节省澳大利亚长途航班资金的终极指南



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澳大利亚’s major international airport hubs are a long way from pretty much anywhere, except for 新西兰 and the South Pacific Island nations. It’s not that far to fly from any Australian east coast international airport to 新西兰, 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.

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 东京 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 悉尼 to the United Kingdom return for $99 AUD per person in economy class.

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.

Ultimate guide to saving money on long-haul flights from Australia

So, how do you save money on long haul flights from 澳大利亚?

Well, there aren’t really any magic tricks, except for finding mistake fares, but there are a number of hacks to help save money.

Book flights on a return fare

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.

Qantas A380

I’ve 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.

Consider flying through nearby smaller airports

Major airport hubs, like London’s 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’t as busy and their fees are lower.

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 悉尼’s Mascot Airport, Melbourne’s 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.

QantasLink Bombardier Q300

Instead of Mascot in 悉尼, 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.

The Gold Coast airport does offer some low-cost long-haul flights, like 日本 and Singapore routes with budget carriers like Jetstar and Scoot, but there aren’t any major carriers flying long-haul routes from here. For most international destinations, you will connect through 悉尼, Melbourne or Perth.

Sunshine Coast and Ballina/Byron airports will typically connect you via 悉尼.

Newcastle airport has begun offering limited, competitively prices flights to 新西兰 on Virgin 澳大利亚, but otherwise will connect you through Melbourne, Brisbane or the Gold Coast.

Sunrise From A Plane

Avalon airport between Melbourne and Geelong will connect you via 悉尼, Brisbane or the Gold Coast.

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.

We have gotten some great deals on flights to 日本 booked from Newcastle airport connecting via Brisbane airport. We saved over $100 per ticket to fly from Newcastle instead of 悉尼, and this is taking into account the cost of getting to Newcastle airport vs 悉尼 airport as well.

Look for flights that are part of a multi-leg journey

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 悉尼 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.

Emirates A380 Taking Off

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

The reason the above example was cheaper is that the 悉尼 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 悉尼. We arrived in 悉尼 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, 悉尼 to Christchurch. After all, with hundreds of seats available on an A380 full-service airline, they can’t 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.

Qantas 747

Another example of this is flights operated by LATAM from South America to 悉尼 with a stopover in Auckland. It’s possible to get the leg between 悉尼 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?

Check flights that connect via unusual airline hub airports rather than direct

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 澳大利亚悉尼 at Mascot airport where Qantas has all of Terminal 3 to itself. This is Qantas’ 悉尼 domestic hub. Other major international hubs that most Aussies are probably aware of are Singapore (Singapore Airlines), Dubai (Emirates), and London Heathrow (British Airways).

Qantas Sydney T3

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, 悉尼 or Melbourne instead.

Singapore Airlines A380

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.

From 澳大利亚, most flights to Europe go via Singapore or Dubai. However, other airlines operate other hubs in the region. For example:

These airlines (and others as well) all offer flights to Europe, if you go via their hub airports. So, if your destination is on a route from their hub airport that they want to fill seats on, you might be able to pick up a sweet deal from 澳大利亚.

Japan Airlines Plane

Of course, flying to Europe via East Asia will be a longer journey than via South Asia or the UAE region, but I’ve found flights coming in between $250-$600 cheaper going via these less common hub cities.

Fiji Airways Plane in Honiara

Similarly, if you are going to the USA, direct with one of the major carriers from 澳大利亚 or the USA may be the quickest, eg Qantas, American Air, Delta, or United. However, there are many other carriers around that can get you to the USA via their hubs. Think carriers like:

And, of course, all the East Asian-based airlines offer connections to the west coast of the United States as well.

Be flexible with dates and times

The worst thing for flight pricing is being locked in to set days or times. Often, you can save money just by flying at a quieter time of day where there is less demand, but you can save even more by being flexible with dates.

Hawaiian Airlines A330-200

Certain days of the week tend to be cheaper, be it because there is less passenger demand, because the airline uses a different plane on certain days, or because it is a codeshare flight and you are actually flying with a different airline, or there could be a sale on certain days. Sometimes travelling a few days earlier or later can put you in a sale period.

Regardless of the reason, it is always worth being flexible and checking surrounding dates and times.

Keep an eye on airline sales

Airline sales often happen with little warning, though some airlines do give early access to their subscribers. Picking up sale discounts can sometimes help you get a better price. This isn’t always the case though. For example, sale fares may be one way only, but the return fare is still a better deal overall.

