UK to Sydney prices!!

[Gareth]

Family looking to book Australia holiday in October 2023 into November 2023. Previously we have done x-eu business class for circa £2k the each but I’m struggling to find anything of value now. Even economy seats for flights with one stop are around £1400. Looking at Singapore prices do they do a sale at Christmas?

[Andrew J]

Anything going east seems very very expensive these days – economy tickets for what we used to pay in business.

[FatherOfFour]

About £3.3k with Thai from Stockholm.., or similar with Air India from Frankfurt.
I was looking for similar recently, thought I was on to something with Finnair, again starting in ARN, until I saw it was BUS light with no bags or lounge.

[JDB]

It’s worth looking at QR doing a double open jaw or at least a single open jaw returning to a different EU destination. This seems to reduce the price significantly to £3k or less which in the current market isn’t bad.

[Skywalker]

@Gareth, you don’t say what dates for October to November or for how long, so it is hard to search for you.

This is what I could find:

Circa GBP2850 Etihad FRA-AUH-SYD-AUH-FRA

[Gareth]

Skywalker wrote:

@Gareth, you don’t say what dates for October to November or for how long, so it is hard to search for you.

This is what I could find:

Circa GBP2850 Etihad FRA-AUH-SYD-AUH-FRA

Thanks – looking at 27 October departure 16 November return, into Sydney out of Brisbane.

[Skywalker]

For that type of itinerary Korean Air (FRA-SYD-BNE-FRA) is looking best, but price availability trickier because of number of passengers.

For a simple there and back (SYD) with stops in between, Etihad is coming up best from Frankfurt, Rome and Zurich, range GBP2850 to GBP3299

And for something completely different Eva Air is coming up at GBP2640 business from Munich to Brisbane return, stopping at Taipei for the dates you require.

Seems highly rated by this person

Beyond that, I’ll leave to the others 🙂

[WaynedP]

I searched myself for fabled sub £2k pp ret fares for ages. Eventually resigned myself to accept much higher prices for OH and to visit my brother and SIL for his 50th next year and took JDB’s sage advice.

Finally got QS J class OSL-DOH-BNE in May returning BNE-DOH-MXP plus BA cash CE positioning flights from LHR at either end for a shade under 6k.

That includes another year of Silver BAEC membership for minimal extra effort of one more BA metal flight.

Cost of overnight hotels in Oslo and Milan could be done cheaply on points.

Not the world’s best bargain judging by some of the folklore out there, sure, but for a once in a lifetime trip to Oz I can swallow it.

[WaynedP]

WaynedP wrote:

I searched myself for fabled sub £2k pp ret fares for ages. Eventually resigned myself to accept much higher prices for OH and to visit my brother and SIL for his 50th next year and took JDB’s sage advice.

Finally got QS J class OSL-DOH-BNE in May returning BNE-DOH-MXP plus BA cash CE positioning flights from LHR at either end for a shade under 6k.

That includes another year of Silver BAEC membership for minimal extra effort of one more BA metal flight.

Cost of overnight hotels in Oslo and Milan could be done cheaply on points.

Not the world’s best bargain judging by some of the folklore out there, sure, but for a once in a lifetime trip to Oz I can swallow it.

*QR*

[Harry T]

I wouldn’t book for next November now. Demand on that route is still very frothy. A bit more recession might knock the wind out of their sales, plus airlines usually sell tickets at their highest prices this far out as the people who buy them are willing to pay more due to being committed to certain dates.

Use Avios on QR or wait for the cash fares to calm down a bit.

AY business light isn’t an issue for people with OneWorld status.

[Gareth]

Thanks everyone for your input, I’m booking for 10 which makes it more awkward!
I think I might just hold on.
Have a lovely Christmas those celebrating

[MilesOnPoint]

Best Oneworld pricing I can find is on Sri Lankan:
FRA-CMB-MEL for £2,700 return.

That will net you 560 tier points and around 20,000 Avios for your troubles.

It’s possible to fly into Sydney for a little more, around £3,100 but you have to select QYG (Any German train station) as the departure point, but the flight still departs from Frankfurt, it just includes a rail ticket to anywhere in Germany too.

I booked the Melbourne itinerary for my folks for Easter 2023. Nb. You can position to Sydney or Brisbane cheaply with Avios on QF, once you are down in Melbourne

[k4rt1k]

Currently in Oz now. Forced to book £1800 LON-FRA-ICN (not bad but reflective of the fact that Seoul is currently -10C at the moment) then Qantas, Y, overnight (yes, the worst trifecta) for some ridiculous £1k or so given super peak fares and lack of availability on programmes eastward given world cup and high demand. Alas.

[Lady London]

Gareth wrote:

Thanks everyone for your input, I’m booking for 10 which makes it more awkward!
I think I might just hold on.
Have a lovely Christmas those celebrating

For 10, you could ask the airline (perhaps via a powerful intermediary such as your company’s corporate travel agent if they are helpful) for a price. This could well count as a group for pricing.

Also look at what happens to pricing they might quote you if you do it as a Holiday, if with BA (and some other airlines) just by adding a night at one of the airports involved.

[david2910]

I just booked Milan to Brisbane business on etihad over Easter holidays. 2.7k EUR, or 2.3k or so in GBP. I’ve been looking at prices for a month or two and this seems to be as good as it gets these days. I can’t see sub 2k happening anytime soon – esp for BNE which is a bit niche – so I finally bought. You can get this on EY website directly which is worth something in my mind too. Have a look – flights seem to be available throughout the year.

The journey connects in Sydney though which makes it bit of a schlep. 30 hours or so outbound which isn’t bad though. I bought a longer itinerary back so I can have a break between legs. On that note: does anyone have experience of EY comping overnight connections in Sydney? I’ve emailed them but doubt they’ll rely in a hurry..

[david2910]

The old 1.2k GBP qatar tickets from 2016 etc on their a380 spoilt us all…

[david2910]

The other one to look at right now is EVA out of Vienna. Again fares are available on their own site but use Google. They are one of few that fly directly (..via TPE) into BNE, and they’re supposed to be good (never flown myself). Couldn’t get the dates to work for me in Easter.

[FatherOfFour]

Anything north of 2k (ie everything!) forces us into Y!
For anyone else in that position, American seem to have some good FLEXIBLE open jaw fares via LAX using AA/BA/QF. I know many would avoid flying that way. There’s a 4-6 hour layover in LAX (depending on which BA/AA to LA you take) which should give us time to clear immigration and maybe show the kids a beach or a burger joint! In theory, we have a day flight for them to watch films and play games, give them a big dinner then hope they sleep for the 14 hours from LA to BNE!
The returns from MEL are routed either via DFW, or LAX and ORD/JFK.
The above fares are around £900 (I say around, because google is displaying the average price for 2 adults + 4 kids)
Next closest was around £1400 with China Airlines, stopping in TPE.

[Andrew J]

david2910 wrote:

The old 1.2k GBP qatar tickets from 2016 etc on their a380 spoilt us all…

And 600 tier points thrown in to the bargain.