Flighthacker

Tiger Airways' extends its $28 fares until March, 2010!

Great news for those wanting to plan their domestic travel for the months ahead – Tiger Airways have extended the travel dates for their special $28 fares between Melbourne, Sydney, Launceston, Adelaide, Hobart and Canberra until 27 March, 2010. Even better news is that there are still affordable fares to the Tour Down Under in Adelaide on 17 January, 2010 (starting from $48 one-way). So if you’re still planning on cheering on Cadel Evans and Lance Armstrong, it’s not too late to take a punt.

Important Note: Due to the recent catastrophe in the Philippines caused by Typhoon Ondoy, Tiger Airways’ call centre is currently out of action. Please visit Tiger Airways’ advisory for the latest on this situation.

Sale is on now until 5 October, for travel between 6 October and 27 March, 2010. Visit Tiger Airways’ sale page for details and hop to!

Tiger Airways - The verdict is out.

Recently I had the pleasure of flying Tiger Airways between Sydney and Melbourne, on my own coin, of course. Prior to the flights, I had been inundated with both positive and negative stories regarding Tiger flights, ranging from, “Oh, you have to walk on the tarmac, ooooh!”, to “Well, it’s $28 a pop”, not to mention exposure to Channel 7’s controversial show, ‘Airways’. Combining these tales with my own experience, I realised that, for all its merits, perhaps Tiger Airways isn’t really for everyone. The following is my breakdown of what to expect on a Tiger flight; hopefully it will help you decide whether Tiger should be your carrier of choice, or if you should invest that extra few dollars to avoid the mobile stairs. Read entire article.

Fly low to Tokyo! Photo Credit: Ali Nishan

Jetstar’s 2-for-1 sale has come around yet again, with some excellent buddy-fares to Tokyo and Osaka, departing the Gold Coast, Cairns, Sydney and Melbourne. Here’s a summary of what to expect:

• Gold Coast – Osaka: $379 one way ($189.50 per person)
• Gold Coast – Tokyo: $379 one way ($189.50 per person)
• Cairns – Tokyo: $329 one way ($164.50 per person)
• Sydney – Osaka (via Gold Coast, on flight JQ19/20 only): $429 one way ($214.50 per person)
• PLUS: Individual Melbourne – Tokyo fares for an amazing $553 return, including tax! See Adioso for details

All fares are inclusive of taxes. As per the previous Jetstar Japan sale, Sydney have missed out. Read my previous post on how Sydneysiders can get a jump on these fab fares. Sale is on now until 30 September, for travel between 5 October – 7 December, 2009. Check Jetstar’s sale page for details.

Take your mum, it’s a great time to fly!

Our first meetup: Stirred and shakin'! Photo Credit: Maschinenraum

Well, it turned out that the Flighthacker + Adioso + Silicon Beach Meetup made for a pretty rowdy (if not short), night! Bar 77 was bursting from the seams with all sorts of crowd, from travel nuts to tech scene-kids, some new faces, some party haunts from old. In essence, it was in high spirits for a good two hours, before someone announced, “Beer Pong!” and we all evacuated for an evening of pegging balls at plastic cups, courtesy of our good friends at Tjoos. It’s an American thing, I assure you.

Well, the key learning from that evening was that we’ve got the numbers, but sure missed a lot of people we would like to have talked to. So next time, we’ll scale it back and make it a little less daunting than a room mashed with folks from every trade.

That said, who’s up for Web Week?

A striking red dust storm blankets Sydney. Photo Credit: tolomea

For the first time in living memory, Sydney has been hit by an apocalypse-red dust storm, paired with gale-force winds and a whole lot of environmental anxiety. This has caused chaos on both the ground and in the air, causing numerous flights to be redirected to Melbourne and Brisbane airports and creating major delays for passengers arriving to or departing from Sydney Airport. Even I encountered a significant delay this morning, while determining whether I wanted to walk through a painted reproduction from the final chapter of a children’s Bible. Finally, I closed my eyes and stepped outside – it couldn’t be any worse than in the Emirates, if they were to ever have a cold day, right?

If they ever had a day this cool in Dubai, I’m sure there would be chaos, too. But that was beside the point.

Onto the practical stuff:

• As of the time of writing, Sydney Airport’s website has been put out of order due to the influx of enquiries regarding flight delays
• Significant delays are to also be encountered at Brisbane airport, due to the arrival of redirected flights
• Qantas has announced that they will be refunding or rescheduling passengers on affected flights
• Jetstar will be rescheduling passengers on affected flights until Friday
• No word from Tiger Airways and Virgin Blue – call your airline if you are concerned about potential delays on flights departing in the next 24 hours

Well, the skies are starting to clear now over Sydney in a fascinating transition, from the morning’s blaze of grapefruit red, to a dull orange-yellow, to cottage cheese and finally, a sliver of blue. Check out this amazing Sydney dust storm photo set on Flickr.

