Purchasing Airfares via other countries - is it trouble / cheaper?

[pagan]

Hi,

I had it put to me you can buy tickets in the US for travel from AU to US/CAN and return cheaper than buying the same seats in AU.

I can't see much evidence that's true looking @ various websites but even if it was are there any caveats or things that you need to watch out for?

Thanks in advance

Cheers

Pagan

 

[JohnK]

You can purchase airfares from US websites cheaper (whether local travel agents or QF direct) but the flight has to originate in USA/Canada not the other way around.

If you were travelling to the USA/Canada then you can purchase a one-way airfare AUS-USA or use points and then purchase returns back to Australia from there.

There are a few of us on AFF who purchase return airfares from various destinations.

 

[JetLagged]

There are a few of us on AFF who purchase return airfares from various destinations.

I'm one of those - thanks to information gleaned from these august pages. If travelling back and forth to UK, for instance, buy UK to SYD fares are way below the cost flying the other way. For instance, can fly LHR to Syd for $9000 in F on QF, which is the same as an AUS J class fare.

There are (or at least have been) significant differentials in fares from the US to Australia, than viceversa. Stop looking at the booking engines as such and use the different airline sites: there was an article in the SMH this week about how it is often cheaper to fly without easyjet or the like.

 

[wandering_fred]

Compare the cost of a SIN-PER-SIN flight on the QF Singapore website

with

the cost of a PER-SIN-PER fare on the QF Australia website.

:mrgreen::shock:

Feel free to substitute any other Australian point for PER.
Almost all fares will be one year return.

Fred

 

[ThunderbirdNZ]

I have to escort my mother to a reunion in Amsterdam in August. Dad had enough points (Air NZ) for 2 return flights but he died before the seats could be booked and AirNZ cancelled his account. I have booked a return flight to New York with my Qantas points, and I'm currently trying to book flights from NY to Ottawa to Amsterdam, and then back to NY from Barcelona.

Any suggestions? Should I take a multi city option via Jetabroad (or similar) or look at various airlines direct?

 

[JohnK]

I have to escort my mother to a reunion in Amsterdam in August. Dad had enough points (Air NZ) for 2 return flights but he died before the seats could be booked and AirNZ cancelled his account.

Who told Air New Zealand?

I will try to leave instractions for family not to say a word to any loyalty program should that day arrive. They simply do not need to know....

 

[ThunderbirdNZ]

Who told Air New Zealand?

I will try to leave instractions for family not to say a word to any loyalty program should that day arrive. They simply do not need to know....

Yes, it seems they were alerted when my mother changed their joint bank accounts. I broached this subject before my father departed, but unfortunately Air NZ don't allow points to be transferred to family members (unlike QFF) you can only 'gift' them a ticket. Naturally my mother was in no mood to be booking vacation flights while my father was on his deathbed.

I think there is a wider issue over who owns the airpoints. In my fathers case they were 'bought' by his selection of a more expensive American Express credit card -- but then ultimately useless.

A warning to everyone when a family member is diagnosed with a terminal disease, sadly.

 

[MikedOut]

You can purchase airfares from US websites cheaper (whether local travel agents or QF direct) but the flight has to originate in USA/Canada not the other way around.

If you were travelling to the USA/Canada then you can purchase a one-way airfare AUS-USA or use points and then purchase returns back to Australia from there.

There are a few of us on AFF who purchase return airfares from various destinations.

I've been thinking about purchasing tiks in US (via brother who lives there) but if I'm reading your post correctly I (he) couldn't buy a ticket SYD-LAX-SYD from there? If you can't buy the tickets as above do you know if there would be any problems getting into the US if you only had a one-way (inbound) ticket.

 

[wandering_fred]

If you select the AA and oneworld option, AA will happily ticket almost anything (in US$). I just checked SYD-LAX in July and the prices between the AA(USA) and QF(Australia) websites were not all that different. However AA offered somewhat "higher" fare classes.

Typically AA (and my Australian TA) cannot match the QF website for my favorite tickets (SIN-PER-SIN) as the less expensive fare classes are restricted to issue "ex-SIN". Note: SIN-PER-SIN (1 year ticket) is varies between 55-80% of the PER-SIN-PER ticket.

