Our trips are usually to Europe, but we have talked of going to Australia & New Zealand. I have been checking airfares of several companies and am getting discouraged about the costs! We are planning to travel in the fall, and with all the internal fares to get from point to point, it really adds up! It seems that Quantas will not have the stopover in Auckland at that time. Also, the Aussie pass may not be in effect. Any ideas for making this trip possible? Thanks!

By fall, I assume you mean Southern Hemisphere spring, so Sept, Oct, Nov?

Airfare is only part of it, costs in AUS and NZ can be quite intimidating, so you might want to look at that end of things too.

Specifically which areas are you considering? Do you have any miles with a frequent flyer program? Air NZ partners with Star Alliance for example.

You don't say where you are travelling from, but I assume it is North America. I've travelled Toronto to Australia 4 times and have found that departure before Sept. 21 is usually cheapest; then there is another jump in fares in early December. Qantas tends to have the best fares early on, and then closer to the travel dates other airlines' prices fall more in line. I tend to book 3-5 months in advance. Of course the number of destinations will make a difference. You might also try Virgin Air for flights within Australia, though usually if you book all destinations on a single ticket you get the best deal. Also, if you are flying on an international ticket with Qantas you will get the same baggage allowance on domestic flights. If you book separately you will be hit with fees for your second checked bag.

A couple of extra costs to be aware of: Qantas charges for seat selection on international legs--i think it is $20 each way. in Canada, if you book your flights yourself online you then can get an electronic visa on the official Aussie website for a $20 admin fee. If a travel agent does your booking, the visa should be provided free of charge. It might be different for US citizens. Small amounts, but they add up.

Here's a link often recommended on this site:

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

It allows you to compare fares for a host of airlines for a whole month. It doesn't sell tickets; you have to book directly with the airline or through another supplier. I don't know if you can use it to price multi destination trips but you can certainly get a good sense of pricing trends by checking it often.

Can't help you with NZ as I've never been there, but generally what posters here tend to say is that unless you have lots of time, choose one country or the other and don't try to do see it all.

Have fun with your planning.

Thanks for your replies! We are planning to go in September for about 5 weeks. We are thinking to doing Sydney, Great Barrier Reef, Melbourne and maybe one other place in Australia, probably not Ayers Rock. I am thinking we might spend half the time in each country.

We do live in the USA, in Arkansas. I have enough frequent flyer miles to get from here to Los Angeles, so I would buy tickets from there to Australia. I guess the thought of about $2,000 per person for the international flights plus the internal flights, is causing me some "sticker shock"!

Hi, if it might be of help, you can check out with Pan Australian Travel they might be able to get you some good deals that is tailor fit with your budget. They I would say would be the best local Melbourne travel agents that could give you a hand with planning your trip to Australia.

Cheers!

Yep, $2,000 plus is what it costs. (Probably wouldn't be much more if you go from your home airport without the FF miles.) I agree with Benjamin_Gray that it is worth consulting a knowledgable travel agent , though you may have to go with someone local to you for the airfares.

5 weeks is enough time a to see a good sampling of both countries, I would think. Once you narrow down your possible destinations a bit, let us know more about your interests and you'll get lots of suggestions for each locale.

Greetings. You might try it as two different tickets. Example: you use Air NZ to fly open jaw to Australia, e.g.

LAX-ZQN-SYD returning MEL-AKL-LAX. Design your NZ itinerary around the Queenstown (ZQN) and Auckland (AKL) stopovers. I found that by not backtracking, and keeping travel in one direction on both the outbound and return portions, made for a less expensive itinerary. Go to the Air NZ and Qantas sites and play around a bit.

Your second ticket could be a multiple segment one-way ticket with Qantas, to cover the Australian internal flights, e.g. SYD-CNS(Cairns)-Somewhere else-MEL. You might find an airpass deal that might work.

When you see the distances involved, you'll actually see that flying can be quite good value.

Sue,
Thanks so much for your information! Trying to figure out the best routing for flights has been driving me crazy!

My husband said maybe we should wait to see if fuel prices go down resulting in lower costs for tickets, but I don't really want to wait until another year. We have a good reason to do stopovers in Los Angeles going and coming -- a new baby granddaughter!

I agree with whoever said that you need to take a look at daily costs if airfares are troubling to you. Australia in particular has become very expensive due to their strong dollar, and NZ isn't too far behind.

I used to go to NZ approx every other year and even with miles it has just gotten too expensive to be enjoyable. My current substitute for fabulous scenery in the Southern hemisphere is South America.

Have you considered hiring an rv to travel. They are well priced and you can free camp in most places giving you both the freedom and the reduced cost of transport.