Can anyone ball park Christmas flight costs to NZ?

[NewBallsPlease00]

My brother announced he and his partner are moving to New Zealand for 5 years for a position of a lifetime. I'm thrilled for him and also gutted as I know they're not coming back ... Anyway, trying to find flight costs for next Christmas to budget for seeing him, but the flights aren't out for another month, and if I'm to stand any chance of getting the time off work I'll need to go in prepared with leave request form this week. Once granted I can't change it. So roughly how much might flights be per person?? U.K. To auklabd, decent carrier - not China eastern etc thabks

Always clear your browser and cookies before checking for flights. Your tablet or computer will remember what you have searched for and you won't get the cheapest flights again.

We are going to Perth again but in June this year. When I was looking I used sky scanner but also looked at code shares. We are going with Emirates from Glasgow. Emirates flights weren't out when I booked but qantas who code share with them were. Got the 3 of us return for £2800. We are still on the Emirates flights but booked with qantas!

Same flights 24 hours later with other airlines out of Scotland were £1000 more expensive. It's about checking daily and checking all options.

And it's not about the outbound flights. It's the inbound dates you want to keep looking for. What dates do you want?

Sorry not £2800 it should be £1800.

Someone I know just went to NZ for Christmas and paid around £700 return for her flights. It was with Air China and I think was a special deal as they've just started flying to NZ. I think usual flights are around £1,200 depending on who you fly with.

I would also consider China Southern if you really want to go at Christmastime as its cheap, the planes for both legs are brand new with good entertainment options. The food is average, and Guangzhou airport is terrible but if you know that in advance you can be prepared for it!

Try and get off this island first! You pay tax according to the distance from the capital city in the UK to the capital city in your destination country. Sometimes it is much cheaper to book a flight to maybe Dublin/Paris/Amsterdam first and then book the main flight from there. That way you are not paying the large distance tax. Examples of this was this summer flights from Heathrow to Vancouver were £1000 economy. They were £500 from Dublin via Heathrow and only £1005 business! Manchester to Johannesburg = £600, Dublin to Johannesburg £320.

Also try flying on Xmas day....not many people want to travel and so flights tend to be cheaper. I would second clearing cookies.

Also, look at round the world tickets. They were about £1k each when we went which sounds like good value compared to what some are quoting here. They allow you up to 6 stops.

Ketchup that's a great tip! Will look at that when we do Florida in a couple of years.