triptaker

We will be flying into Sydney in October and then going to Tasmania for a few days. My question is, can I purchase tickets from Sydney to Hobart on either of the above airlines websites. I know that sounds like a stupid questions, but sometimes they require you to have an Australian address to do so.

Also, we will be arriving at 6:05am in Sydney from the US, is 3 hours long enough to go through customs and get to the domestic terminal.

Is one better than the other, and they are much less expensive than Quantas. Thanks for your replies.

margo_oz

As far as I know, you shouldn't have any problems booking Australian flights while in the US - I booked on Qantas the other day, and wasn't asked for address. I understand there is a problem in NZ, though

Barbara_in_CT

With both airlines you get e-tickets. Jetstar operates very much like Southwest in that you don't get an assigned seat but a boarding priority so it pays to arrive early. Virgin Blue assigns seats. My experience with both airlines last month went without a hitch.

Barbara

triptaker

Well I went to webjet.com, one site that was recommended on this board. I always make reservations on line, but this was a disaster. It appeared that I had a duplicate reservation in my file, but finally this morning I find out that I have only the return from Tasmania.....of course they charge me the fee like it would have been for the round trip.........It is $17 AU, and now they say to try again. I hope they do not charge me the $17 fee again. Thanks for the responses.

triptaker

Would not recommend webjet to make reservations. They did cancel my duplicate one because their site had a problem, however, they said I still needed to make the Sydney/Hobart flight because it did not go through. So I did. Now I have two sets of tickets on the first flight, and one on the second. They are not very easy to deal with, and fortunatly I put it on AMEX.

Orlando_Vic

Three hours should be plenty of time to clear customs.

Yes, you can purchase e-tickets from their websites. Our experience with both was positive. However, time permitting, wait for one of their sales and then pounce on those low prices immediately. You can get on their e-mail listing of sales and be among the first to know.

One word of caution: both are very strict about domestic baggage weight limits and will charge you if you are over the limit.

RonH

Virgin Airlines Australian website runs a "happy hour" sale every day from 12.00 midday to 1.00pm (Sydney -Australia time) Each day different flights are on offer - sometimes at exceptionally cheap prices. At the moment the sale prices are for flights up to August 31st, but this date will extend out as time goes on
Don't know aht the time difference is in your part of the world but you might want to keep an eye on this.
No trouble booking on line with either airline - as someone else said they are E-ticket carriers so you just turn up at checkin with photo id.
My personal preference is for Virgin - at least you get a seat allocation at check in!!
Yes they are generally less expensive than Qantas - bearing in mind of course that JetStar is a Qantas owned Company. In fact Qantas has dropped out of many routes, using "JetStar" its cheaper subsidiary to service these. Not sure if that's the case with Sydney - Hobart (or Sydney Launceston).
3 hours should be ample time - although Sydney can be busy at that hour in the morning because the no flight curfew which applies until 6:00am is not long over and many long haul carriers tend to time their arrival for that hour of the day.
Getting between terminals is striaght forward by bus - details of which are ususally explained just prior to arrival