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Getting a Good Flight Price


punkinlr
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DH and I are flying in/out of Melbourne. Right now flights on Qantas for Preferred Seats are trending at around $2890 per RT/ticket. Is this considered a good price to book now?

 

I know we could book economy and take our chances on getting upgraded to Preferred Seats, but I'm not sure I want to roll the dice on this one. I remember how cramped we were flying 12 hours to Germany and that was ten years ago, so I can only imagine how stiff and creaky I'd be now :p after a 15 or 16 hr flight!

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Couple of questions. Like why are you limiting yourself to Qantas? We are flying in/out of SYD, on Delta, from the east coast in PE at $1,632 pp. But we got very lucky and caught a sale.

 

When are you going? Can you adjust your flight schedule by a day or two to perhaps take advantage of a lower fare?

 

We are traveling in October and current fares for PE run about the same as you are looking at. Do you have time to wait to book? You can set up a flight alert on K*Y*K.com. That's what I did and that's how I found out about the sale. Plus the cruise line (Princess) had an air sale, with another $100 off.

 

From what I"ve read, best international pricing happens about 6-8 months before travel.

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Right now flights on Qantas for Preferred Seats are trending at around $2890 per RT/ticket. Is this considered a good price to book now?

 

I know we could book economy and take our chances on getting upgraded to Preferred Seats, but I'm not sure I want to roll the dice on this one.

What do you mean by "Preferred Seats"? If you buy an economy ticket and want a seat that you prefer (or that many people prefer) then you may have to pay a relatively small fee. It's not an upgrade.

 

Qantas has four classes on board: economy, premium economy, business and first. If you can tell us which class you're seeing that price for, we might be able to take a better guess as to whether it's a good price or not.

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we are presently looking at flights into Melbourne for November 2018. Is this through the cruise line? Prices have been way cheaper through Celebrity which is the cruise we will be taking. From a small town in PA to Mel and then from Auckland back to PA and the prices have been around 1275/person. This is flying with United and Air New Zealand.

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What do you mean by "Preferred Seats"? If you buy an economy ticket and want a seat that you prefer (or that many people prefer) then you may have to pay a relatively small fee. It's not an upgrade.

 

Qantas has four classes on board: economy, premium economy, business and first. If you can tell us which class you're seeing that price for, we might be able to take a better guess as to whether it's a good price or not.

 

 

My bad, yes, Premium Economy. We're going last week of March/1st week of April. Days are flexible, but I haven't found that it makes a whole lot of difference - flying weekdays that is. Qantas was chosen based on the thumbs up given by my friends who have flown to Australia and New Zealand - and for their safety record.

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From pictures I've seen, Qantas does appear to have a very nice PE product.

 

Have you checked the price for other airlines to compare? And once you have that information , only you can decide if you have a good price.

 

Just for the heck of it I used the site I mentioned above, flying from a small town in PA ( IMO the worse scenario vs flying out of PHL or Pittsburgh which should give you a better fare ) 3 28 to 4 19, and the fare you have is good. If you are flying from a major city, should do better than what I turned up.

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Premium Economy. We're going last week of March/1st week of April.
Thanks for the clarification.

 

I'm not experienced in this market, but a quick look suggests that the price you see is pretty much par for the course around then. Most prices I'm getting via published fares are just over $3,000. It seems quite steep at face value, considering that I can get a business class round-trip from Europe to Australia for a little over £2,000, which is in the same order of magnitude. But if $3,000 is the going rate for PE in that market, then that's what it is.

 

I would say, though, that hoping to be upgraded from economy to PE is not really a strategy for this. The economy cabin is numerically the largest, and so your chances of an operational upgrade are pretty slim to begin with just as a matter of pure numbers - and that's if the airline even needs to do any on your flight. The odds of a free PE to business class upgrade are better, simply because PE is numerically a smaller cabin.

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It seems quite steep at face value, considering that I can get a business class round-trip from Europe to Australia for a little over £2,000, which is in the same order of magnitude. But if $3,000 is the going rate for PE in that market, then that's what it is.

 

You're just fortunate that you're based in London which is one of the cheaper places for long haul flights, thanks to all the competition.

 

Alternatively you could compare pricing for the very same flights, but in the other direction. Prices from MEL-PHL on the same dates as above on Qantas in PE are $6628, or about US$5000.

 

Yep, over US$2000 more for the same thing. :rolleyes:

 

Agree with others that the price seems 'realistic.' You can never be sure when some sort of bargain sale unexpectedly happens. But Qantas have a good inflight PE so their service is in relative demand, the timing is good and competitive pressures on the US route are fairly stable. It's not paying over the odds.

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You're just fortunate that you're based in London which is one of the cheaper places for long haul flights, thanks to all the competition.
On the contrary, that sort of trip starting in London would be more than double that figure! Prices from London are very often higher (and very often much higher) than from many other European cities, despite the competition.

 

But that's why I stressed market knowledge - you have to know what you are dealing with.