Swiss Air Plane at LAX

Sales can vary, Qantas best sales are often on return fares which require you to depart between certain dates with flexible return dates. Sometimes they have designated return dates as well.

More airlines are offering a price-drop email notification tool, but you can also use one from a flight search tool like 天巡.

Fly without checked baggage

This one can save you a truckload! Long-haul flights with full-service carriers almost always include checked baggage, but, domestic connections and low-cost carrier flights don’t. It’s possible to fly from 澳大利亚 to most destinations in Europe on low-cost airlines, if you don’t mind a few stopovers and taking an indirect route. It might take a bit longer to get there, but can be significantly cheaper. The moment you need to add checked bags though, up goes the cost, sometimes by a very significant amount.

Air Asia Plane in Sydney

I’ve often found that adding checked baggage to low-cost airlines brings them close to the same price as flying with a full-service carrier on long-haul routes. For most people, it is simple to fly with carry-on bags only, if you really break it down to what you absolutely need. Yep, we spent 2 weeks in Canada and Alaska in early Spring while it was still chilly and I even brought a tux with me to wear on cruise formal nights, all we took was a carry-on size suitcase and a backpack.

Chances are, you really don’t need as much as you think you do.

Check flight comparison websites

This might seem obvious but check different flight comparison websites. I often find the best deals for Australian carriers is booking directly, but for carriers based in other countries, this isn’t always the case.

On our last trip to 日本, I found the cheapest flight was on ANA via a third-party booking site indexed by 天巡. It sounds a bit convoluted, but, it was worthwhile because the third-party booking site booked us on a “Shareholders Benefit Discount Fare”, which was a decent amount cheaper than any other publicly advertised fare and also ended up getting us a free seating upgrade at the gate. To confirm, we don’t and never have held shares in ANA.

ANA Planes

For Australian flights, I’d suggest using comparison sites that operate in AUD as they will give you a better picture of final flight pricing. The ones I use are:

I especially like that on 天巡 you can search entire months for the cheapest day, remember, if you are flexible with your travel dates, you can often save some dollars.

I would also suggest using the 天巡 country search. Momondo has a similar “Anywhere” search feature. In other words, you can search all flights from 澳大利亚 to the UK rather than to a specific airport. It will then tell you which Australian airports are the cheapest to fly from to get to the United Kingdom. It might not be London’s Heathrow airport. This is especially handy if you are from a regional area because you can mix it up with your feeder flights as well. Maybe you are in Newcastle but flying from Brisbane is $300 cheaper than 悉尼. For a $100 or less flight to Brisbane, you are saving yourself money compared to commuting down to 悉尼 Airport.

Many airlines are offering price-drop notifications now, but 天巡’s price-change notification checks all possible flights on your desired day so you are updated as soon as the price changes. Handy if you don’t need to book urgently.

I do sometimes find it is worth checking international sites like Orbitz, but by the time you account for taxes, currency conversion and conversion fees, their prices are no better (and sometimes worse) than what I find on the Aussie ones above. Very occasionally though, I do find a good deal here.

Combine flights with accommodation

This will depend on what kind of trip you are doing, and may only work well for shorter trips, but, when you combine flights and accommodation you can pick up some great deals that work out better than booking both separately.

United 747

Typically, these kinds of bookings will expect you to be staying in one place for the whole trip, so it might not be suitable for a road trip around a country, but if you are going to stay in one city for your trip, it’s worth a look.

I find booking sites like Expedia网络喷气机 在这里提出一些好的。我们通过这种方式得到的最优惠的价格是机票和住宿,价格与我们自己预订机票的价格相同。

Look at flights in other currencies using localised sites

这个越来越难,但是,每家航空公司都为他们飞往的每个国家/地区运营一个本地化网站。这些网站有不同的销售和不同的定价。这可以带来更好的交易,尤其是单程航班。

Sydney International Terminal

例如,预订之间的捷星航班 日本澳大利亚 通过日本本地化网站通常可以比澳大利亚网站便宜。

由于这些类型的定价变化是针对其目标国家/地区的客户,因此航空公司确实会使用许多复杂的位置检测方法来尝试确保您获得适合您所在国家/地区的网站,但这通常可以通过使用一种 虚拟专用网 将位置设置为您希望出现在的国家/地区。请记住,这并非万无一失,因为您的浏览器设置和历史记录可能会泄露您来自哪里。

