fares though. <BR> <BR>If I were in your shoes, I would check prices first. If you are absolutley certain on the date you wish to travel, book them now otherwise wait till you get there. You will have to be a little flexible though to get the cheapest seats i.e flying on the red eye(5am) or travelling from a smaller airport. <BR>

<BR>Yes -- Qantas will often throw in some free internal flights if you book them at the same time as your "big ticket" and don't go to the same place twice, e.g.: fly into Sydney, up to Brisbane, up to Cairns, out of Cairns. <BR> <BR>I think they're just happy to get you to buy the big ticket all the way to Oz.

After weeks of reading, emails, calls and suggestions, finally booked a flight from Adelaide to Sydney on Virgin Blue for $205.48 AUD (2 adults), not a bad price but not refundable. On the segments from Sydney to Cairns and Cairnes to Adelaide I used the G'day Pass from Ansett - $160 USD per flight, refundable per agent plus I have a reservation. If I find a better price when we get to OZ, I'll just make the changes. Any other comments!!!

Well John! Qantas and Ansett are the only plane carriers serves Cairns. You would have to deal with them directly for that travel. Book your air flights in advance before arriving there. VirginBlue is the low cost alternative traveling Victoria, NSW, and parts of Queenland. Basically just book for your flights and your accomodation. Once arrive at your destination. There are lots and lots of tour companies to choose from. Everywhere in Cairns. =)