Miami to Australia

[pl281]

Hello everyone - I already posted this on the Australia board, but was recommended to post here.

 

I'm in South Florida and looking into a December 2020 Cruise out of Melbourne  or Sydney. I can't book air for about another 8 months (assuming I do this)

 

Sydney fares seem to be much more than the Melbourne at least for this year

In looking at fares for this year i'm seeing 12k+ for business (where available) but in the 6k-8k range for flights in april/may (furthest out you can book right now) 

 

I was wondering what others have seen booking as soon as the flights open for business class.

 

Thanks

[Globaliser]

Booking as soon as flights open is not something that will assure you that you will see the cheapest fares. In fact, on many airlines you can be reasonably assured that you will not see the cheapest fares if you book at that time.

 

I don't know any details about the Florida to Australia market; but as a generality, for reasons that are not difficult to understand it's often much cheaper to travel to Australia during the winter than it is to travel not only during summer but during the time when people travel there for Christmas/New Year. That could be one reason why you are seeing such low fares for April/May; from the UK, the cheapest travel period to Australia is usually for outbound travel during a period from about mid-April to late June.

 

If you'd posted your Melbourne/Sydney observation on the Australia/New Zealand forum, I would have posted that the disparity is because Sydney is a vastly superior city to Melbourne. But as the Cruise Air forum regulars probably wouldn't rise to the bait (if they even understand it), I'll leave that one alone. 

[waterbug123]

14 hours ago, pl281 said:

Sydney fares seem to be much more than the Melbourne at least for this year

In looking at fares for this year i'm seeing 12k+ for business (where available) but in the 6k-8k range for flights in april/may (furthest out you can book right now) 

 

 

 

Just a note in general about high fares to Australia... flights to Australia are very long and someone that might figure they can suck it up in coach to fly across the US or to Europe might well say no way to flying coach to Australia.  For that reason, business is often in higher demand that many other international itineraries and high demand means you can expect higher prices.  Even elite level frequent flyers who often have hundreds of thousands of miles to blow and/or other means to upgrade inexpensively (free upgrade certificates) due to their airlines status, often bemoan the number of miles needed to avoid paying cash, and the lack of upgrade inventory available to use the aforementioned upgrade certificates.

[The Other Tom]

As an alternate, consider flying to Hawaii, spending a few days, then on to Australia.

[Voelfgar]

Have you looked at what costs will be for Dec 2019 using corresponding dates to your plans in 2020. That would be a good indicator of what to expect in 2020.

[pl281]

Yes I have. The issue is most of the business class flights are sold out already so I can’t get an idea of the pricing. Also the coach chairs that are left many of them are the fully refundable so they’re much more expensive.

[Gardyloo]

Using ITA I can see plenty of fares for this December, most in the $7K+ range.  December is the peak travel period for travel originating in Australia and NZ, because it's during the summer school holidays as well as Christmas and New Years.  There's no reason to believe they're going to be any cheaper for next year.  And thinking you're going to get some kind of "early bird" discount is seldom the case with airline tickets, and especially with business class fares.  Early birds get cats as well as worms, too.

 

Personally with those prices and that travel period, if it were me I'd be looking at some alternative schemes, such as "Circle Pacific" or round-the-world tickets.  You might want to review a thread I did a few days ago on this subject - https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2664295-about-round-the-world-air-tickets/ 

 

These are good for a year from the time of purchase, so you could buy the ticket this winter, use it for travel throughout 2020, then finish it with your cruise at the end of the year.  For example, you could buy a RTW ticket someplace in Europe or the Middle East, use it to fly home (as a stopover) and fly around North America during 2020.  Maybe an Alaska cruise, or one out of LA?  Then use it to fly to Australia for the cruise, then back to Europe to finish the RTW after the cruise.  Depending on where you begin and end the trip, the price could be comparable with just the round trip from Miami (at those prices) but you'd have a lot more travel available using the RTW ticket.