A thumb of rule for searching and finding the cheapest flights to Australia is first to choose when you want to travel, then the destinations you want to visit and craft your Australia itinerary around those places. One important thing is to select the incoming airport for your arrival in Australia: where your trip starts and ends.
Most of the times, you will use two different Australian cities for your flights to Australia. But no matter, using the same town or two separate destinations, will have no considerable impact on the final price of return airfares to Australia.
So now let’s take a look at how to find the cheapest flight tickets for travelling to Australia.
Booking your flight to Australia based on the primary destination you plan to visit is rule no. 1.
If you plan to cover a vast area of Australia, then it is advisable to start your trip in Australia from one airport and use a different city for your flight back home. If your travel itinerary is built on a loop, let’s say from Sydney to Sydney, arrival and departure airports will be the same.
When to book flights to Australia
From October to June is the best period to visit southern Australia and cities like Melbourne, Adelaide, or Sydney may get quite busy. June-September is the best time for getting good flight deals. But again it depends where you are heading to. In Northern Australia, it gets busy during the winter months of May-August, and therefore it’s a good idea to book in advance your flights to North Australia.
December and Christmas time is too busy, and it’s better to avoid travelling in Australia during this time. If you wish to visit Australia during this period of the year, then make sure you book at least 6-9 months in advance to get a good flight deal. I can recommend visiting Australia on low-season like March-April, or September-October. You will not only save money on your flight to Australia; it will be overall of better quality and cheaper. On this page, you can learn more about the best time to visit Australia.
What are the best airlines for cheap flights to Australia?
Among the several flight airlines, there are a few who get the best recommendation from travellers, for being “good value for your money”, as well as offering excellent service and comfort on board.
You can view this list here below where you can find:
A guide to the best Airlines to Australia from Europe
Emirates is the airline company that, in my opinion, offers the best flight deals from Europe. In terms of value for money, I do not think some airlines can provide their flight offers from Europe. The great advantage is the number of flights to Australia from over 30 destinations in Europe with the stop-over night option in Dubai.
Etihad is another good airline company. On their website, there are often sales, but in terms of destinations from continental Europe, they don’t serve all European airports, and they fly only to main Australian airports. Most Etihad fantastic flight deals are from London airports to Australia.
Qatar Airways has added more flight destinations to Australia like Adelaide. This is another great airline worth checking out if you are leaving from Europe, but the best deals are for flights from London to Australia.
Singapore Airlines among all listed airlines companies flying to Australia is known for its outstanding service and quality flights. I used a couple of times, and I was pleased with the flights from Europe to Australia. They are, however, 10-20% higher in price compared to the above airlines. It’s great if you want to add a layover in Singapore before flying into Australia.
Qantas also was known as “the flying kangaroo”, is the premium Australian airline that offers good value flights deals to Australia in terms of flexibility and choice. It is the official partner of Emirates so that you may have a Qantas-Emirates flight combination in your booked flight.
If you wish to take a view at the ranking of all airline companies that fly to Australia, visit Skytrax.
Tips for finding the best flight deals to Australia
According to an estimate, only 30% of travellers book online their flight to Australia. More than 2/3 ask a travel agency find for them the best flight fare or travel package.
I know it feels overwhelming at first, but when you have a list of tools where to search for, and you go through the process a few times, it’s very easy to learn, and you can find great deals by yourself. You don’t need a travel agent to be able to find cheap flights nowadays.
4 Simple Rules for Finding the Best Flight Deals to Australia
These simple rules will help you search more productively, thus saving tons of hours wading through all the online information you stumble upon.
- Start your flight search early
A golden rule is to start between 4-6 months for low-season flights, and 10-12 months for peak-season flights. Australia peak-season is everything between December and January, and July to August if you live in the northern hemisphere, because of the school holidays in Europe and in the US; and this is what inflates airfares to Australia. Peak-season flights to Australia can be to 50% higher during low-season. Your chances to get a good flight deal are much higher if you start researching a well time ahead and you can spread your searches over weeks, thus avoiding being under pressure.
- Always use more flight comparison sites
The best way to find a cheap flight is by doing cross-searches online. Which means you need to use 3-4 search engines at the same time. I would pick 3 of the best ones. Once you go through the process, take screenshots of the best deals and check those flights again on the airlines’ sites. At times you may find a better deal on the airline’s site, at times airlines may be more expensive. So it’s worth going through the process.
- Book Your Australia Flights over the weekend
Contrary to what it has been believed over many years, Tuesday is not the best day to book a cheap flight any more. But if you book on Saturday or even better on a Sunday, your chances to strike a better flight deal are much larger. If you start a good time ahead, you can also set up a price alert on Google Flights or on Skyscanner.
- Be flexible with your flight dates
Being flexible with flight dates is one key factor for getting the best Australia flight deal. The more flexible you are with departure and return dates, the better. If you instead are on a tight time frame and can only travel on specific dates, I recommend setting up an alert at least 6 months ahead and the search engine will deliver a notification via email when the flight prices drop for the desired route. Hoppen is a great resource if you prefer using an app instead.
Which Flight Comparison Websites to for Australia
There are a few flight booking sites for comparing flight fares. Here are some of the most user-friendly with real-time search results that you can use for your Australian Flights.
Kiwi
Kiwi Flights is a less-known, among all sites, but it has the most varied functionality. Although its design is not that user-friendly, it offers many options and tools to search for cheap flights fares. You can also build your flight combinations by using the flight chart that automatically shows the best available airfares for all destinations and searches among the entered date range. Kiwi, however, is an OTA (online travel agent), not a search engine, which means if you book a flight with them, you get more services like check-in, guaranteed connections, etc. included in the fare.
Momondo
Momondo is the most intuitive and user-friendly (and my favourite) search engine for comparing flights all over the world. Enter destinations and dates, and you will get a clear overview with a chart showing the price chart for each day so that if you are flexible on the dates, it’s very easy to identify the cheapest fare. It works in a similar way like Skyscanner, whereas Momondo is more straightforward and it delivers everything at a glance, Skyscanner you need to do go through more clicks to get all the information.
Skyscanner
Skyscanner: one of the best comparison sites for international flights, very easy to use and with a top-notch layout. I have been using this platform for a few years already and is among my favourite.
Google Flights is another great tool where you can check for the prices of all flights to Australia. Google shows it more on a monthly basis, and when you click on the date, you automatically are directed to those relevant flights.
More tips on for searching Online Flights to Australia
Depending on where you are leaving from, how flexible your schedule is, where you are going, and how you will be getting around, the price for your airfare to Australia may vary considerably. And because of the travel distance, the flight ticket may be the most significant expense of the whole trip, so it is wise to shop around a good time ahead and look for a good flight deal, to make sure to find the best Australia flight deals.
More info about Australian City Airports
No matter where you are flying from and how long you are staying in Australia, you are going to move within the country too, and you may want to check how to get there and what options are available.
More Info on these pages:
Cheap domestic flights in Australia
Travel Sites and Planning Resources
Australia Travel Planning Guides
