Looking at flights to Australia next year. In an ideal world we’d fly into Melbourne and out of Darwin but this seems to be loads more expensive than buying return tickets to Melbourne and an extra single to get back to Melbourne from Darwin.

Can travel agents access anything different to the fares I can see on travel comparison websites?

We couldn’t find one that could find a better deal than we managed. I expect Darwin will be expensive whichever way but it might be cheaper via Singapore. Even if it is more expensive it’ll save a lot of travel time and hassle.

They certainly could.
Consolidated ticket brokers (or something like that).

Only ever did that once, when my mother was a business travel consultant. One phone call was enough to get tickets for 5 cheaper than the old student travel agency that specialised in cheap tickets for students.

Strange thing is the student travel company was probably sourcing them from the same brokers but with a bigger markup and clever marketing to appeal to students.

This was before the likes of Ryanair/Easyjet flying to Russia.

Even if it is more expensive it’ll save a lot of travel time and hassle.

Trying to work out what travel time and hassle is worth. At the moment it looks like I can get return tickets plus a single for £900 but it’s about £1500 to fly london – melbourne, darwin – london

try also london – melbourne, darwin – cairns – london

I’ve got a friend who works as a travel agent, if that helps?

Trying to work out what travel time and hassle is worth.

Its a flippin long flight. Flying 3 hours in the wrong direction before sitting at an airport and flying back the way you just came seems a bit wrong but £600 is a fair chunk. Tough call.

Don’t know how much they are now, but would round the world tickets be an option cost wise? In 2006 ours cost us £1000 each with max 10 stops. Was a lot cheaper than buying returns to NZ at the time.

RTW is a good call.

It’s called an ‘open jaw’ fare. I would say that travel agents can’t access any different fares from the better travel comparison websites, but they can usually find quirky rates much more easily.

There are numerous websites that ‘blog’ cheap open jaw and return sales (an expired example), and although it is a pain to keep up with it, it is probably worthwhile waiting for a sale event from the major airlines before you book anything (unless you are travelling within the next few months).

I agree with the comments to look at other variations in the flights. For example, if you split the journey up at KL or Singapore you might find ticketing separate return/open-jaw journeys with a break cheaper than the open-jaw return. Similarly, flying from or to a European city and getting a cheap Easyjet type flight there. Assuming you take the stopover as part of the holiday.

Yes travel agents often buy tickets for flights as soon or perhaps even before they are released to the public, knowing they will defo get sold as they can sell them cheaper via email ads etc whilst also advertising themselves.

Multi city is more expensive than booking a return to melbourne and a separate internal flight and no difference time wise as flying out of darwin they still seem to take you via melbourne or adelaide.

I thought I might be able to do something by flying to singapore and booking separately but seems to be as expensive to fly to singapore as to melbourne around the dates we want.

I flew London-Sydney and back in Oct, stopped off to refuel in Hong Kong both directions.
I was limited in choice of airline by having to take 2 bikes. Agent I used was Trailfinders, same price but no fee for using a credit card to pay unlike the airline direct so saved the fee and had an extra month to pay. Cost £1,090 + £160 for the second bike and extra baggage (2 boxes at 32kg each)
Cheapest airline is China Air, can get return to Oz for well under £700. THye do howver have the worst safety record of any national carrier and only a 23kg luggage limit.

Try Trailfinders, they did our Oz tickets, Brum-Dubai-Sydney-Uluru-Cairns-Brisbane-Singapore-Dubai-Brum.
Spaced over 3weeks, flying with Emirates & Quantas. Paid about £950 back in 2005. They ask where your going & make sure the agent you see knows the place.

Yes – travel agents can get you better deals. We even have one on here who might be able to help you out – See http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/flights-to-australia-with-family-options#post-5584519

There’s some great deals on Etihad at the moment but Darwin’s the challenge I’d guess. Singapore do it though.

Have you tried Skyscanner?

They scour online travel agents and collate prices for you.

+1 for trailfinders, my folks just got all their internal flights for not much more than the normal return flight costs for Newcastle-Dubai-Perth then internal to Adelaide, Melbourne to Launceston, Launceston to Sydney then Sydney-Dubai-Newcastle. This came out cheaper than I could book those legs for. It’s worth asking anyway

Do you know anyone in Aussie who could book the internal flights for you?
This side of the ditch, it is heaps cheaper to book internal flights direct with the airline than for visitors to do so from the uk. Same website address, different website, different deals.