Hi all - first time posting on this forum - as first time thought about travelling to Australia.

We have friends in Perth and will be travelling from Manchester, England. We have thought about Feb/March 2009. Would love to stopover in SE Asia not Middle East.

First searches come up with £1100 per ticket economy - anyone any thoughts or ideas aimed at getting the price down. Would like to avoid booking last minute.

Thanks in anticipation.

I don't think booking last minute will help you much, although it is still quite early, maybe Aug/Sept could be a better time to book as some airlines may not have released their Feb/March fares.

What you can also do, is use a website such as www.traveljungle.co.uk and put in the dates and it will trawl a number of websites, to try to find the best price for you.

Another, is to get the Sunday Times and in the travel section they have heaps of adverts from consolidators, give them a try.

I did a quick check for March and I could get 3 tickets with Singapore Airlines for 2800 GBP including taxes, through www.ebookers.co.uk

Geordie

Hi there,

Have you thought of checking out the low cost airlines that service the region and just buying a ticket ex UK to one of the hubs - Bangkok, KL or Singapore?

For instance if you're in Manchester one obvious airline to fly with would be Malaysian. Then Air Asia fly direct to Perth from Kuala Lumpur at prices c. 90-100 gbp one way (assuming I've done the currency calcs correctly!) As they are a no-frills airline, you'd need to add on 10 quid for a checked in 20kg bag, and c. 4quid for food.

Tiger have one way fares c.75quid one way ex Singapore. There's also Jetstar but their flights to Perth from BKK go via Melbourne which is a lot of extra flying.

It might not save you anything, BUT if you are thinking of a stopover in SE Asia (and maybe a trip to Sydney while you are here) you could put together a useful itinerary using a combination of the options.

www.airasia.com
www.jetstar.com
www.tigerairways.com

Also check out all the places you could take a side trip too - Penang, Langkawi, Siem Reap, Kuching, etc. etc.

Cheers.

Thanks afterall - that is exactly the local knowledge I was looking for - I can recount and relive low-cost exploits around Europe -

I hadn't even thought of that approach for this trip - any thoughts on safety/personal experience - is 9 hours low cost doable?

Geordie - thanks I will try someone like trailfinders - not sure if they still do round the world tickets might consider that.

Anymore ideas anyone?

Trailfinders are great (and do not charge credit card surcharge) but would also check out Travelmood.com. I would also ring them both as i just booked a ticket to BKK and the fare i got wasn't advertised on the web pages. Have you considered flying from London? could work out cheaper.
I personally would want to get to Australia as quickly and direct as possible as its (obviously) a VERY long way. We went LHR to Syd last Christmas and i booked 11 months in advance (but then Christmas is a hugely busy time)
I would also look out for specials on the virgin Atlantic website.

Also try travelsupermarket.com they are fantastic at comparing (but they do not always encapsulate everyone, so try others too)

Re nine hours on a budget carrier. I can only speak for Jetstar with whom I flew last Nov from Sydney to HCMC. Perfectly safe. It was a brand new plane; lots of legroom. And those are the really important things when push comes to shove, so nothing at all to complain about. You don't get seat-back TV (pay extra for a personal viewer); you don't get food, but in all other respects it was a professionally run operation. I'd be really surprised if Airasia and Tiger weren't on a par.

Trailfinders have moved upmarked as far as I can see since they first started out. Best long haul I ever got was through Bridge the World.

Don't know if they are still good, but here's a link: http://bridgetheworld.co.uk

Cheers.

We bought our RTW tickets from Trailfinders who had both the best price and great service (after a LOT of research) STA Travel also came up with a v. good price. As for the budget airlines, we used them a few times in SEA and found them to be great, certainly a lot better than Qantas who were universally rubbish on the 5 flights we took with them (only one flight left less than 3 hours late).

You are going at teh most expensive time of the year and IMO you would be better booking as soon as poss to get the best price.

For my upcoming trip from Australia to the US I've used an Australian airfare consolidation website called Best Flights. You don't need to be Australian to purchase from them and they sell airfares originating from outside Australia and even full international flights (ie I booked all my US inter-city flights as well as my international flight with them).

I just looked at their "worldwide departures" section and they are offering return fares from London to Perth on Malaysian for GBP469 + taxes of GBP209 (or similar) in March. You can stopover in Kuala Lumpur in either direction.

http://www.bestflights.com.au/cgi-bi...indetails=3074

Bookmarking - thanks Speckles, that's a great link. I always learn something on here

I've just returned from my fourth trip booked through Best Flights (3 to Europe all using different routings and one RTW). So another vote for them. They not only have excellent fares but they have INTERESTING fares. And their service is pretty good too.