Airfare prices at travel expo worth the wait?

[jusica]

Hi Team,

I will be travelling to Europe in early July for 6 weeks, I know this is considered peak season and am therefore concerned about the price of my airline ticket.

I have yet to purchase my airfare as I'm hoping good deals will come out, that and I have yet to decide where in Europe I want to fly into (current thinking is London or Paris).

Having had a look online airfare is approx 2-2.5k, as I'm based in Melbourne I know that there will be a travel expo on in Feb.

Are these expo's really going to offer better prices? or will the airfare prices at the expo be the same as what Im currently seeing online?

My concern is if I wait until Feb for the travel expo the prices that i'm currently seeing online increase and the expo offers arnt that great anyways.

Any guidance would be great!

Cheers

 

[Dr Ralph]

In my experience you can get at least the same deal by shopping around yourself outside of the expo, if not better.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Hi Team,

I will be travelling to Europe in early July for 6 weeks, I know this is considered peak season and am therefore concerned about the price of my airline ticket.

I have yet to purchase my airfare as I'm hoping good deals will come out, that and I have yet to decide where in Europe I want to fly into (current thinking is London or Paris).

Having had a look online airfare is approx 2-2.5k, as I'm based in Melbourne I know that there will be a travel expo on in Feb.

Are these expo's really going to offer better prices? or will the airfare prices at the expo be the same as what Im currently seeing online?

My concern is if I wait until Feb for the travel expo the prices that i'm currently seeing online increase and the expo offers arnt that great anyways.

Any guidance would be great!

Cheers

Some people have reported that some Flight Centres will still offer you the Travel Expo price if booked that same week. I went to an Expo once which I found a waste of time as i thought there may be representatives from various tourist bureaux however is just seemed to be one massive booking hall with all the ambience of a Boxing Day sale.

What is your destination in Europe and do you plan to have any stopovers enroute? Is it just yourself travelling? Do you have any frequent flyer points available for an award ticket?

 

[cxthomps]

I have patiently waited for 2 of these travel expos only to be disappointed at the prices on offer, booked both times with better deals elsewhere.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Any guidance would be great!

Cheers

hi and welcome to AFF!

I would suggest looking at STA - they often have some great fares and can be a lot cheaper than what's available on the QF website (I dunno how they do it - same QF flights but at times hundreds of dollars cheaper). You don't have to be a student - many of the fares are available to adults. Also try googleflights to see what they have to offer (but note they quote in USD, not AUD). If you're willing to fly a second or third tier carrier, you can often save a lot of money (although your flight may not offer all the bells and whistles).

You might also want to search out other options... MEL-Asia on a low cost carrier, and from Asia onwards to Europe.

Otherwise - as others have said - there's a possibility some deals might be at the expo - but there's pressure to book 'there and then'. I'd wholly recommend spending an hour or two on the internet on the day of the expo before you go to see what's on offer elsewhere. Then you can book with confidence at the expo if you see something cheap.

 

[Dalescott]

The first one that was held, had very good offerings. We got CE J for $3900 each to LHR, at the first expo. But after that they were not that good.

 

[mooingchicken]

All flight centers can offer you the expo prices in store the same day or a few days leading up. I booked the same time for travel last year. all the early bird prices and first expo for these are in August/September, which you have missed. The only difference and good expo is you can book all on the one day if that easier. and they have a few draws where you can get $50-$100 off but thats really it.

I would look around online and just booked around the expo time.
For reference I flew BNE-LHR and MUC-BNE both via SIN with SQ and they were $17XX when i booked them in septemeber. add 150'ish if flying out of london. so anything under say 2.2 I would consider an acceptable price for booking peak and this time

 

[Oxy]

Also try googleflights to see what they have to offer (but note they quote in USD, not AUD).

Discovered yesterday that can now be changed via the top left menu, I hadn't noticed this before!

