Brisbane

[oldjonah]

I want to take 3 adults and a child to Brisbane next August for a month to see my brother.

Does anyone know a way to keep the flight costs down as so far I estimate it will be in excess of £4000 just fior flights!!

Thanks

[Hal]

Cheapest (decent quality) flights will be about £695. We (family of 5 - 2 adults, 2 children, 1 infant) flew there in Feb. (booked September). Cost flying BA/Qantas with stopovers in Singapore going out and Sydney and Bangkok on the return was about £3,900.

To get the cheap flights you have to either book at the 330 day window, or be flexible with your dates and go for the special offers which tend to come out 4 months or so in advance. Your best bet would be to check with Trailfinders who are the largest travel agent specialising in Australia.

Also consider flying to Sydney which can be cheaper - more flights - and (after a stop-over) Virgin Blue or Jet Star flights to BNE.

[Camper Dude]

Agreed, Trailfinders are good. We are quite frequent visitors to oz and our family also in Brisbane. One of the cheapest we found were Garuda Indonesia, but you can get lumbered with a lengthy stop in Bali depending when you go. Also check out JAL (japan airlines) you get a stop in Sidney and Tokyo, decent price too. Must say we found the worst to be BA/Qantas (in service terms) never use them anymore.


Shop around!

[Hal]

I have to say that we found the BA flights great (not the Qantas flights). We flew Virgin PE to Jamaica in Oct, and personally I found the BA WT seats far better (albeit we had bulkhead seats and bassinette). Qantas had great IFE (AVOD) but the service generally was not IMHO up to BA standards. Garuda I would avoid due to their poor safety record - I work in banking and we recovered a loan to Garuda in the 1990s only because they flew the plane concerned into the side of a mountain in the Himalayas. If you want cheap look at China Eastern (with overnight stay in Shanghai) but personally I would stick to BA/SQ/CX/MH/TG/VS. Possibly Brunei.

:wavey:

[Camper Dude]

I have to say that we found the BA flights great (not the Qantas flights). We flew Virgin PE to Jamaica in Oct, and personally I found the BA WT seats far better (albeit we had bulkhead seats and bassinette). Qantas had great IFE (AVOD) but the service generally was not IMHO up to BA standards. Garuda I would avoid due to their poor safety record - I work in banking and we recovered a loan to Garuda in the 1990s only because they flew the plane concerned into the side of a mountain in the Himalayas. If you want cheap look at China Eastern (with overnight stay in Shanghai) but personally I would stick to BA/SQ/CX/MH/TG/VS. Possibly Brunei.

:wavey:

Wow, dont think I will bother with Garuda again, cheers for the tip.:confused2