Christmas flights to Australia - anyone done it?

[HahaHarrie]

Hi

We are thinking of visiting my brother over Christmas who is in Brisbane. The flights are not available for booking as yet but I want to get an idea how much they will cost. We are a family of four and I'm fearing with will be incredibly expensive.

Did anyone fly last year and how much did it cost you? Is it better to buy the tickets sooner rather than later? Any advice very welcome!

Maybe I should have put this in Longhaul, but thought I'd try here first.

Thanks!

Will be about as expensive as it gets really!

Year before last three tickets to NZ leaving on the 22nd Dec (when school finished) was around £4.5k, friends were thinking of going back last xmas and four tickets were looking around £7k.

I have flown in late November for about £750 single and stayed right through to mid Feb, that was a great holiday :):)

Its very rare to get really good deals on Xmas flights, any deals promoted usually skip out that month of travel mid Dec to mid Jan IME

I'm sure someone will come along soon with actual experience but yes prepare yourself for something in the region of £5k - £7k I'd say but I'd be stoked for you if I am way off.

Thanks for the reality check Kiwi I was thinking nearer £4k... Ouch.

Obv NZ is a bit further away and with economies of scale (assuming there are more flights day to day to OZ) then its very possible NZ is more expensive, maybe post in Chat and ask if anyone has flown to OZ at Xmas, more traffic there will be able to give you a quick idea.

and if your kids are school age don't forget to add £60 per child per parent per week they are out of school!

Keep checking flight comparison sites like skyscanner, where you can see whole month at once, regularly as sometimes deals do come up.

We've had reasonable priced flights when travelled on non-ideal days. ie. Once arrived on Xmas eve & once on New Year's Day (kids went back to school a week late) to get cheaper flights. Obviously depends how important celebrating on 'right day' as opposed to importance of seeing family, but we just have big celebration when all family get together whatever day.

Agree, we flew out on Xmas eve once, in the air on Xmas day and landed boxing day, it was worth it then to save a fair bit on flight costs.

Prices go through the roof mid December and come back down between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. We have flown on or around Christmas to get the cheaper flights.

We're looking at doing it in reverse NZ to the UK this year. We'll fly before the 15th and come back early Jan but our school holiday's are different and there's no penalty pulling the boys out of school so that works for us.

Try Google flights. People are saying it's very cheap. I flew to Oz on Boxing Day once. The Qantas blokes were EXTREMELY free with the wine. It was great.

On tripadvisor you can set up a flight price watch.

It will email you regularly with flights and prices to your destination?

Thank you everyone. I will set up the flight comparision sites. We are restricted by school holidays unfortunately.

If you want any decent amount of time in Oz before school resumes in January there is no point flying Christmas Day or Boxing Day. Be prepared to spend around £6K for a family of 4 to fly at that time of year.
I would recommend going over the summer break...you can have nearly 6 weeks out there and the weather is not that bad even though it is 'winter'!

My friend in Brisbane said the same - if we went over in our summer hols the weather would potentially be better and certainly not worse than it would be at home...

I've done it. It cost us $9000for the flights for the four of us. On Emirates the flights increase massively on December 9th. I imagine it's the same for most of the airlines.

Emirates have an 11 month calendar so their December flights will be on soon.

I would go in the summer holidays for sure. There's more time and you will be far more comfortable temperature wise.

Did it last Christmas just over £6k with one under 12 & one over. Don't think you'll get close to £4k. Also missed a connection & took 3 days to get there. Don't go for any flights with less than a 2 hour stopover. Because it was Christmas all seats were booked & we had a nightmare journey!!!