 

[Buzzard]

I didn't enjoy the expo I went to. Seemed to me that the agent(s) wanted to load you up with tours and accommodation.

I think you have been given some very good advice upthread particularly by MEL_Traveller.

 

[jusica]

Thanks everyone for responding you're all legends!!

Im keen to go with Singapore airlines, as I would like to do a few days in Singapore on the leg home. Currently prices online are just under 2k.

Will look into google flights, did not know that existed I have been predominately using sky scanner.

Do airfare prices go up for transit stays?

Thanks again everyone!!

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Thanks everyone for responding you're all legends!!

Im keen to go with Singapore airlines, as I would like to do a few days in Singapore on the leg home. Currently prices online are just under 2k.

Will look into google flights, did not know that existed I have been predominately using sky scanner.

Do airfare prices go up for transit stays?

Thanks again everyone!!

You should be able to stopover in SIN for a few days in either direction for no extra except possiblly a small amount of taxes on the tickets.

It's sometimes difficult to get airline websites to book stopovers as some websites charge sector fares eg SYD/SIN then SIN/Europe instead of a through fare SYD/Europe that permits a stopover.

I just had a play around on www.jetabroad.com.au specifying a stopover in excess of 24 hours each way using Zurich as a destination however I'm sure other European cities would be a similar cost. For a July departure it gave a total cost of AUD1,931.00 using QF SYD/SIN/SYD and LH SIN/xFRA/ZRH vv. You could credit the QF flights to a One World frequent flyer program then the LH flights to a Star Alliance program eg AV Life Miles or SQ Kris Flyer which can always be converted to VA. Just double check with the frequent flyer programs that the fare buckets your flights book into earn points in those respective frequent flyer programs.

1 Adult	AUD 1,931.87
FINAL PRICE:	AUD 1,931.87

Flight Details

• 
  [*=left]Depart Fri 08 Jul 10:20 AM Sydney, NSW (SYD) Qantas Airways QF81 Sydney-Singapore Economy Class Total travel time 8h 25m Arrive Fri 08 Jul 4:45 PM Singapore Changi (SIN)

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• 
  [*=left]Depart Sun 10 Jul 11:05 PM Singapore Changi (SIN) Lufthansa LH779 Singapore-Frankfurt Economy Class Lufthansa LH1186 Frankfurt-Zurich Economy Class Total travel time 17h 15m Arrive Mon 11 Jul 10:20 AM Zurich (ZRH)

​

• 
  [*=left]Depart Mon 15 Aug 7:55 PM Zurich (ZRH) Lufthansa LH1199 Zurich-Frankfurt Economy Class Lufthansa LH778 Frankfurt-Singapore Economy Class Total travel time 14h 25m Arrive Tue 16 Aug 4:20 PM Singapore Changi (SIN)

​

• 
  [*=left]Depart Sat 20 Aug 8:15 PM Singapore Changi (SIN) Qantas Airways QF82 Singapore-Sydney Economy Class Total travel time 7h 55m Arrive Sun 21 Aug 6:10 AM Sydney, NSW (SYD)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Do airfare prices go up for transit stays?

Prices can vary if you include a stopover. Sometimes this might be due to availability on separate sectors (for example the cheapest seats might have sold out on your preferred departure to or from the stopover) - so play around to see what options you have.

If you are flying Singapore Airlines they have a special stopover program which includes a whole range of benefits such as airport transfers, free use of the hop-on-hop-off tour bus, and free entry or discounts to major attractions. The stopover program can sometimes offer significant discounts on hotel prices: https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/special-offers/singapore-stopover-holiday/

Unfortunately it looks like the $1 stopover (which included hotel!) is not available at this time.

 

[Moindardt]

Look at different places to fly into. For example, flying to Dublin is normally 1/2 to 2/3 of the price to fly to LHR but the same flights with a flight to Dublin on the end. You then just need a cheap flight back to London. Places like Amsterdam or Oslo are the same.