What are the cheapest fares from Adelaide to Europe - Post-Xmas 2015?

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  travelwiz on 10/02/2015 - 10:08

  +1

  maybe expand your departure date range to more than 3 days. 26-28DEC are very popular dates for departure.

  Many airlines/online search engines have not loaded 7 January yet.

  Qantas has loaded up to 29 Jan 2016.

  • most schools(some private school start later & every state is slightly different, but you are competing with all states, as flights have to stop somewhere on way to Europe) seem to start back 27 or 28 Jan 2016.

  So most parents want to be back no later than say 25 Jan, which means from Europe, Canada, USA they would need to depart no later than 23 Jan.

  Maybe wait a week or 3, until all or most airlines have all of January loaded. Generally coming home after 23 or 24 Jan should be cheaper.

  • try calling a travel agent who does a lot of Europe or a Europe specialist. They get fares that you will never find online.

  We don't sell Europe anymore (too busy with USA/Canada at XMas) but from Brisbane EVA AIr flies to Europe via TPE a few times a week & they have a good name & some cheap fares, but never seem to appear on any online search engines (doesn't help u ex ADL tho) If flights don't connect in TPE they provide accommodation free with most airfares. They fly to London, Paris, Amsterdam etc.

• 

  battler on 10/02/2015 - 10:43

  Air Asia 29/12 to 20/1 ~$750 return SYD-KUL with 20kg (29/12 is $140 cheaper than 28th)
  KLM ~$1040 direct KUL-AMS same dates (you'll have to play a bit to reduce stopover time).
  (KLM flight found via Kayak)

  better:
  ADL-AMS(Amsterdam) $1814 28/12 to 20/1 Singapore Airlines (found via Kayak)
  ADL-CDG(Paris) $1856 same dates.

  • 

    travelwiz on 10/02/2015 - 12:46

    connecting between Air Asia & KLM @ KUL is problematic.

    Any fare on Kayak should be available on other websites, BUT try a local travel agent, but use one that does a lot of Europe. they may surprise you, remembering that not all airlines are loaded for 2nd 1/2 of January yet.

    Also when you see general from prices, they might be hard to find or really bad connections.

    You want specifics.

    A price without a booking is kind of meaningless (unless an operator has an allocation of seats).

    Sometimes an agent or wholesaler might have a group going.

    Sometimes you can tag along. You don't have to have anything to do with group. You don't have to check in together or even sit together, just get the same flights.

    Over Xmas hols there are lots of groups going to Europe.

    Group fares aren't cheaper, but payment terms usually mean you can pay fare off over time. Every airline is different. For some a group is 10 or more, other 20 or more.

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  extremedeal on 10/02/2015 - 12:31

  Not quite a cheap option, but great value: ADL-HKG-CDG return for $1955 on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong and then Air France to Paris. Both are fantastic airlines. Found via the Air France website 25th Dec - 15th Jan.

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  tunzafun001 on 10/02/2015 - 13:50

  Last year we went for a budget airline one way to Singapore (but check KUL it may be cheaper). We got an Air Asia flight for around $200, and then 48hrs before the flight applied for the $100 "upgrade town" to business class and got it.

  The second part was a Multi city booking through Kayak. SIN —> London, then Paris —>ADL $1150 via Etihad. Something to do with fuel taxes etc are a lot cheaper from SIN depatures. The longest stop over was 2 hrs in the UAE.

  *Sometimes Etihad doesn't come up, but you force select it through the filters, and it can be quite a bit cheaper.

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  travelwiz on 10/02/2015 - 14:56

  don't forget to factor in any frequent flyer benefits.

  We get clients, who will go with cheapest options that has few or no frequent flyer benefits, when for a few dollars more, they could have got a return flight BNE/SYD, SYD/MEL OR BNE/MEL or free one way to Queenstown NZ.

  Often, frequent flyer tickets like BNE/SYD, SYD/MEL or BNE/MEL can be got at very short notice, ie. day before or as little as 3 hours in advance, when there are no cheap tickets left.

  Or

  for one return trip to LAX from BNE, SYD or MEL flying QF or partners, can get 15,000-16,000 pts.

  You can then fly into people friendly airports that normally cost a lot to fly to.

  Eg. in Colorado there are many airports. LAX/Colorado costs 12,000 Qantas ff pts. Denver is massive & like all big airports, is efficient from operators point of view, but not form consumer point of view. (eg. no rental cars at airport whatsoever- you have to get a bus to depots-time consuming & another hassle you don't need).

  Whereas for same number of points you can fly to much smaller airports, that still take 200 seater aircraft, but no bigger & rental cars are parked 50 metres from where you get your bags.