A space for those who have queries or questions with regards to airports or flights or flight suggestions or flight specials.

I was told by 1 flight company that its best to wait for last minute deals to Australia as in booking a week before. I see that the cheapest flights are currently around R9800 for June 2011.

Can a last minute deal be THAT much cheaper?

^^ The cheapest I ever saw to Oz, where when V-Australia had their opening specials of R7000-R8000 to Melbourne, return.

Australia along with the USA are the two more expensive long-haul destinations. Do not foresee the price going much below R9000, especially with raising crude oil prices.

Thats what I thought. One would think winter would be a different case.

Need flight to Sydney.

My best price to Brisbane was in August (2008), a 2 for 1 special with Qantas and it worked out at R12500 all in for me, my wife and our baby. Am looking at going again so if you find anything Mo let us know.

I usually just send one e-mail to various agents asking for the best price. "best price wins"!

Often speicals only start a month or two before departure date but I wouldn't wait longer than that before booking. My best was R12,500 in business class to London on Etihad booked the day before departure but that was just luck.

I usually just send one e-mail to various agents asking for the best price. "best price wins"!

still using agents? All the agents i spoke to for my trip to UK, France Switzerland in Feb quoted me R2500 more than i could find on the net. So the net won.

Flight Centre however offered to beat the net price by R50 somehow and gave me a R500 voucher for future travel with them.

Multi-stop flight Durban-JHB-London. Zurich-JHB-Durban = R6910 on SAA and Swiss

still using agents? All the agents i spoke to for my trip to UK, France Switzerland in Feb quoted me R2500 more than i could find on the net. So the net won.

Flight Centre however offered to beat the net price by R50 somehow and gave me a R500 voucher for future travel with them.

Multi-stop flight Durban-JHB-London. Zurich-JHB-Durban = R6910 on SAA and Swiss

Agents as in a collection of agents and "flight centres" and our company's travel source (for discounts) etc. Essentially a mailing list.

Any quotes I get from travel agents always have ridiculous "add-on" taxes.

For all of us who's been complaining about the high fares by Airlink on DUR-GRJ...they now have a special with really low fares including taxes. I don't think it's ever been so low.
R550 DUR-GRJ
R505 GRJ-DUR
For travel between now and 6 March and 3 May to 15 June.

^^ really, now thats more like it. have they increased capacity or something?

No, no capacity or frequency change. I think they're just dumping the fares during the quieter periods to boost the route a bit and secure it.

I usually just send one e-mail to various agents asking for the best price. "best price wins"!

Have a look at kayak.com - a price comparison of airline websites, as well as flight brokers (expedia etc). Flights CPT-SYD on a random date in June give a lowest price of ZAR9191, booked through expedia.co.uk on Etihad airlines, change in Abu Dhabi. Departing from JNB, cheapest is ZAR8720, on Malaysian Airlines, booked directly.

signol

Have a look at kayak.com - a price comparison of airline websites, as well as flight brokers (expedia etc). Flights CPT-SYD on a random date in June give a lowest price of ZAR9191, booked through expedia.co.uk on Etihad airlines, change in Abu Dhabi. Departing from JNB, cheapest is ZAR8720, on Malaysian Airlines, booked directly.

signol

When I meant agents, I basically meant a mailing list of travel people.

Why there are better deals occasionally through them is that they often do block bookings, and when people cancel a block booking for a "tour" or it is not filled up, they essentially just want a reduced price for those seats, so you can pay a flat R5000 to London in peak, which is better than them getting nothing.

Think of a bank repossessing a property and just wanting to get it off their hands.

When I meant agents, I basically meant a mailing list of travel people.

Why there are better deals occasionally through them is that they often do block bookings, and when people cancel a block booking for a "tour" or it is not filled up, they essentially just want a reduced price for those seats, so you can pay a flat R5000 to London in peak, which is better than them getting nothing.

Think of a bank repossessing a property and just wanting to get it off their hands.

Sure, it's another string to the bow! I'm currently trying to price a good deal for our annual visit to SA, from our local airport (Norwich - NWI). Here's hoping it is not rediculous by the time we have the money to pay for it!

signol

Sure, it's another string to the bow! I'm currently trying to price a good deal for our annual visit to SA, from our local airport (Norwich - NWI). Here's hoping it is not rediculous by the time we have the money to pay for it!

signol

Return flights to SA from Europe are usually full of great deals.

Several friends make use of last minute deals to travel home to families in SA, but even well planned trips means it cheaper to live there and travel to SA more often to visit friends and relatives.