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!

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!

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.

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.