Flighthacker

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!

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!

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!

Vanuatu: If you miss the flight, there's always the boat... Photo Credit: koumarou973

With Fiji’s fortune fading, other Pacific nations have been stepping up their efforts to lure the travel dollar. Air Vanuatu has joined the fray, offering the following excellent fares for their full-service flights:

• Sydney – Port Vila: $496
• Brisbane – Port Vila: $471

Fares are for return flights and include all taxes. The catch: flights have to be booked either via phone or email (gasp! humans!) and depart only once a week from Sydney and Brisbane respectively. Sale is on now, for departures between 6 September – 24 October (ex. Brisbane) and 2 September – 28 October (ex. Sydney). Check out Air Vanuatu’s sale page for details.

Don’t bother with their ‘book a flight’ interface – it doesn’t work. Hopefully the guy who maintains their site doesn’t maintain their planes…

Cold in Melbourne? Fly to Phuket from December! Photo Credit: Shelby Lee Root

V Australia has announced the following new routes: Melbourne to Phuket, Brisbane to Phuket and Melbourne to Johannesburg, with the Phuket routes commencing 3 December and J’burg kicking off on 13 March, 2010! To celebrate, fares are now on sale ex. Melbourne and Brisbane to Thailand for $399 one way and ex. Melbourne to South Africa for $1899 return including taxes! [...]

Korean Air has dropped their fares to European cities, departing Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. I was able to book a Sydney to London fare for $1330 return including tax, however there are heaps of other routes to select from! [...]

Don't be sheepish, flock to New Zealand. Photo Credit: vtveen

Hot on the heels of Air New Zealand’s sale, Qantas is offering fares from Australian cities to Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland from $199 one way, $362 return including tax. Sale is on until midnight, Thursday, 20th July, for travel during 08 August to 25 September 2009, 12 October to 15 December 2009 & 27 January to 31 March 2010.

This is awesome value as Qantas’ fares are roughly the same as Jetstar’s on the Sydney to Christchurch route, for a full-service flight (including a minimum earn of 1,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points). Please note that this sale originated in New Zealand, so you will have to switch the “From:” and “To:” locations to depart from Australia.

Visit Qantas’ sale page for details and to book.

Air New Zealand are celebrating 1 million recent Australian visitors to New Zealand by offering 10% off fares*, if you use the promo code:

THANKS10

If you’re planning to travel to New Zealand, check out their “Nothing to Hide” sale – Sydney to Queenstown is $460 return for select travel periods between September and March, 2010. [...]

VirginBlue have just announced a rather compact sale, where instead of discounting oodles of routes, they’re offering sale fares on… Three. These are:

• Brisbane to Newcastle for $49*
• Newcastle to Gold Coast for $59*
• Adelaide to Perth for $89*

Check out VirginBlue’s sale details for more and to book. Don’t forget Jetstar Friday Fare Frenzy is coming up at 4pm, so if these fares don’t float your boat, come back this afternoon for more!