What a dramatic, final day to my twenty-fifth year!

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By popular demand, the inaugeral Flighthacker meetup is happening this Friday, 25 September at the Grace Hotel, 77 York St, Sydney. Festivities will kick off at 6pm.

Our special guests are Tom and Fenn, the extremely talented (and well spoken) founders of Adioso.com. As you may know, Adioso powers much of the airfare research that takes place on this site and is simply the first place to check if you’re in the market for a discount flight. So if you’re interested in travel, technology or simply beer, come along. It’s going to be a big night!

No need to RSVP – simply rock up on Friday and share a beverage with us!

Crave Singapore? On sale ex. Sydney from $416 return

I love Jetstar’s sneaky little sales and this one out of Singapore certainly brings a smile to my dial. Jetstar Singapore have announced their “Crave Sydney” sale, which is just as good for us Australian folks who crave Singapore. Fares to Singapore ex. Sydney are now $534 return including tax, for travel between 20 October – 10 December, 2009.  Sale ends 21 September.

Adioso have all the fares; make sure you select a $344 fare to Singapore and the $190 fare back to Sydney. Check out Jetstar’s Singapore sale page for details, lah!

Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia: You can almost see Perth from there. Now $219 one way with Jetstar.

Perth has had a fabulous run of sale fares these last few months and this Kota Kinabalu sale is no exception to the trend. Jetstar is offering fares via Singapore for an exceptional $219 one-way including tax for departures in 2010, hopefully marking the beginning of Jetstar’s offering of post-Christmas sale fares. I hope.

Why do I love Kota Kinabalu? In all honesty, there is nothing to dislike. Kota Kinabalu in Borneo, Malaysia’s eastern province, is a great value holiday destination, offering shopping, snorkelling and a seemingly endless array of outdoor pursuits. Kota Kinabalu’s most famous attraction, Mount Kinabalu, makes for a challenging, yet highly rewarding climb… Especially considering that Mr. Flighthacker popped the question atop the summit in March!

Sale is on now until 18 September, for travel between 24 February – 20 March and 21 April – 29 June, 2010. Check out Jetstar’s sale page for details and to book.

Like myself, you may find yourself on Mount Kinabalu with a bigger rock than you expected!

Booking fees. What exactly are we paying for, anyway? Photo Credit: Martin Kingsley

The topic that’s tying knots around the Australian travel industry this week is that of booking fees, being that rather capricious sum that unexpectedly bumps up the bill when you’re purchasing a hotel room or airfare. Following the lead of their parent sites, both Expedia and Zuji Australia lifted their booking fees this week, with Zuji plumly citing that they are “outdated in these tough economic times”. However, despite the success of this tactic in the United States (with Priceline.com gaining market share when they went booking fee-free in 1998), Webjet have expressed with certainty that they will not be following suit… Read entire article.

Fly to where the good weather is - Whitsundays on sale. Photo Credit: Dinaiz

In a fare war most unlikely, Jetstar and Virgin Blue have gone head-to-head for the supreme title of… The cheapest carrier to service the Whitsundays. Or, the head-honcho high-flyer of Hamilton Island. Being one of the many Australians who has circumnavigated South-East Asia but hardly seen anything north of Brisbane, I cannot quite work out why Jetstar has decided to pick this fight (Virgin came out with the fares first), however if you’re planning a North Queensland break either side of Christmas, here are some great fares for you:

• Sydney to Whitsunday Coast (Bowen Airport, Virgin Blue): $268
• Melbourne to Whitsunday Coast (Bowen Airport, Virgin Blue): $308
• Sydney to Hamilton Island (Virgin Blue): $148
• Melbourne to Hamilton Island (Jetstar): $200

For some reason, I haven’t been able to find the advertised sale fares from Brisbane (but apparently they exist). All prices quoted above are for return travel, including all taxes. Sale is on now until 11 September for both airlines. Jetstar travel dates are: 1 Feburary – 10 March 2010, except Melbourne – Hamilton Island where travel is for 2 November – 9 December 2009 and 1 Feb – 10 March 2010. Virgin Blue travel dates are: 2 November – 9th December 2009 and 1Feb – 10th March 2010.

Check out Adioso.com for prices and availability, plus Jetstar and Virgin Blue’s sale pages for details. Follow the sun to the Whitsundays!