Gru-syd-gru

[deepblerg]

Hi all,

I need to book a Y return airfare for a work colleague based in Sao Paulo. In terms of travel time it looks like QF and LAN are the most reasonable options. But when it comes to actually book, the price is upwards of $5K vs ~$2K for SYD-GRU-SYD. In comparison EK/EF are around the $2K mark but the routing makes it a 30hr+ trip vs 19hr on QF.

Any thoughts on how I actually book this QF flight at a reasonable price?

 

[andye]

Skyscanner seems to have quite few mixed QF/LATAM itineraries of about 23-25h but mostly through online agents (not sure of your dates)

 

[deepblerg]

Thanks andye. Dates are flexible in Feb or Mar next year for a 21 day period.

 

[docjames]

Is there one sector with poor availability pushing the whole booking into a higher fare class? Would potentially be (one) reason why the pricing is so high.

 

[Mattg]

I've made a few bookings through QF for this exact route recently. When I originally checked for prices, all the flights were around the $2K mark in Y. But QF and LATAM do have sales ex Brazil every now and again - you just need to keep an eye on the prices. In my case I was able to pick up tickets for about $1.3K return by waiting another week for a sale to come along.

Regarding your issue of not being able to book at the ~$2K price (assuming you're happy with that), I did also find a workaround for this - but it's a little complicated. It involves booking through an online travel agent. If you would like to send me a private message (or just post here) with the exact flights/dates you're looking at, I can show you exactly what to do.

A couple of other options that could be worth looking at also are NZ from Buenos Aires (via Auckland) or flying via Johannesburg on JJ/QF.