There are times when the AA(Australia) website does come up with better fares than QF(Australia). Especially if the companies haven't had the opportunity to adjust to fast changing exchange rates.

The basic rule - always check at least three sources for prices.

Happy wandering.

Fred

 

[Moopere]

... but even if it was are there any caveats or things that you need to watch out for?

Mmm. Its an excellent question. I've never done this before. Its amazing the new thought patterns that start to emerge once you'd frequented these forums for a while.

So, in recent times, been trying hard to think outside the square and find the best way to several south pacific and south east Asian destinations:

The examples below seem common, and the more I search about the more I realise I need to start to think about how I can feel comfortable in booking two one-way tickets rather than one return:

coughet,

PER-HKT, MH, J, $2752 one way

yet

HKT-PER, MH, J, $1490, one way.

TOTAL as two one way tickets = $4242

The return price PER-HKT-PER MH, J is $4330

$88 difference.

Return price HKT-PER-HKT, MH, J, $2764

$1566 difference.

====

Fiji,

PER-NAN, QF / FJ, J, $1532 one way

but

NAN-PER, QF / FJ, J, $890 one way

TOTAL as two one way tickets = $2422

The return price PER-NAN-PER QF/ FJ, J is $2842

$420 difference

Return price NAN-PER-NAN, QF / FJ, J, $1739

$1103 difference.

PER-NAN-PER QF/FJ return in Y class is $1211


The thought seriously occurs that getting out of Australia on the cheapest tickets possible and then booking a separate ticket from that stepping stone (be it SIN or KUL or whatever) on to your final destination is the way to go. Likewise, one way flights back home in J for only a little bit more than the Australian price of the equivalent Y ticket - almost always on the same plane/flight number (what the??!!)

So, per the OP, for those that do this all the time, what are the caveats? I presume for the most part you just turn up at the airport for your return one way journey, pick up your prebooked ticket and life is easy ... or am I kidding myself?

 

[ozmille]

Mmm. Its an excellent question. I've never done this before. Its amazing the new thought patterns that start to emerge once you'd frequented these forums for a while.

So, in recent times, been trying hard to think outside the square and find the best way to several south pacific and south east Asian destinations:

The examples below seem common, and the more I search about the more I realise I need to start to think about how I can feel comfortable in booking two one-way tickets rather than one return:

coughet,

PER-HKT, MH, J, $2752 one way

yet

HKT-PER, MH, J, $1490, one way.

TOTAL as two one way tickets = $4242

The return price PER-HKT-PER MH, J is $4330

$88 difference.

Return price HKT-PER-HKT, MH, J, $2764

$1566 difference.

====

Fiji,

PER-NAN, QF / FJ, J, $1532 one way

but

NAN-PER, QF / FJ, J, $890 one way

TOTAL as two one way tickets = $2422

The return price PER-NAN-PER QF/ FJ, J is $2842

$420 difference

Return price NAN-PER-NAN, QF / FJ, J, $1739

$1103 difference.

PER-NAN-PER QF/FJ return in Y class is $1211


The thought seriously occurs that getting out of Australia on the cheapest tickets possible and then booking a separate ticket from that stepping stone (be it SIN or KUL or whatever) on to your final destination is the way to go. Likewise, one way flights back home in J for only a little bit more than the Australian price of the equivalent Y ticket - almost always on the same plane/flight number (what the??!!)

So, per the OP, for those that do this all the time, what are the caveats? I presume for the most part you just turn up at the airport for your return one way journey, pick up your prebooked ticket and life is easy ... or am I kidding myself?

I am always on stopover in OZ. It is so much cheaper to fly EU to OZ then the other way that I just buy EU-OZ-EU. I think some people on the forum are on a stopover on a DONE or AONE

 

[Moopere]

I am always on stopover in OZ. It is so much cheaper to fly EU to OZ then the other way that I just buy EU-OZ-EU. I think some people on the forum are on a stopover on a DONE or AONE

Is an interesting notion, and one that occurred to me as well ... but some of you guys are living that dream eh?

So the idea I assume would be to choose a suitable overseas 'hub' and plan ones flights from there.

