Cheap Domestic Flights To Sydney
Cheap domestic flights to Sydney are possible if you keep a few tips in mind.
Read on to find out how to get cheap tickets from Melbourne to Sydney or even Perth to Sydney.
- Book online. Virgin Blue offers a $10 AUD saving per flight leg if you book online, as opposed to calling their call centre to book. That's $20 AUD saved per return flight. Worth a trip to the internet cafe or the computer in your hostel? Definitely. Other airlines have similar policies.
- Use Webjet (an online service that compares all three major airlines) to find the cheapest flights available.
- Sign up for the airlines' (Qantas, Virgin Blue and Jetstar) newsletters, which often advise of 24 hour sales and other discounts.
- Visit the VirginBlue website between 12 and 1 pm each weekday for their one-hour specials.
- Book as far in advance of your flight date as you can. Generally speaking, the closer you book to your flight date, the more expensive your flight will be.
- Fly midweek if you can. Fares are often cheaper midweek than at the weekends (which in "airline-speak" usually means Thursday until Monday).
Review of the three (soon to be four) domestic airlines in Australia
The three domestic airlines in Australia are Qantas, Virgin Blue and JetStar (which is owned by Qantas). A fourth domestic airline, Tiger Airways, should be starting up around August 2007. Read a review of each below.
Qantas
Qantas is the airline famous around the world for its impeccable safety record. Qantas also have the best customer service out of all the Australian domestic airlines. They treat you like you're their customer, not like you're their best friend. The Qantas frequent flyer program is also linked to many other international airlines via the "OneWorld" miles network. This means that you can earn miles to use on American Airlines, British Airways, Aer Lingus, Cathay Pacific, FinnAir, Iberia, LanChile and several others whenever you fly Qantas. The flip side of this is that you can use miles gained on those other airlines (American Airlines etc) to fly in Australia for free. Basically, if you see a Qantas ticket at a good price, take it.
VirginBlue
Virgin Blue is a low-cost no-frills airline. VirginBlue tickets are often cheaper than Qantas tickets. Virgin Blue has a number of international partners, and you can spend points that you've gained with Malaysian Airlines, Emirates, Virgin Atlantic, Hawaiian Airlines and Pacific Blue / Polynesian Blue on Virgin Blue flights to Sydney. Similarly, any points you earn by flying Virgin Blue to Melbourne or any other Australian cities can be redeemed with the above airlines.
JetStar
JetStar are a no-frills budget airline owned by Qantas. There's a few reasons I prefer not to fly JetStar. The first reason is that if you arrive at the check-in counter less than 30 minutes before the departure time, JetStar will cancel your ticket. If you underestimate the time it takes to reach Sydney Airport or Sydney traffic is "doing it's thing", that's it. You've lost your ticket. Gone. Nada. Zip.
The second reason why I shy away from Jetstar is that I suspect their flights are cancelled more often than other airlines. However, unlike with Qantas, where you'd have a half an hour, or an hour wait until the next departure, Jetstar usually have a two hour wait between flights. There's not all that much to do at Sydney Airport for two hours.
The third reason I'd rather fly Qantas or Virgin Blue is that JetStar doesn't fly to Melbourne International Airport when flying to Melbourne. Instead, they use the tiny Avalon Airport, which has no decent facilities and is an extra 20 minutes out of Melbourne. In all fairness though, Jetstar often do have the cheapest domestic flights in Australia. If you're looking to save money, you will probably end up flying Jetstar.
Tiger Airways
(UPDATE 9 FEB 2007): Tiger Airways have just announced that they will begin to offer cheap domestic flights to Sydney later this year. Tiger Airways currently offer one of the cheapest flights to Australia, a $21 AUD ticket to Perth from Singapore. If we use that as a rough guide, Tiger Airways should be quite cheap into and out of Sydney.
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting to get a Tiger Airways flight to Sydney if you're already in the country. This is because it will take six months or more for Tiger to get their licence. However, for those coming to Australia in August 2007 or later, you may find Tiger are offering very cheap domestic flights to Sydney.