Flighthacker

AirAsia X is set to bring the great travel deals to Sydney from 1 July, 2010. Photo Credit: onggon (Flickr)

Travel Weekly broke the news that we’ve been all hanging out to hear, announcing today that AirAsia X has tentatively set 1 July as the date to commence direct Kuala Lumpur – Sydney flights. For now, daily departures are on the cards, to be potentially upped in the future.

It isn’t the first time that AirAsia has stated its intent to fly into Sydney, however with the resolution of the dispute between AirAsia and the Malaysian Government over the Kuala Lumpur Low Cost Carrier Terminal (KL LCCT), it seems a lot more feasible this time. Stay tuned to this blog and our travel tweets for updates.

In related news, Tiger Airways Australia has stated its plans to more than triple its fleet from 17, to 68 aircraft by 2015. With this will come greater frequencies on existing routes and the introduction of new routes across Australia and Asia. Read more on this venture.

More routes, more departures, cheaper flights. This is going to be an excellent year for the budget traveller!

These sale fares should have you hanging out for Macau. Photo Credit: Henrik Berger Jørgensen

Viva Macau may not be the most classy airline, but it sure does offer the punters a cheap fare to China. For the next 3 days, they’re offering direct flights between Sydney and Macau for $700 return, including tax! Direct flights also depart Melbourne for about $20 less each way.

Sale is on now until 14 January, for travel between 1 March – 24 October, 2010. Take a look at Viva Macau’s promo newsletter for details.

When Winter starts to set in, take off with Jetstar! Photo Credit: Flickr user Christopher Bearman

Jetstar have dropped their fares between Australian cities and a number of international destinations including Osaka, Tokyo, Phuket, Bangkok, Christchurch and Auckland, for departures during April – June, 2010. My favorite – flights to Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City) are now only $427 return including tax ex. Sydney. Perfect for avoiding the blues as Winter approaches!

Other return fares ex. Sydney include:

• Christchurch from $264
• Bangkok from $587
• Tokyo from $617
• Phuket from $635

This doesn’t seem to be an advertised price drop, so get in quick for cheap fares. Naturally, visit Adioso to find select dates and fares for your destination of choice.

I anticipate we will see more price drops  like this between now and Feb, however don’t let the opportunity pass if you genuinely want to visit these destinations. On a related note, it is not known if the detainment of two Qantas/Jetstar Pacific employees over a dispute regarding jet fuel futures will affect future Jetstar operations into HCM City. For the interim, I’d say it’s totally safe to purchase away. Happy travels!

Need another holiday? Singapore on sale for less than $450 return

Jetstar has dropped the prices for all its routes to Singapore, meaning that you can pick up some unbelievable return fares, including:

• Melbourne return from $386
• Sydney return from $446

All fares are including tax. Departures are in late Feb – March. The full round-up of dates and fares can be found on Adioso.

I predict that we’re going to be seeing a lot more cut-price fares as January & February bring the usual retail lull. So, there’s no rush to spend your Christmas money all at once – by the end of January, there’s certainly going to be more where this came from.

Happy new year, everyone! I wish you all great adventures and more coin to spend on cocktails in 2010.

Perth. It's a long way, baby. Credit: Flickr user Ole Reidar Johansen

If you thought Adelaide had all the luck yesterday, well today is Melbourne’s day. Tiger Airways has excellent fares ex. Melbourne, including the Sydney $10 mid-week special, $20 fares to Brisbane (both one-way) and $206 return fares to Perth, including tax! Most departures are in March. Considering the price of Perth fares, it’s worth flying in from other capital cities to take advantage of this cheap round trip. I’ll be darned if I find a one-way fare for this price.

Check Adioso for a round-up of the cheap flights available from Melbourne. Full details feature on Tiger Airways’ sale page. This sale ends Thursday night. It’s great to be back, by the way. Thank you for hanging in there!

Nope, you don't get ants like these in Sydney. Credit: Flickr user vtveen

Tiger Airways has gone a little wild during the month of February, offering $20 flights between Sydney – Adelaide and Adelaide – Alice Springs. This means that if you line up your flights (departing Sydney on Tuesday or Saturday, then returning the following Wednesday), you can fly from Sydney to Alice Springs for only $80 return, inclusive of taxes! If you’ve ever tried booking a holiday to the red centre, you will know that fares for this route can easily cost $700 – $800 with Qantas. No wonder that Australians don’t visit their own backyard…

You can find details for these sale fares on Tiger Airways’ sale page. Dates for the Adelaide – Alice Springs legs are also searchable on Adioso. Sale is on for departures in February only and also includes other awesome fares ex. Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Get crawling!

Although details are sketchy at this moment, Jetstar have announced that in conjunction with Macquarie Bank, they will be releasing a Jetstar MasterCard in two flavours today – being regular and platinum. For the regular card, every dollar spent equates to 1c in Jetstar money, which can eventually be redeemed for flight vouchers and promotional offers. For platinum, this doubles to 2c.

Word has it that there may be a Qantas/Jetstar points tie-in announced next year.

Make sure you check details first, but the skinny is that interest will be pegged at 10.99% and the card itself will come with a $49 annual fee. So, if you think all those cents accrued will exceed the annual price tag, then it doesn’t seem too rough to me. Hopefully it won’t come with a minimum spend in order to collect points, like that pesky Everyday Rewards/Qantas Frequent Flyer card.

Watch this page for the card’s launch later today.

Fly low to Tokyo! Photo Credit: Ali Nishan (Flickr)

Planning an international break next year? Or a ski trip to Japan’s legendary powder in February? Jetstar have released some amazing fares across their entire network, including international destinations! My favourites are as follows:

• Sydney – Tokyo for $590 return
• Gold Coast – Tokyo for $472 return
• Sydney – Bangkok (via Melbourne) for $575 return
• Well, any of the Japan fares ex. Australia… They’re all fabulous!

All fares listed  above are for Jetstar Light fares and are inclusive of tax. Travel periods are 10 November – 14 December 2009, 28 January – 23 March, 2010 and 20 April – 20 June, 2010. That said, check from February onwards for the cheapest and most plentiful fares and our friends at Adioso.com to find that bargain!

Oodles of routes are on sale, for both domestic and international travel, so check Jetstar’s sale page for the latest. Banzai!

A couple of shorts from the last few weeks:

• Tiger Airways is now flying between Sydney and the Gold Coast, commencing 15 December. Introductory fares start from $39, with daily frequency.
• Virgin Blue and Pacific Blue flights will no longer accept cash for food and entertainment services on their flights – only credit card. Just as well – carrying loose change on international flights is a bit of a drag.
• Singapore Airlines and others are encouraging punters to buck the discount trend and purchase earlybird fares. So far, these fares are largely hot air, being neither particularly cheap (Sydney to London for $2000 with Singapore Airlines) and in the face of a strengthening dollar, not necessarily in short supply.
• Tiger Airways has more than enough material for another season of Airways, with a flight cancellation delaying passengers in Hobart for up to 3 days. Tiger denies that the police were called – that said, if I was stranded in Hobart for 3 days…!

It’s great to be back on the couch. Game on!

On the job, off the blog. Well, we're back! Photo Credit: cobalt123 (Flickr)

Hi folks, as you know, I’ve been on break the last few weeks, focusing on non-Flighthacker related activities such as a new job and well, just getting some R&R. The good news is that we’re in the air again, kicking off with Jetstar’s international sale! Anyway, enough with the formalities, lets get back to business…