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You might try booking your trip as 2 separate tickets. We usually fly out of Nashville or Louisville and we found that fares from LAX or SEA were >$2000 lower /pp on Qantas or Virgin Australia (in business going into Perth and return from Auckland) than they were flying from our home airports. We decided to book the home to LA on an inexpensive economy ticket and spend a night there and book the long haul in business and we still saved about $1500/pp.

now I know booking 2 tickets carries some risk but since we have 24 hours between flights I think we should be ok and it will help break up the trip a bit.

You might look and see if flying from LA, San Francisco or Seattle in PE would save enough to make booking Little Rock to the west coast on a separate ticket worth your effort.

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You might try booking your trip as 2 separate tickets. We usually fly out of Nashville or Louisville and we found that fares from LAX or SEA were >$2000 lower /pp on Qantas or Virgin Australia (in business going into Perth and return from Auckland) than they were flying from our home airports. We decided to book the home to LA on an inexpensive economy ticket and spend a night there and book the long haul in business and we still saved about $1500/pp.

now I know booking 2 tickets carries some risk but since we have 24 hours between flights I think we should be ok and it will help break up the trip a bit.

You might look and see if flying from LA, San Francisco or Seattle in PE would save enough to make booking Little Rock to the west coast on a separate ticket worth your effort.

 

I'm planning on using airline miles to pay for the domestic flight from LR to LAX, or SanFran. The Qantas flight prices for PE are just about the same. Flying out of Little Rock adds not only more out of pocket $$, but it makes the flight times even longer.

 

When I originally looked at the PE flights, they were about $400 less than they are now. I guess it's always a gamble as to when to book flights. The old days of "Tuesdays after midnight" don't matter any more.

 

There aren't many PE seats on the flights, so I might as well bite the bullet, get the tickets, and then never look at the flight prices again;)

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You might try booking your trip as 2 separate tickets.

 

To me the biggest issue with this is having to go through security again ... probably our least favorite thing to do ... and that is with TSA precheck

 

I hear you! It will mean a second pre-chck We're TSA pre-ck too, and sometimes the line is short... and sometimes not. I anticipate LAX and SF to have long ones. I just can't fathom doing an 19+ hr flight day with multiple stops. Now, if I were 25 again.... maybe;p.

 

Our plan is have a separate booking and a day ahead of the long flight . I know staying in a hotel is factoring in another cost. DH is a retired Army 1st Sargent and because of (or in spite of) this, he is a somewhat anxious traveler. When we cruise, he doesn't relax until the bags are in our cabin and unpacked! So hopefully the plan will afford us a buffer if there are any airline issues, plus give us a good chance to be a bit rested before the real journey begins.

 

At least now I've convinced him that even if our bags never show up, at our age as long as we have our meds, we can replace anything else. That's what credit cards are for :p.

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You might try booking your trip as 2 separate tickets.
To me the biggest issue with this is having to go through security again ... probably our least favorite thing to do ... and that is with TSA precheck
The bigger issue with this is actually misconnecting. If your first flight is so late that you miss your second flight, and if you have two separate tickets, then you may find that you simply have to buy a brand new ticket to replace the one that's just vanished.

 

Compared to that, the minor hassle of another security screening is trivial.

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The bigger issue with this is actually misconnecting. If your first flight is so late that you miss your second flight, and if you have two separate tickets, then you may find that you simply have to buy a brand new ticket to replace the one that's just vanished.

 

Compared to that, the minor hassle of another security screening is trivial.

 

True but the comment was booking the separate tickets a day apart. So the misconnect shouldn't be an issue.

 

We've thought about doing it just to break up a long flight. But the idea of getting our luggage, schlepping it to the hotel (and we pack light), then back to the airport the next day ,etc etc etc was not appealing.

 

We prefer getting it all over with. We actually end up with a long flight 'day' because we pick itineraries with a couple of hours between flights. Less concern about missing a flight if one is late, and time to stretch our legs.

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Despite the horror stories of LAX - putting the Third into Los Angeles World Airports - if your flight to Oz departs from Tom Bradley (international) terminal late at night, the queues for TSA aren't too bad (comparatively speaking). Also, depending on which terminal you fly into, there's no guarantee of an airside transfer, so you'd need to clear security again anyway (see comment about 3rd world)

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Despite the horror stories of LAX - putting the Third into Los Angeles World Airports - if your flight to Oz departs from Tom Bradley (international) terminal late at night, the queues for TSA aren't too bad (comparatively speaking). Also, depending on which terminal you fly into, there's no guarantee of an airside transfer, so you'd need to clear security again anyway (see comment about 3rd world)

 

Oh gee :eek:

 

We are flying in on AA and out on Cathay Pacific.

 

Going to have to check this out. But at least we won't have to schlep luggage.

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We are flying in on AA and out on Cathay Pacific.
I'm not an LAX expert, but I think you're OK with this. AA will arrive at 4 or 5, AIUI, and CX will depart from TBIT. There are airside connectors between 5 and 4, and between 4 and TBIT.
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  • 2 weeks later...
True but the comment was booking the separate tickets a day apart. So the misconnect shouldn't be an issue.

