Husband, 4yo and myself have to fly to LHR end of May (27-29th) then back to BNE June 30th. I've been tracking flights for some time now on the select few airlines I will travel on (ex-cabin crew who is a stickler for safety) and the cheapest I have seen in the last 4-5wk is $7745 return on Singapore Airlines. I am getting antsy - do I pull the trigger today and cough up what will be the most I have ever paid for a return long haul, or do I wait it out a few days until the -90 days before travel when flights "supposedly" hit their lowest?! Anyone know of any upcoming sales/deals or have any advice?? I loathe paying full fare as it is, but these current prices are a total reaming. FYI the only airlines I will travel to Europe with are Singapore, Virgin, Qatar, Emirates, Etihad and BA.
ETA: As much as I wish I could still fly premium on a fraction of the fare, we are in economy - unless an insane deal comes up!
ISO Crystal Ball Predictions: Deals on BNE to LHR Flights for May/June
Comments
LOL I can see why you'd guess that, but I'm ex Virgin Blue and Virgin Atlantic. :) From what I know is happening @ QF after the mass uptake of redundancy offers across the board (but particulary in engineering and on the flight deck) at the start of COVID, I am not prepared to roll the dice on the safety of my child.
Virgin Blue
There's a blast from the past. Thanks for the memories.
If that's your take on QF, then you shouldn't be flying VA either, lol. (and EY and BA come to think about it)
What class? economy, premium or business?
My bad! Economy. Updated post. TY.
OK next question is, Do you mean $7745 per person or total for 2 adults and one child?
The best options with your airline preferences is probably direct from Singapore airlines website BNE-LHR, depart 29th May, rtn 30 June $3000 economy per adult.
You can select mixed class and fly economy day time flights each way SIN-BNE and PE on the long overnight SIN-LHR return for $6300.
You might be able to get it slightly cheaper with 2 stops on another carrier like Etihad but the hassle and potential for missed connection, not worth the saving.
I dont think the flights will get any cheaper closer to departure date. All the airlines are limiting capacity and flying with full aircraft and selling seats for a premium due to demand.
Dang, you're good! I didn't know you could mix flight classes!
$7745 was for all 3 of us.
And I don't mess with more than 1 stop. I'm too old for those shenanigans - plus flying with a toddler is already a hellscape without adding in more airports/opportunities for failure.
I like your logic (as much as my wallet doesn't!). Thank you for your time and insights.
There is emirates 10% voucher on here and also Qatar seems to regularly senddiscount codes the last one was 12% off. I recently booked to fly in May and noticed my flights have gone up by 2k yet the flight load still the same. So I would expect it to down it to fill the remaining seats.
Ooh thank you! Who did you book with, if I may ask please? And are you crew?? Asking as I thought flight loads were only available to staff.
Probably fare bucket availability via a GDS, expertflyer or KVS
I went with emirates as the A380 can’t be beaten for long haul travel especially with kids. I would hate to be stuck in B777-300ER used by the other airlines. Not crew but worked in aviation. There are site like expertflyer or simply if you try and book and select seats you can a very good idea of how busy the flight is.
Also, site like itamatrix are great to find great deals.
Ever since Google bought them itamatrix itself isn't that great at displaying discount fares anymore. But since Google has incorporated itamatrix into Google Flights, that's a much better tool.
SQ are operating 3 x daily A380 Lhr flights & from what I heard, pretty much every day there leving full in all classes. Not sure if demand will drop in the coming months but I feel SQ / EK etc are deliberately delaying aircraft back from storage to keep prices high.
Tim Clark at Emirates has said they wont have a full fleet back until mid 2024 so I imagine international prices will stay high until then☹️
Nonsense, delaying aircraft return only burns money. Every second the plane is on the ground the plane is burning money in storage fees and lost utilisation/depreciation. These costs will far outweigh any increase in revenue from a small increase in fares.
The bottle neck in returning aircraft to the air are staff availability (not just flight attendants and flight crew but ground staff and airport capacity), and availability of services and cash flow to perform the required maintenance/services to re-establish airworthiness after prolonged storage.
I'm guessing you are ex QANTAS cabin crew?