BNE to LAX for $1297 per person return thru VAustralia - good deal or wait?

[sryland]

Hi,

This is my first post, hoping I can benefit from the experience of all you guys. I'm planning a family trip to the US mid year (my wife is American and needs some home time) and saw that VAustralia was just starting to show some decent fares for around that time - BNE to LAX for $1297 per person return, departing 8th June returning 27th July.

I'm wondering if I should jump on this or if there's a strong possibility it might come down some more. I've seen it cheaper, but concerned about rising oil prices and other world events possibly raising prices. Also, it's close to peak times for travel.

Any suggestions or advice would be hugely appreciated!

 

[notzac]

Mid year fares to the northern hemisphere during their summer tend to be higher -- this seems like a good fare to me and I wouldn't expect it to come down much (if at all!)

Also, welcome to AFF!

 

[sryland]

Good to know, and thanks for the welcome. The bonus fares aren't advertised yet, and we had to pick a combination about 7 weeks apart to get that deal (fortunately we are in a situation right now where a 7 week vacation is possible). That makes me think that are flying dates must be on the shoulders of their peak period.

Unfortunately it's still just out of reach of our savings right now. We have a lot of money coming in soon, but might try and borrow some to lock in the price as it is right now. Wish airlines had a "buy now, pay later" option!

 

[Mal]

Welcome!

I also agree. I think it's a good deal for a peak period. Normally $1000-$1200 type deals are on offer, but with increasing fuel surcharges I think these will be coming to an end.

 

[sryland]

Thanks guys, I'm convinced we should go for this deal. As I said, we have to scrape a few extra $ together - what's the likelihood of these prices hanging around for a few days? Do they really fluctuate that much?

 

[Mal]

There is no guarantee that fare will stick around, nor is there any guarantee it won't drop in price.

I believe that fare may be on sale until 29 March 2011.

16 June (for departures) appears to be the end of the cheaper tickets. Air NZ, Qantas and V Australia all have sale fares available for departures up to that date. The issue (as you have found) is that the sale fares are not available on every day due to class limitations, so you may need to do some digging around.

Hope that helps.

 

[lovestotravel]

Yes it's a great far for July which is the peak travel season between Australia and the USA (apart from Xmas/Early Jan)

Book/pay ASAP!!!

V Australia is a great way to travel

 

[Jurahn]

Yes, I'd say it's a good fare too, seeing as the period you're talking about is the US summer and is also our school holidays as well as their (much longer!) school holidays.

It seems no one has sale fares available for departures between 17 June and 31 July so that must be the peak time, whereas your departure on 8 June must fall into the shoulder period.

If you're happy with the fare, then go ahead and book it - if fares do go down, then they go down, there's not much you can do if you've already booked, but alternatively, you might be kicking yourself in a month's time if the fares have gone up for the period you want! As others have mentioned, the cost of oil is likely to see fuel charges increase and then fares will go up - another factor to consider is that whilst our AUD is so strong against the USD, then there will be continuing demand for airfares to the US.

 

[Saab34]

If fares go down, it wont be by much, mabye within the $1200-1250 range but its not worth the punt with increasing fuel surcharges popping up.

I think its safe to say the sub $1000 are gone for good. $1200~ is still fantastic to the Americas.

 

[Sprucegoose]

If this will be regular travel, get there on points, then do the return from LOTFAB, up to a year return date that you can change.

Change the country site on QF or wherever to the US.

I and a few others do this here.

 

[sryland]

Thanks for the tip Spruce. At the moment we're not sure what our future travel/living plans are, but I'll do some research into that system. As I said, my wife is from the US so frequent travel in the future is likely, especially after I'm through school and we have a solid income. I'm planning on spending some time on these forums, I've already seen a lot of good ideas.

Thanks everyone for the advice. We were leaning that way and it's good to have our ideas confirmed. We booked the tickets about 10 minutes ago and now we just want to go. Even if prices go down a bit, at least the stress of waiting to pull the trigger is over, and we can just relax.

These forums are awesome. Definitely gonna dig around a bit more.

 

[Saab34]

Vaustralia will increase LAX fares by $100 return next Monday. No doubt it will result in some sort of airfare increase, whether its $50 each way or less who knows.