Consider a Round The World ticket too. Some friends have just been to see their daughter in NZ. They flew Manchester, London, LA, NZ, Singapore, London, Manchester. With stopovers in LA, NZ and Singapore. They paid less than some other friends who did Manchester to NZ via Singapore return and no time in Singapore on either leg.

Looking for a good deal to NZ next xmas to see our son - managed to find flights for £500 last year in April, but cant for the life of me remember which site that was... our local travel agent matched the price and we booked with them. It was with Royal Brunei which were a great airline to travel with. We did have several stops - from London to Dubai, Brunei, Brisbane then Aukland, so it was five flights in total from Edinburgh but was fine!

I notice that with a lot of sites you cant get bring up that far ahead.

Any info gratefully received !

Most airlines don't publish their timetables till eleven months ahead. I think you will have to pay more than 500pounds at Christmas for flights to Auckland but you should be able to find a flight/price this coming January.I don't know if AIr New Zealand will have any reasonable priced flights but they are an excellent airline and you would only have three flights each way. Edinburgh-London-Hong Kong-Auckland or Edinburgh London-Los Angeles-Auckland. Same goes for Thai or Malaysia with a stop in Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, three flights in all.
A couple of years ago I went to Australia and started looking at flight prices on Expedia eleven months before travel. I have seen someone recommend ebookers for flights.

Thanks Judith... thought it may be a bit early to book. I just wish I could remember what site I went into last year - noone else came up with that deal.

Looking to book flights to Aukland around 18 Dec to 5 Jan... some wont let you book that far ahead, others are coming up with crazy prices of £1400 + per person. Are there any places to look to bag a bargain so to speak. Last time we got flights for £600 each at Easter time 06, had five stops from Edinburgh, but that was fine, didnt bother us as it was nice to stretch our legs. Thing is, I cant remember who we booked through, just remember it took me a few weeks to find that flight [it was on Royal Brunei who were excellent].

Any info advice received?

daveyjp

I have never searched for round the world tickets before - where do you start?

ElleDee

Without recomending any particular sites just type in "round the world flights" in google this should point you in the right direction, some very good and cheap prices comming up at the moment. I have been looking and direct OZ flights are around £750, these round the world tickets are comming up at £800 and they stop in 3-6 places on the way- so you can see a bit more of the world! bargin!

ElleDee, if your planning on booking for Christmas you better get moving, as the fares will be going up already as most of the cheap seats will be gone. Fares for xmas have been on sale for almost a month now. You will be looking at a fare of at least 800-1000 punds per person plus tax now, and this WILL go up.

Your best bet for fares is to try some of the more specialist companies like travel bag, airline network, travelmood or the likes, even your average high street agent should be able to get some good fares.
The only thing to watch out with RTW tickets is airport tax, as it can really bump up your fares.
The cheapest RTW tickets are the Escapade (Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand) or the Dreamtime ticket (Qantas, BA, Air Pacific)

Thanks for your replies. Unfortunately a lot wont let me put in as far ahead as I want, ie return say 5th January, or some just arent available online, ie travelbag. Shall try again tomorrow!!!

Booked last week with Trailfinders but I am returning from Perth and staying until the 12th January as the flights were busy for earlier in January.

Sue

What did you pay for this through Trailfinder?

I am flying out to Auckland from Manchester in November via Singapore. I am stopping over for 2 nights and am going to book the Singapore Airlines stopover package as this is good value in my opinion.
I then fly direct to Auckland again with SA.
I am cruising from Auckland and the cruise will end in Sydney. Trailfinders have then booked a one way ticket from Sydney to Perth as I am going to visit my brother. This flight is with Qantas as SA don't fly domestic.
I then leave Perth on the 12th January to return to the UK again via Singapore with SA.
In total I paid £1199 but considering that the flight from Sydney was £182 I think it is a pretty good fare.
If you can travel between April and the end of June this is when the prices are at their lowest.
For me I had intended going to Australia in any case and tying in the cruise means I can kill 2 birds with one stone.

Sue

Have decided to go next March, around the 14th till around the 12 April as Xmas time is far too pricey, and weather still good at this time [at least a couple of years ago it was!!!]. Would like to have a couple of stops enroute or break the journey back... tried to price out a round the world ticket as suggested but having problems trying to do this - any recommendations gratefully received!! Fancy Dubai as one stop for definate.

Definately going to book for end of March 09 for three weeks - our son is getting married then... looked at flights from Edinburgh and cant find anything under £900 for then! Gee... what a hike in prices since the last time we went, a third more than a couple of years ago!

We normaly use Emirates from Glasgow to Sydney, we are going late March for four weeks, and the Emirates flight is now £1200 !! hundreds more than last year. We managed to book through Dialaflight, three weeks ago for £700, and got shuttle flights to H/row for £70 with BMI, a saving of over £400 per ticket, not so handy as Glasgow, but worth the hassle for that saving. I did a trawl recently and all the down under flights have gone up by at least £100 in the last tree weeks, so it looks as if it can only get worse. Alan

Thanks for that... will have a wee trawl tonight. Elle

Dialaflight coming out quite a bit more for Auckland.

Has anyone booked flights differently, ie not from UK straight through? I would like to break the journey and have maybe a couple of days in Fiji or somewhere like that en route? Perhaps book seperate legs of the journey via different companies? It seems a shame to go so far and only see one country.