Are there any dramas in buying say, SIN-HKT-PER-SIN when I'm actually located here? I assume the deal would go that I'd get a cheap Y to SIN from PER and then pickup the route from there. Return to PER at the end of the trip and next time I need to go away I've already got my SIN return ticket in hand as I'm on a 'stopover' here. J tickets are usually good for around 12 months and generally freely changeable date wise.

Tickets would be e-tickets so that doesn't sounds like a problem, but anything weird payment/CC/identity/etc I'm likely to be unaware of?

 

[ozmille]

Is an interesting notion, and one that occurred to me as well ... but some of you guys are living that dream eh?

So the idea I assume would be to choose a suitable overseas 'hub' and plan ones flights from there.

Are there any dramas in buying say, SIN-HKT-PER-SIN when I'm actually located here? I assume the deal would go that I'd get a cheap Y to SIN from PER and then pickup the route from there. Return to PER at the end of the trip and next time I need to go away I've already got my SIN return ticket in hand as I'm on a 'stopover' here. J tickets are usually good for around 12 months and generally freely changeable date wise.

Tickets would be e-tickets so that doesn't sounds like a problem, but anything weird payment/CC/identity/etc I'm likely to be unaware of?

Never had a problem rebooking e-tickets. First time when there were still paper tickets the TA mailed them to my parents in Belgium and I would exchange them here in Sydney when I knew when I would be flying back.
The only thing I know about CC requirements is ex BKK and ex MNL where you are supposed to go and get your credit card and signature sighted. Have fun trying to work the system. (What some other people have done is taking an award flight somewhere they want to start their flying from... a JASA to Europe and cheap tix back)

 

[Stephen65]

Provided you know you want to fly return to a foreign destination at least once a year then I don't see any reason why you couldn't take advantage of the usually much cheaper return tickets sold overseas.

So for example, say you know you want to fly to LAX at least once a year. You buy a cheap ticket or use points to fly one way to LA. Then you buy a return LAX - Australia - LAX and use the outward leg to get back here. Then you use the return leg to go back to the US within a year and just rinse/repeat buying returns from LAX.

 

[Mal]

There are always benefits to be had. Some you find by accident, some you are told about, some you find via specials emails from various carriers...

Let's imagine I'm heading to <un-named foreign country> shortly. I wish to fly Qantas in a cabin higher than Economy. Is it worthwhile me leaving my home town? No. Perhaps somewhere else? Yes.

Even with (very favourable SC wise) positioning flights, I still get there cheaper.

Not going into details about this type of "special", but they exist. This is one example.

I know of many others. Some I can use, some are pretty hard to use. My travel plans are rarely fixed, and I find it hard to plan too far ahead. But if I could... then I would be taking advantage of many other ones!!!!

 

[Bundy Bear]

The more you travel, the more fixed your schedule and the higher fare class where you can justify the difference.

I have purchased a return ticket ex LHR, and I have a fixed schedule. If you can't fix the schedule that are in advance then it may not be worth while.



Sent from my iPhone using Aust Freq Fly app

 

[dfcatch]

For example return LAX-SYD-LAX fares when on special can be dirt cheap. Even on the sale fares in whY, date changes are only $200.

So if your fare saving is more than this, and you'll only need set your return date once.... Then it can work out.

 

[jozdemir]

Living in Perth I quite commonly book myself a flight home from Singapore or KL with Tiger or AirAsia when I find a cheap flight during dates where I have holidays penned in.

For example I booked an AirAsia flight from KL to Perth for $65 to save some money on a trip I ended up booking to Turkey, so I unfortunately have to fly Turkey->Egypt->Bangkok->KL to get home via the cheapest route, but it saved me about $300 and ironically I get to leave later than I would've flying MH direct back to KL.

So my point is I suppose that I'm sure for many people this is quite regular practice and I myself have never had any issues at all - not even in India when I booked a Jet Airways fare through their Indian website...turns out it's purposely cheaper for Indian nationals! But they didn't say anything

 

[sinophile888]

Last December, I wanted to go to Europe on all day-time flights. So I booked PER -> SIN -> PER on QF then SIN -> DXB -> FCO and LHR -> DXB -> SIN on EK. Not only did I get all day-time flights but it was considerably cheaper than EK all the way, and without the problem of a very long (for me) flight from PER -> DXB and return.

Absolutely no problem with the bookings.

Another option is to use points to get you to the starting point outside Australia.