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Don't spend more than you need to on your next holiday. Before booking, check out the latest flight deals and promo codes right here to see how much you can save on your fare.
Whether you're after a flight deal to Melbourne, Sydney or Perth, or are looking for deals on future international travel we should have just what you're looking for.
Available for travel on select dates until 21 October to 30 November 2023 and 15 January to 30 March 2024, unless sold out prior with a code. T&Cs apply.
Available for travel on select dates until 31 December 2023. Origin of destinations includes Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. T&Cs apply.
Students get a 10% discount on flights, additional checked baggage allowance and a free booking change. Must be KrisFlyer member who is currently enrolled at an eligible college or university. T&Cs apply.
To get the cheapest price on your flight, it pays to compare. Consider checking an aggregator – a site that searches multiple airlines' websites and online travel agencies at once – to get a wider range of available flights. Some flight aggregators include the following:
Comparing prices is one way to find the cheapest flights, but if you have a trusted website or preferred company, ask if they price match.
Booking with a company that will price-match your fare will also guarantee the lowest price for a flight. Usually, you'll need to compare apples to apples, so make sure you're looking at the same airline, the same departure date and time and the same inclusions (if you're needing extras like checked baggage). To learn more about this, read our guide that lists out booking sites and airlines that will let you price match.
Knowing which days flights go on sale is also key when booking. Many airlines have regular sales, whether weekly or annually, and booking during one can reward you with a low fare. We've seen prices drop as low as $19 recently with Jetstar during one such sale.
When is the cheapest time to fly?
Through our research trawling through flight searches to learn – and booking plenty for ourselves too – we've found that flying in the early morning or late at night tends to reward the lowest fare.
When it comes to the days of the week, Tuesdays and Wednesdays tend to have the lowest fares.
We're not the only place you can find some flight deals. Here's a couple of sites we love for finding the best deals on flights:
Expedia.com.au: Expedia is great for flexible travellers with its deals page showing lots of offers from flights in the future to those just a couple of months away.
Skyscanner: Skyscanner's deals find you the best value flights for up to 90 days in the future. It does the maths for you by displaying how much cheaper a fare is compared to its average price over the year. We've seen flights up to 39% cheaper than average.
Where can I find last-minute flight deals?
The days of running up to the counter at the airport and asking about standby flights are well and truly behind us. For last minute flight deals you can't look past aggregators including: Lastminute.com.au, Skyscanner and KAYAK.
In the days leading up to your preferred travel dates make sure to check sites frequently and note down the prices. Follow airlines on social media as they'll often announce last-minute deals there. Most airlines have their own newsletter announcing sales and reminders for their weekly specials.
If you want a round-up of the best flight sales without having to sign up to multiple newsletters you can join our flight deal alert mailing list.
How often do airlines have flight deals?
Virgin Australia has a weekly Happy Hour sale each Thursday from 4pm to 11pm (it occasionally runs for longer periods).
Jetstar sometimes drops a Fare Frenzy on Fridays which typically lasts only that night. It also has a Weekend edition.
Unfortunately, neither Qantas nor Rex Airlines offers weekly sales on a set date.
Is it cheaper to book flights early or last-minute?
If you know where you want to go and when, then booking ahead of time can save you money. "The early bird gets the worm" as it were.
If you've got flexibility on dates and/or destinations then you'll want to look out for last-minute sales. As take-off dates draw closer airlines tend to put the remaining seats on sale to make sure they fill-up the plane.
Should I clear cookies when searching for flights?
It doesn't hurt to try. Some experts swear that booking sites are tracking you and will put their prices up when you visit their site a few times.
There are a lot of normal factors that can result in prices changing, from a fare class selling out to high demand for a particular date.
While you can try clearing your cookies, using incognito mode or a VPN, we recommend you always do your research and compare fares to find the cheapest or best deal for your circumstances.
Is it cheaper to buy one-way tickets or round trip?
It depends on whether you're flying domestically or internationally and there are exceptions to the rule.
Flying domestically
It can be cheaper to buy two one-way fares. For example, when you search for return airfares on Skyscanner it looks for deals and offers from multiple airlines and travel agents, not just individual flights.
This $500 airfare was the cheapest return result generated by Skyscanner.
When we ran the same itinerary as two separate one-way flights we found the following:
Same times, same days but different prices totalling $484 saving you 3%.
Apart from circumstances like in our example, budget airlines like Jetstar usually sell one-way fares for the same price each way opting to charge per kilometres travelled.
Whether you purchase two one-way tickets or book the return airfare, the price should come out roughly the same.
Do look out for Jetstar "return for free" fares though, they're a steal.
Flying internationally
It's often cheaper to buy a return ticket. Pre-COVID-19, a lot of airline revenue came from business travellers jet setting across the world. Busy C-suite executives are less picky about pricing when their company is picking up the bill.
A cheaper return airfare provides an incentive to book with the same airline rather than go looking for flights via a competitor.
This $2,715 return fare was the best returned by Qatar (a cheaper fare had multiple layovers).
Looking for one-way fares for our travel dates we found the same flights:
The Sydney-London leg of the trip starts from $974, not bad, that's cheaper than half of the return airfare.
However, if we want to book the London-Sydney leg one-way the price blows out to $4,341.
Together, the two one-way tickets are nearly double the price of the return airfare.
Flying with flexibility
Flexibility provides more opportunities for saving. For our Sydney-London return example we found one-way flights from $736 (via Japan Airlines) and $1,797 (via SWISS and ANA) totalling $2,533. Compared to the Qatar return airfare, you save 6%. Of course, that's if you don't mind an extra stopover.
Consider all your options and fly smarter. You can find savings on flights and compare prices for yourself with Skyscanner.
Alex Keshen was Finder's senior travel and utilities publisher. Working in the online publishing space for more than 10 years, she has appeared in Travel Weekly and the Huffington Post. After graduating from Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada with a Bachelor of Journalism and settling into a career in publishing, Alex has become a master of maximising her annual leave and finding the best bargains around.
Even though Stayz doesn't usually offer Boxing Day sales, it's still worth checking out its great-value accommodation before booking your next trip away.Â
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