Use reward points

最后但同样重要的是,使用奖励积分。无论是澳航飞行常客积分、Virgin Velocity 积分、其他航空公司的积分,甚至是 Coles FlyBuys 积分,都没有关系。这些要点可以帮助您降低成本。

根据航班的不同,奖励座位可能会产生最佳价值。我经常选择积分成本低且美元成本低的澳航奖励座位。但这并不总是最好的价值。有时,您以美元支付的费用和税款加起来比乘坐廉价航空公司的航班还要多。在这种情况下,选择积分 + 支付选项效果会更好。是的,这会花费您更多的积分,但如果积分可以使成本低于任何其他旅行方式,那就是最有价值的。

Tiger Air and Jetstar Taxiing

您甚至可以用积分支付整张机票,这甚至更好。我以前写过关于 使用 Bankwest 澳航交易账户最大限度地提高您的澳航积分收益,但这只是提高您的积分赚取潜力的一种相对较小的方式。还有很多方法可以提高您的积分。不过,我的建议是,如果您从澳大利亚出发,请专注于澳大利亚航空公司 澳大利亚 并特别关注澳洲航空。

通过直接合作伙伴关系和寰宇一家联盟,澳洲航空拥有比维珍航空更大的国际网络。这意味着您可以使用您的积分预订他们的许多合作航空公司的航班。唯一需要注意的是,航班需要在机票上标明澳大利亚港口,无论是在多航段旅程中的起点、终点还是中途停留。

Virgin Australia Plane

不要忽视经常在澳大利亚领空飞行的维珍航空公司或其他航空公司(如 Air 新西兰),仍然有机会通过他们赚取积分,而澳航可能不存在这些积分,而且您永远不知道这些积分可以带您去哪里。

飞买 点也值得利用。是的,您可以用它们在购物后换取美元,这是非常有价值的,但您也可以使用它们通过以下方式预订航班 飞买旅游.如果您已经赚取了足够的 FlyBuys 积分,可以通过这种方式以较低的金额购买机票,那么这将为您省钱。

而已!

在我的终极指南中获得了更多关于节省长途航班费用的提示 澳大利亚?在下面的评论中让我知道!否则,快乐飞行!

像你的意思一样钉它!

Ultimate guide to saving money on long-haul flights from Australia
Ultimate guide to saving money on long-haul flights from Australia
Ultimate guide to saving money on long-haul flights from Australia
Ultimate guide to saving money on long-haul flights from Australia

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旅行货币和货币换算: 我们同时使用 向上银行明智的 通过支持 Apple Pay 和 Android Pay 以及出色的应用内客户支持,在您旅行时获得最佳货币兑换率。

航班: 我们检查了几个网站的不同价格。从澳大利亚出发,我总是直接检查澳航的奖励航班,但除此之外,我会检查并比较航班费用 天巡.检查替代路线和日期总是值得的,尤其是在有多个中途停留选项或附近替代机场的情况下。

住所: 我们通常通过预订 雅阁 因为我们发现他们的价格最低,取消政策+忠诚度福利效果最好。我们也用 爱彼迎 时。

汽车出租: 我们用 欧洲汽车展 将租车价格与 Europcar、Budget、Hertz 和 Avis 等所有大型国际品牌进行比较。我们通常最终使用 阿维斯 要么 欧洲汽车 因为他们提供最优惠的价格(请务必查看他们当前的优惠折扣),并且都使用相对较新的车队维护他们的车辆。

旅游与活动: 我们通常会尝试通过这些第三方网站之一预订活动 领航者获取指南 & 客路 由于他们灵活的取消政策(为我们在 COVID 后旅行节省了很多钱)和价格保证(通常比直接预订更优惠的价格)。我们也通过预订 红气球 偶尔会有更多独特的澳大利亚和新西兰活动。

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我是谁?

Matt in Noumea

Matt专职从事数字营销业务, TerraMedia。不过,在业余时间,他喜欢和妻子一起旅行,所以他们通常都会做很多事情。
故乡是澳大利亚,尽管他们并没有花所有的时间去环游世界,但马特和他的妻子喜欢花时间真正地探索和了解一个地方,即使那意味着在那里花的时间比正常游客可能要多得多。

您可以阅读有关马特及其故事的更多信息 这里.

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