Booking flights trough OS Site

[stroudie]

I'm looking into travelling to Germany next year for 6-8 weeks & have looked into booking fares through the airline travelling from Singapore & return (Qartar Air, these appear to be very competitive) Only problem is getting from Sydney to Singapore & return. I know they fly from Melbourne, but the fares then don't seem to be so attractive when adding this component.
Is there anyway that I can purchase tickets from an overseas office or travel company ? I seem to recall that some previous poster was talking about Expedia Brazil. I have also been advised that you can save considerably by booking outside Australia, but just don't know how to go about it.
Any advice or suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

[moa999]

Expedia.br used to have some good prices on Qantas flights (as Brazil bans the charging of fuel surcharges) but Point of Sale restrictions have now been introduced on most QF fares.

You can book SIN-Germany direct on Qatar's site.

Then you might find some better prices for MEL-SIN via some of the low cost carriers - eg. Jetstar, Scoot (or even AirAsiaX).
Just remember to leave plenty of time (ideally 24hrs) as you will not be protected for any connections.

 

[Jleno]

Am keen to hear if there are any strategies for SYD-SIN as well but as far as I know, the only options are low cost carriers since the Expedia.br option is gone. If you know you will travel overseas at least every 12 months, then it's worth considering buying QF SIN-SYD returns - they will always be cheaper than QF SYD-SIN return. While SQ is a better carrier and service, I have almost never seen them cheaper than QF and their 12 month tickets are almost never on sale. Given your travel dates are still so far away, the best you'll get outside of low cost carriers is probably QF and I'd be pretty confident there'll be a sale for that route between now and your travel date.

Now the SIN-Germany leg is one I researched a lot prior to my trip. It's a competitive route so you can get some very good fares. I looked at SQ, QF/EK, BA, and QR. I find EK often have very attractive specials, and when their specials come on, SQ has on several occasions followed with similar specials with very competitive pricing. SQ is great as it is the best carrier of the lot and is direct - but if there are no specials they will always be the most expensive of the lot. I went with QR this time but will not do so again. Their prices are very attractive but when QR and EK specials are on, the price differential is not that great. I flown on EK on most previous occasions but this time I flew QR as I wanted to try the Dreamliner. In Y, the Dreamliner is nothing special. The QR service was not as good as what I've experienced on EK. The new Hamad international I think is badly designed so unless you have lounge access (which at the moment is very limited), stick to Dubai. I think Doha missed a great opportunity there (but nothing beats Changi). I think with your trip still quite a while away, I'd wait for the other carriers to announce their specials - although nothing is guaranteed of course. Also, I got zero QF points or SCs from my QR special fares. Never tried Etihad so can't comment on that. In an ideal world, you'd get an SQ special fare of around SGD1300 SIN-LON return in Y (that's the lowest I've seen them anyway).

 

[dajop]

Unsurprisingly, Malaysian seem to be offering good fares between Australia and SE Asia, including SIN at the moment, Maybe worth considering, but obviously goes via KL. Not sure if Qatar have deals ex KL as well as ex SIN but also worth looking at connecting there instead of SIN. Under either scenario need to allow loads of time for connections.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Not sure if this has been mentioned before, but I've been told by QF that classic award bookings for MAS are plentiful at the moment.

Is that a Coincidence as well?

 

[bobe]

Have to tried Sri Lankan from Sin-Europe very attractive J seat pricing!

 

[stroudie]

Thanks everyone for your replies.
Sri Lankan looks attractive at the price quoted for J