 

We've thought about doing it just to break up a long flight. But the idea of getting our luggage, schlepping it to the hotel (and we pack light), then back to the airport the next day ,etc etc etc was not appealing.

 

We prefer getting it all over with. We actually end up with a long flight 'day' because we pick itineraries with a couple of hours between flights. Less concern about missing a flight if one is late, and time to stretch our legs.

 

I am with you on not wanting to schlep to the hotel, and from the hotel, and doing security twice. Also TSA Precheck, but I don't believe that applies to international flights. UGH.

 

Doing Sydney to Singapore cruise, and really not happy with the flights I am finding. I am surprised there are no direct flights from Singapore to LA that would allow us to connect in LA to Tampa. And getting TO Sydney - again, the options seem limited. Most of my miles are on jetBlue, and that won;t work. Seems we will need a few days in SYD to recuperate from flight (over 70 yrs old), but we want to see so much in SYD. Been to Singapore before and want to just fly right home - but the flights are early AM, too early to disembark ship, or around 1 AM, which means killing a whole day in Singapore. Planning for this one is not easy.

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I am with you on not wanting to schlep to the hotel, and from the hotel, and doing security twice. Also TSA Precheck, but I don't believe that applies to international flights. UGH.

 

Doing Sydney to Singapore cruise, and really not happy with the flights I am finding. I am surprised there are no direct flights from Singapore to LA that would allow us to connect in LA to Tampa. And getting TO Sydney - again, the options seem limited. Most of my miles are on jetBlue, and that won;t work. Seems we will need a few days in SYD to recuperate from flight (over 70 yrs old), but we want to see so much in SYD. Been to Singapore before and want to just fly right home - but the flights are early AM, too early to disembark ship, or around 1 AM, which means killing a whole day in Singapore. Planning for this one is not easy.

 

On past consideration of a trip that meant flying home from SIN I was also amazed that the majority of options had us changing planes in Asia unless I wanted to spend a small fortune.

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On past consideration of a trip that meant flying home from SIN I was also amazed that the majority of options had us changing planes in Asia unless I wanted to spend a small fortune.

 

Last time we flew out of SIN we changed planes in TOkyo, and then direct to LA. I am not seeing that option when I search now.

 

We just returned from Europe, and we ended up flying into JFK and spending a day in NY. I hink I'll have to consider doing the same for this itinerary.

 

P.S. Just went to your blog. Enjoying your travels. I did notice that you were not thrilled with SW FLorida. That's because you didn't go far enough north - to Sarasota. BEAUTIFUL! I wish I had the patience to write something like that. I have many hundreds of pictures, and as I take a shot, I usually have a story in my head for the shot - but it never gets out of my head.

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Last time we flew out of SIN we changed planes in TOkyo, and then direct to LA. I am not seeing that option when I search now.

 

We just returned from Europe, and we ended up flying into JFK and spending a day in NY. I hink I'll have to consider doing the same for this itinerary.

 

P.S. Just went to your blog. Enjoying your travels. I did notice that you were not thrilled with SW FLorida. That's because you didn't go far enough north - to Sarasota. BEAUTIFUL! I wish I had the patience to write something like that. I have many hundreds of pictures, and as I take a shot, I usually have a story in my head for the shot - but it never gets out of my head.

 

Are you using a site like kayak.com to search for your air?

 

Thanks for the nice words about my blog. Wish i had more time to keep it updated.

 

Have passed through Sarasota but not spent much time there. Will have to check it out next time we get to that area. :)

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Enjoying this thread. I too am considering Australia New Zealand cruise March 30th of Ovation. Looking at this airfare for business class on delta....its steep my friends. 2 people from Fort Lauderdale is 13k. And this is leaving and returning on a tuesday. The supposed cheapest day of the week. Not sure I can wait to cyber monday to book airfare on this one.

 

Todd

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Enjoying this thread. I too am considering Australia New Zealand cruise March 30th of Ovation. Looking at this airfare for business class on delta....its steep my friends. 2 people from Fort Lauderdale is 13k. And this is leaving and returning on a tuesday. The supposed cheapest day of the week. Not sure I can wait to cyber monday to book airfare on this one.

 

Todd

 

It is really crazy playing the airline ticket booking game! Driving me crazy.....

 

As I've been researching flights, best days, etc, it seems like there really aren't any cheapest days/times anymore. The airlines apparently will run specials here and there, and you just have be at the right sight on the right day at the right time.... which I usually am not :p.

 

We're actually rethinking the whole flying in the day before thing. Having to check out of the hotel at 11:00, then sitting in the airport for eleven hours just doesn't seem like a ton of fun. Plus the cost of the hotels being as they are, it sounds like a waste of good money.

 

If we can find a flight that would get us from LR to LAX late afternoon without me getting too nervous in case there's a delay, that might be the better call. Arriving back to LAX at 0600, we will surely fly back home the same day.

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