[drpaj]

Hey I'm looking to fly out of RDU in Raleigh NC to visit Sydney and Melbourne in Australia. Looking to do this in June/July. Thanks for any help/pointers about finding/where to find cheap round trip flight.

Was tempted to stop over in Hong Kong, but with how expensive this is just might stick to two cities in Australia and back

[elcidcampeador]

If you want to stopover in hong kong, buy a ticket on Cathay Pacific. Most of their fares allow for a free HK stopover.

[Adrenaline]

I can't help you with the flights, but you've picked a bad time to come to Australia as it will be right in the middle of winter and Melbourne in particular has terrible weather during that time. Girls will be locked up inside (Trust me, Australian women are to lazy to wear dresses in the cold and hate getting their hair/make up ruined by rain) and clubs turn into mass sausage fests. Most of the tourist activities involve the outdoors and require decent weather as well so that may be off the table too. Don't get me wrong, you may still be able to find a good time on weekends in some of the major bars/clubs, but other than that you'll probably be out of luck.

My suggestion would be to head to Queensland (Brisbane/Gold Coast) as one of your destinations. They generally get the sunniest weather and sometimes winter can be more pleasant than summer up north.

[Seadog]

I just checked ITASoftware, and best I'm seeing is about $1600 for about a one month stay. Which to Australia isn't bad.

Another thing which a friend of mine did about 7 years ago is to fly to Hawaii, and then Jetstar has direct flights to Sydney from there. Right now they're look like 359 there, and 489 back, baggage likely extra, so not exactly a deal right now. My friend was only going one way, but able to get a seat sale to Hawaii from eastern Canada for about $400, and then it was under $300 for the Sydney leg, and a free stopover in Hawaii. Just something to keep an eye on.

Having lived and travelled extensively in the SE Asia region, my go to strategy when coming from North America was to fly into a visa free hub (Singapore, KL, Tokyo, Jakarta) go through customs, then just catch a discounter flight to whereever. Unfortunately Australia, being so far from everything is a whole different beast. I'm seeing return flights to Singapore for about $1300, but then you still need to get to Australia, which will certainly cost more than $300...

The other thing I frequently do is to go to the wikipedia page for the airport (Sydney: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Airport ) and it lists all the airlines and destinations. Check each one which connects in a hub you might be able to fly to for cheap from the US. I'm not sure what your idea of 'cheap' is, but if the stars line up sometimes you can save hundreds of dollars doing that.

[CodyB]

Hi

Looks like United or Qantas via JFK/Dallas for around $2K AUD.

Bad time of year to go though. Reconsider your plan mate.

[ASOT]

(05-10-2015 10:13 PM)CodyB Wrote:  

Bad time of year to go though. Reconsider your plan mate.

x2.

Drapaj, Melbourne is a great city to live, but not so much in winter. If you're coming here to see family/friends or for some other purpose, fine. But I think spending $2000 on a ticket and $200 per day (minimum) to travel here when you could do any of the following isn't wise.

-Buy a ticket 1/4 of that value and spend less per day for any given living standard in South America
-Buy a ticket 1/2 of that value and spend equal or less per day in Europe (which is in summer)
-Buy a ticket 1/10 of that value and spend equal or less per day in Florida or Cali (also in summer)

Its a different story if you have $500 per day to spend on accommodation and fun because between the sports, clubs, 5 star dining and huge range of activities you'll have a good time even in winter, but then would you be asking on how to save on a ticket? If you're set on it though theres plenty of Aussies who can advise you on what to do/see

[zatara]

You know all the horror stories you hear about London weather being unlivable - jokes on sitcoms etc? Melbourne in July is about as close to that as you can find in Australia. If there's any way you can go at a different time of year you really should.

[CodyB]

(05-12-2015 02:42 AM)zatara Wrote:  

You know all the horror stories you hear about London weather being unlivable - jokes on sitcoms etc? Melbourne in July is about as close to that as you can find in Australia. If there's any way you can go at a different time of year you really should.

Jeez mate, let's not go to far.

Melbourne will hit 14-16 degrees every day and won't go below freezing. Dress the right way and you will always be comfortable.

Biggest problem is that the pickings are slim outside of weekends.

[zatara]

(05-12-2015 03:51 AM)CodyB Wrote:  

Jeez mate, let's not go to far.

Melbourne will hit 14-16 degrees every day and won't go below freezing. Dress the right way and you will always be comfortable.

Biggest problem is that the pickings are slim outside of weekends.

It's 7C with 3.3mm of rain in Melbs tonight, and its only mid-May! Not my idea of an ideal holiday destination...

Winter in places where it's properly cold (-5C) is usually cool because of the snow/novelty. And 'winter' anywhere 20C+ and sunny is obviously lovely. Winter in Melbourne is that awful UK style middle ground of rainy/kinda cold, though, I found when I was there.

OP Sydney won't be quite as bad. Though if you must do Oz in July take Adrenaline's suggestion on-board and maybe consider Queensland.

[Green-On-GO]

Save your cash forget Melbourne.Sydney is good and Queensland.I was talking to some French girls last week who love Melbourne.Its a thousand times better they said..the reason there are more men in Melbourne than Sydney..That's from them not me.They were 6 or 7 in looks.

[Que enspastic]

London's weather is considerably better than Melbourne's. It doesn't rain a fraction of what it does in Melbourne and much less wind chill. People think I must be itching to get back to Australia for the better weather and don't believe me when I say it's an improvement in the UK to what I'm used to.