Sydney Travel Forum

Hi,
Coming to Australia in Feb! Have found cheap flight on Air Pacific-anyone flown that airline? Newer planes,screens on back of seats? Also I've heard that I can book cheap flights around Australia but I have to book while still in the States-any idea what airline and how much? Want to fly to Brisbane and Melboune from Sydney.Thanks so much for your help-Darla

Don't know what it's like today, but back in 2003 Virgin Blue was the cheapest for domestic flights within OZ. You need to shop around the site a bit. They have a lot of 1/2 price specials if you choose like Tuesdays or Wednesdays and unpopular hours...

http://www.virginblue.com/

There are several other airlines with good rates, sometimes even Qantas is a good option.

Also check out:
www.jetstar.com
www.qantas.com.au

Lightyears ago, when I first travelled in Australia, there were passes for a certain amount of domestic flights on offer which indeed you had to purchase while still in your home country. You could choose the number of flights and had open dates which, of course, was great because you could decide on site when you wanted to travel, even on the same or next day if seats were available. But I have not heard of such deals for a long time. As long as you book online it does not matter where you are, and the price is not different.

You don't have to book from the States, you could book when you're in Oz and maybe even take advantage of the frequent special deals if you can be flexible with dates/times of flights. Jetstar and Virgin Blue are the two to check out for cheap fares.

You have heaps of time to get organised. My suggestion is sign up to the Jetmail (Jetstar site) and VMail (Virgin Bluesite).You will be first in line to find out about special offers and one-off crazy priced deals. These are normally for travel in future months, so when you get a notification of an offer for travel in February, book it. Its the best way of getting the cheapest price.If you leave it to the last minute, you'll pay top dollar.

I haven't flown Air Pacific. Only vaguely heard of it in fact. The best airline to fly between Australia and the USA is Air New Zealand by a mile. Anyone I know of who have flown this trip agree and we love the Air NZ planes and staff (and us Aussies don't usually admit the Kiwis are good at anything!).

Within Australian our 'budget' airlines are Jet star and Virgin. Both are ok and offer basically cheap service without the frills. They are not brilliant but you aren't paying huge prices so I guess that is what you expect.

Our national carrier Qantas is still useful when flying internally around Australia but very few of us are keen to fly overseas on it. My family and friends probably use Qantas the most when flying internally as the service is a bit better than jet star and virgin.

Also if you are flying from Western Australia to the East Coast (or vice versa) be aware that that is a 5+ hour flight. Same goes with far north to south flights they are pretty long.