Can anyone suggest the cheapest way to get to Oz at short notice?

[SheilaWheeler]

Briefly - my brother has a terminal illness, we have had the family goodbye. He lives in Canberra, we are in the UK and my other brother and I would dearly love to go to his funeral which may well be in the next few months.

We have been looking at flights and prices, and booking at short notice is seriously expensive. When my Oz brother came over to say goodbye to the family he paid 9000Au$ each for flights (yep - nine thousand Au$!).

Does anyone have any ideas of the cheapest way to fly to Oz when the time comes? Would it be cheaper to have several stop-overs or go direct to Canberra.

Thanks if you can help

Talk to the airlines and tell them the circumstances, they can only say 'no' if you ask for a free or discounted fare.

There are someties charter flights that can be cheaper and it can also be cheaper to fly via Europe, I once knocked £150 off a fare by changing planes in Germany.

Check flying into any Oz airport and travelling on internal flights - I had some prebooked in the UK, but that was a few years ago now.

I agree with phoning the airlines. Don't go online. Phone and explain. They do this all the time. My bil and sil got on a same day flight from Perth back to Scotland when mil was dying.