Australia Travel Forum

Hi! Are there any budget dosmetic airlines in Australia? thanks.

Virgin Blue and Jet star are two budget domestic airlines of australia.
Hope this helps,
Vpas

Some websites for you:

Virgin Blue: www.virginblue.com.au

Jetstar: www.jetstar.com
Jetstar are a branch of Qantas airlines.

Rex Airlines: www.rex.com.au
Rex stands for Reginal Express and travels to some of the more remote areas.
They are good for a short flight. The most budget out of the three.

Tiger Air are very cheap......but one problem is all routes sre from Melbourne.

ie: Perth to Darwin you have to go via Melbourne. Same with Sydney and so on.

Cheers
Col & Sue

If you are flying Tiger Airway make sure you get to the airport 2 hours before departure. The line is long and slow and 40 mins before departure they'll tell those still waiting in line they don't make the flight.

Alhough they are a full serice carrier, the advance purchase fares with QANTAS can be similar price to the so-called budget carriers. Last year I went Melbourne to Perth with Virgin (4 hour flight) and it was $50 cheaper tham QANTAS - long flight so 1 snack meal and 2 coffees used up about $20 of the savings. Coming back to Melb QANTAS was the same price as Virgin, BUT I had a full meal including a beer, later on an ice cream and another coffee and the whole time was entertained with their in-flight choice of channels etc. The difference was chalk and cheese. For longer haul flights I'll never fly with Virgin again.

Hi, booking Virgin Blue online in advance will usually get you the best flight at the best price. They have a fairly good reward points system known as Velocity, you gain flight credits everytime you fly with them.
Don't forget to sign up. It's free.
http://www.virginblue.com.au

As other people have said we have VirginBlue and Jetstar as our major 'budget' airlines but I often find that if you look around the Qantas flights are just as cheap.

I often use www.flightcentre.com.au or webjet to book through and if you are flexible with times you more often end up going with Qantas. I have signed up to the Jetmail and other e newsletters and am often notified of 'bargains'. Lots of my friends get great flights even to New Zealand by being flexible with times. As a teacher I am often locked into certain travel periods.

All the best finding some great flights.

Ditto to Amanda's comment. I always look up flightcentre.com.au as they find the cheapest flights for you. Then I look up tigerairways.com.au. Hey David, when we travelled back from Darwin to Perth with Qantas we didn't get the usual free wine - and had to pay for our grog! Needless to say, I wasn't impressed - and next time, will probably stick with virgin blue.

>Hey David, when we travelled back from Darwin to Perth with Qantas we
>didn't get the usual free wine - and had to pay for our grog!

WHAT!!!!!!! Retired Supreme Court Judge Sir Murray Rivers will be told!!!!!
I'll have to get my missus to sell off her QANTAS shares in protest - second thoughts the value is down on what it was so she'd better hang on to them. I'll let you know if we have to buy grog when we do the Melb - Perth flight this weekend.

Yes, I think you'd better David! We might have to bocott Qantas....fancy paying for the grog?!! Also, the 2 stewardesses we had were old grannies.....Howard was not impressed haha.

>Also, the 2 stewardesses we had were old grannies....

LOL - we're becoming like the US airlines where if the aisles were wide enough they'd have to allow the aging hosties to keep working while on their walking frames. BTW my wife and I are grannies - LOL

Webjet do find you the cheapest flights for your destination but they also whack on about $20 for doing so.
So if the saving on the flight is not better than $20 your probably better off booking directly with the airline.

...yea David....but I can assure you that you guys are not as old as these grannys!!....oh and btw....I'm going to be a granny soon too....but I prefer to be called nanny.....
doesn't sound that old haha ;o)