one way flight

[baswitzer]

I am looking to price a one way flight from Sydney to London in July or early August. Just looking at Bestflights and webjet, it seems, we are looking at a price of $1600 (one way) with taxes. Is this a fair price? Seems we would be better to book a return with a flexible return date (we dont know if we will be back within the year). Are business upgrades from economy to business on points with QF hard to get on this route as they are on the syd-lax route.

I wonder if it would be better to hop a cheap flight to asia and then hook up with another carrier there. Just looking at all options.

 

[NM]

Most of the full-service carriers tend to offer their most discounted fares as return fares. Their one-way fares tend to be quite expensive.

But most Low Cost Carriers tend to offer one-way fares such that you need to book two fares to get a return.

So if looking for the cheapest one-way fare to Europe, certainly look for some LCC options. perhaps Air Asia X or JetStar to Kuala Lumpur and look for options from there. But be aware of the risks of using LCCs and separate ticket itineraries.

Some of the return trip flights to Europe will include a side-trip in Europe that may come in handy if you going to be there for a while.

 

[baswitzer]

Thanks as always NM.

Can anyone suggest a good place to price flights out KL?

 

[StevePER]

Thanks as always NM.

Can anyone suggest a good place to price flights out KL?

I would normally look for fares on Expertflyer to get an idea of what the price should be, then shop around with zuji, jetabroad, bestflights, expedia, etc for the best deal.

For an adventure you could fly Biman Bangladesh Airlines in business class for $500+++.

 

[baswitzer]

Is there a way to check seat FF availability for redemption without expert flyer? woud seatcounter.com be of use? what codes am i looking for?

 

[baswitzer]

Update...

So another option I just looked at was to hop a reward flight to HKG and then pick up a one way flight from there.

I did look to go to Tokyo but the prices on jetabroad were out of this world.

 

[Mal]

Tokyo is good for cheap prices to the US, but not much else in my experience.

I think HKG/Macau would be a good option.

In some searching a while ago, it was a lot cheaper to catch a plane BKK-HKG-LHR, than it was HKG-LHR, but it has been a while since I've done deep searching.

SIN didn't really have good deals, unless flying to the US via London or one of the big QF/BA specials.

SGN and MNL might bring up some good offers too, but might be harder to get to.

As indicated above, I havn't searched for a while, so my comments might be out of whack with current prices.

 

[baswitzer]

Thanks Mal. HKG seems the best bet with Air NZ coming in at 500 plus taxes which is a gret deal. BA is about 100 more expensive and I would go with them but I cannot check what class the seats book into because I would just be earning 25% if it were discount economy.

 

[baswitzer]

I have gone to expert flyer to use the fare pricing tools and found an airfare I was interested in with FinnAir. However, everywhere I search online, the fare with xx_ airline does not come up as listed. Can anyone give me the heads up (for a newbie on expert flyer) in matching the fare availability tool to actually booking a flight?

 

[Mal]

I have gone to expert flyer to use the fare pricing tools and found an airfare I was interested in with FinnAir. However, everywhere I search online, the fare with xx_ airline does not come up as listed. Can anyone give me the heads up (for a newbie on expert flyer) in matching the fare availability tool to actually booking a flight?

Have you tried using the Zuji Hong Kong site (or whatever country you're planning to fly out of)? (eg ZUJI: Your Online Travel Guru )

Try the Flexible date search with AY (or Finnair) as the airline. It will return all available fares that it knows about that are valid within the dates.

Also, by reading the fare rules you should be able to see the seasons (dates) the fare is valid for. Perhaps you are searching for a fare that isn't valid for the particular dates you want to travel.

Unlikely, but possibly the fare is also hidden away on the Finnair website under a specials page, or via their normal search engine.

 

[Arthur Hodgson]

Thanks as always NM.

Can anyone suggest a good place to price flights out KL?

These people are a long-established TA in KL and other Malaysian cities, and have quite good prices Asiatravelmart.com.

A useful TA out of BKK is www.traveltech2000.com.

 

[baswitzer]

Thanks again Mal.

Ive actually found one for Finnair departing from Syd on Expert Flyer but when I click the routing it says something about excess miles so I guess that rules that one out.

There is another one on Swiss for 1000 but I cannot price that anywhere either. There is of course Aeroflot for 945 but I am not flying them. The swiss routing is (I do know it is from Melb):
DESTINATION ADDON ROUTE: 5502
MEL(MU)SHA-ZRH-LON
MEL(LX/QF/SQ/CX)HKG/SIN-ZRH-LON
MEL(LX/QF/TG)BKK-ZRH-LON

Am I missing something?

 

[Mal]

If I'm seeing the same AY fare as you, it has the following route:

MPM FARE - ROUTE NOT APPLICABLE
MAXIMUM PERMITTED MILEAGE IS 13222

Which basically means that you can choose any path that they fly up to 13222 miles, subject to the rules in the fare rules. As they have codeshares with Qantas, perhaps a route like:

SYD-BKK-HEL-LON is possible. (Not 100% sure on what they codeshare with Qantas though).

Would probably be around $1600 once you add in the +++'s.

The Swiss one is a bit different, with that one you can fly with Qantas or Cathay (or several other airlines) to Singapore/Hong Kong/Bangkok (or MU to Shanghai) and from there pick up a Swiss plane to Zurich, then London. Some of those routes may not be valid though.

Probably be a touch cheaper at around $1450 or something.

I had a quick look around and can't find the fares either, so perhaps you need to have a chat to a travel agent if you're after one of those fares.

 

[baswitzer]

Thanks again Mal.

The ones you spotted were the ones I kept seeing.

I wonder if Bestfllights will know what I am talking about when I start talking about the fare. Might give it a go.

I know it is the high season but I am reluctant to pay over $1700 for a one way Qantas fare which I think is ridiculous (maybe my standards on pricing are out on this one).

So Ive got two options as I see it:

Hop a QF reward flight (for 60,000 +++'s) as two are flying and then hook up with Air NZ to LHR for $1500 inc taxes.

Or gather the points into QF and fly to LHR from Sydney for $3500 total.