{"id":9051,"date":"2020-01-14T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/?p=9051"},"modified":"2020-01-27T11:21:59","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T00:21:59","slug":"the-ultimate-guide-to-saving-money-on-long-haul-flights-from-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/fr\/the-ultimate-guide-to-saving-money-on-long-haul-flights-from-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Le guide ultime pour \u00e9conomiser de l'argent sur les vols long-courriers au d\u00e9part d'Australie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australie<\/a>’s major international airport hubs are a long way from pretty much anywhere, except for Nouvelle-Z\u00e9lande<\/a> and the South Pacific Island nations. It’s not that far to fly from any Australian east coast international airport to Nouvelle-Z\u00e9lande<\/a>, New Caledonia, Fiji, or Vanuatu. If you happen to want to go anywhere else though, you will likely be looking at long haul flights of 9 hours or more. With flights like that, they can also get expensive, especially going to popular North American and European destinations that have 14+ hour flights, often including layovers in Singapore or Dubai on the way to Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared to domestic Australian flights, and even Trans-Tasman flights that can often be purchased for less than $150 AUD, even short long-haul trips like Tokyo<\/a> can be pricey. The thing is, with a little bit of forethought, research, and planning you can get long-haul flights for much cheaper. The most recent example that we’ve booked is Sydney<\/a> to the United Kingdom return for $99 AUD per person in economy class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We actually could have gotten these flights for $45 per person if we took a different route there, but the more expensive tickets gave us the option to spend 8 hours in Singapore airport which we really wanted to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ultimate<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So, how do you save money on long haul flights from Australie<\/a>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, there aren\u2019t really any magic tricks, except for finding mistake fares, but there are a number of hacks to help save money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Book flights on a return fare<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Airlines want to fill as many seats as possible, so if you book a return fare rather than one way, you are a more appealing customer than someone just booking one way. This means you just might get a better deal on a return fare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Qantas<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve often researched flights and found the return fare to be either the same price or only slightly more than just flying one way. Compared to booking the two flights separately, you could be doing the return leg for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Consider flying through nearby smaller airports<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Major airport hubs, like London\u2019s Heathrow airport, may have better connections, more flight options, or be more convenient, but smaller nearby airports can often save you dollars since they aren\u2019t as busy and their fees are lower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These smaller airports do also serve as feeder airports for major centres, so they can help airlines to fill seats on both smaller routes and bigger ones, again creating opportunities for discounts. Rather than flying from major Australian airports like Sydney<\/a>\u2019s Mascot Airport, Melbourne\u2019s Tullamarine Airport, or Brisbane Airport, look at nearby regional city airports. You might not be able to fly directly, but they can be cheaper even with a connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"QantasLink<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Instead of Mascot in Sydney<\/a>, look at Newcastle airport. Instead of Tullamarine in Melbourne, look at Avalon Airport near Geelong. Rather than Brisbane airport, consider the Gold Coast airport, Sunshine Coast airport, or even the Ballina\/Byron airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gold Coast airport does offer some low-cost long-haul flights, like Japon<\/a> and Singapore routes with budget carriers like Jetstar and Scoot, but there aren\u2019t any major carriers flying long-haul routes from here. For most international destinations, you will connect through Sydney<\/a>, Melbourne or Perth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunshine Coast and Ballina\/Byron airports will typically connect you via Sydney<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newcastle airport has begun offering limited, competitively prices flights to Nouvelle-Z\u00e9lande<\/a> on Virgin Australie<\/a>, but otherwise will connect you through Melbourne, Brisbane or the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sunrise<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Avalon airport between Melbourne and Geelong will connect you via Sydney<\/a>, Brisbane or the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no guarantee that these smaller feeder airports will be cheaper, but airlines do tend to use them to help fill seats from the major hubs, so they do have promos that work out really well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have gotten some great deals on flights to Japon<\/a> booked from Newcastle airport connecting via Brisbane airport. We saved over $100 per ticket to fly from Newcastle instead of Sydney<\/a>, and this is taking into account the cost of getting to Newcastle airport vs Sydney<\/a> airport as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Look for flights that are part of a multi-leg journey<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A multi-leg journey is where a plane stops at another airport on the way to its final destination. For example, Qantas operates flights to the UK from Sydney<\/a> with a stop in Singapore airport. Even though the plane continues on, not all passengers will do the full journey. Some will debark in Singapore, and some will board in Singapore. This means that you can often get a good deal on one leg of the journey if it has low volume. This is more likely to be the case when the second leg is a shorter, lower demand, but higher competition route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Emirates<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

An amazing example of this was a flight we booked from Los Angeles to Christchurch via Sydney<\/a>. The more logical route would be Los Angeles to Auckland and then Christchurch, but going via Sydney<\/a> was $400 cheaper per person. In fact, it was $300 cheaper than if we just flew to Sydney<\/a> on exactly the same plane without the Christchurch connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason the above example was cheaper is that the Sydney<\/a> to Christchurch leg was actually the last leg of a multi-leg journey operated by Emirates. The plane was on a Dubai to Christchurch route with a stopover in Sydney<\/a>. We arrived in Sydney<\/a> on a Qantas flight from Los Angeles and then transferred to the codeshare flight with Emirates. The ticket was heavily discounted to help fill seats on the lower demand leg of that journey, Sydney<\/a> to Christchurch. After all, with hundreds of seats available on an A380 full-service airline, they can\u2019t discount tickets to compete with the high volume of low-cost carrier flights across the ditch. Combining the flight into a single ticket from another flight helps to fill the seats without running a discount on just that leg of the trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Qantas<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Another example of this is flights operated by LATAM from South America to Sydney<\/a> with a stopover in Auckland. It\u2019s possible to get the leg between Sydney<\/a> and Auckland on their full-service planes for cheaper than the same route on Jetstar. I can tell you the LATAM 787 is a much nicer 3 hours than a Jetstar A320, and can you really go past that Latin-American flair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Check flights that connect via unusual airline hub airports rather than direct<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most full-service airlines route their flights through hub airports using a hub-and-spoke model rather than flying directly between destinations. This creates scale and allows more efficient use of aeroplane capacity. It is most notable in Australie<\/a> in Sydney<\/a> at Mascot airport where Qantas has all of Terminal 3 to itself. This is Qantas\u2019 Sydney<\/a> domestic hub. Other major international hubs that most Aussies are probably aware of are Singapore (Singapore Airlines), Dubai (Emirates), and London Heathrow (British Airways).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Qantas<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The hub-and-spoke model is popular with airlines because they can bring lots of smaller planes on feeder routes into a hub. Those smaller planes help to fill bigger planes going on longer routes. Chances are there isn’t going to be the demand for passengers flying from Newcastle to Los Angeles to warrant running direct flights, so instead, airlines route these passengers to Brisbane, Sydney<\/a> or Melbourne instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Singapore<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This model also creates efficiencies in maintenance and operating personnel, but most importantly for us, as passengers, is that it creates opportunities to find deals via unusual hub airports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Australie<\/a>, most flights to Europe go via Singapore or Dubai. However, other airlines operate other hubs in the region. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n