Australia July 2015

[indyandlara]

We are thinking about a 3 week holiday in Australia in July 2015. I am a teacher so completely tied to school holidays. We went at this time in 2008 but would be travelling with my daughter who will be 6 this time.

When are flights for July 2015 released? Costs for this July are eye watering but I am hoping this is because I am only looking 2 months out! Any guidance about flight price etc would be really appreciated. Also, stopovers or not? I thought that stopover would be a must but friends are saying no. We didn't stop other than refuelling last time but it was hard going.

where abouts are you going, it could be absolutely freezing in July!

Sydney then Cairns most probably.

The plane are refueled somewhere but normally you get off and change planes so the stop over can be as little as an hour. How long depends on the airline and what time your flight lands into Australia.

Hi. We have not long booked for feb next year and flights were released about 10-11 mths before. We actually booked through Expedia in nz as flights were so much cheaper (saved £700 even after bank charges). We are flying out with emirates via Dubai then returning Melbourne to Singapore (6 hours in transit but lots to do) with Qantas, then Singapore to Dubai with emirates (1.5 hour in transit) then Dubai to heathrow with Qantas. Although the return sounds horrendous it does mean each flight is reduced to 7 hours and the £700 saved is a big sum of money to us. Our kids will be 14, 10 and 7.

If you are transiting in singapore there is an excellent shower room. Quite cheap to use they have towels shampoo, hairdryers etc. makes an amazing difference to how you feel when you get to the final destination.

We're planning something similar (Melbourne and Sydney), for 4 weeks next summer, so I'll be watching this thread for tips too!

I will also watch this thread with interest as we are planning to go to Cairns, Uluru and possibly Darwin next July and I was shocked at the flight prices for this July being much more than we paid for this Easter, in what I had understood was low season. (I would be very hesitant about focussing on Melbourne and Sydney in the middle of winter.) If time were no object, I would put in an overnight stopover, just to minimise the lack of sleep as neither DS nor I sleep very well on planes, but dh's annual leave is limited so we will fly straight to maximise time in Oz. We flew with Etihad/Virgin Australia, transiting in Abu Dhabi, which worked well.

We're only doing Melbourne and Sydney as we have friends and family in both, which is our main reason for visiting. We're also tied to school hols so will go prepared for bad weather and be pleasantly surprised if we get some nice weather! Any tips on what to do/where to visit in both cities (in the winter) would be most appreciated.

Indy...hope you don't mind me jumping in on your thread!

I think flights will be released in July this year - round the world experts get good deals on emirates, Virgin & BA sales are usually good too but it's all down to booking at the right time. If you can be a bit flexible on dates you should get a good deal booking in September.
Stop-overs - with a 6yr old, Disneyland Hong Kong is an easy option, taxi from the airport, the hotel (&park) is cheaper than USA/France so it's a way to get the Disney visit done, we found the staff friendlier than the Florida and Paris but a lot of people photographed us/our children - if you can put up with that it's good.
Singapore is also great but full on, the zoo was good, night safari good, lots going on - I love Singapore.

I don't think I could do the flight in one go with a 6yr old.

Qantas release their flights 353 days in advance. BA release seats between 350 and 355 days in advance. My very savvy mate works out exactly when his chosen travel date will be released and gets on the web to book at midnight, as a few cheap seats can be released which get snapped up quickly.

I tried pricing it myself when I went last autumn and booked just less than a year in advance ( as soon as flights released). Looking online myself using Expedia/sky scanner/etc the prices were crazy pricing on the actual qantas site was much cheaper, but I actually found it a bit cheaper again through a long haul travel agent. Also if you want to stopover anywhere it seemed easier and cheaper for them to sort.

Oh and yes to the stopovers, it was a welcome break in my opinion. I did Singapore on the way out and HK on the way back. Especially the outward journey needed the break.
Singapore was ok though, wouldn't rave about it. It is VERY expensive, though it has a lot for kids. It rained for 48 hrs straight when we were there (I know it does rain there a lot, but this was exceptional) so I don't see all of it.

Emirates release their flights 11 months before the date.