Flights to Sydney for March

Any ideas on taking the guess work out of finding flights from Minnesota to Sydney for a good rate in March 2016? Minneapolis might be our bet?

As this is all about flying, I would go over and do some reading on the Cruise Air board, here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=128

and do some reading. In the end, there is no magic trick to buying an airfare, you just have to do your research, find a fare you can live with, buy it, and don't look back.

You will see resources over there like ITA Matrix, and other strong info.

Much depends on what you call a good rate! You may be looking at around $2000 each.

I use Cruiser Bruce's mantra --do my research, find something that works well for our personal travel needs (# of stops, preferred seating, overnights, etc) as well as price wise. I initially use a website like Expedia to get a general idea then book on the airlines site. If I have frequent flier miles for short hops I sometimes use them for the US leg of a journey ex Minnesota to LAX.

First you have to get to one of these major US airports to then fly direct to Australia .

Qantas QF flies from New york, Dallas Fort Worth or Los Angeles to Sydney direct . QF code shares with American AA on US domestic connections.

Air New Zealand NZ flies from Los Angeles or San Francisco via Auckland to Sydney . Also code shares with a major US airline.

UNITED flies from US to Sydney .

Any ideas on taking the guess work out of finding flights from Minnesota to Sydney for a good rate in March 2016?

Find out which airlines offer reasonable routings to Sydney, and in which combinations. Who operates the flights? What service levels do they offer? Which are the more comfortable aircraft? What times of the day do the long-haul flights leave? How easy is it to connect from airports that are near to you?

Then find out what typical fares are - look further out from now, where you should find that they tend to bottom out. (Fares for travel in the nearer future tend to be more expensive.) Look at the impact of seasonality. What are the likely brackets for fares? See whether there are marked and persistent differences between different airlines/airline combinations. Try to find out what happens when there are fare sales. What sort of discount has typically appeared in the past, and how does that affect the fare bracket that you're looking at? Is there any pattern to when there are sales? When there is a sale, is there any pattern to which travel dates the sale will cover? How will you find out if there is a sale on?

That way, whenever you see a fare, you will start to have some yardsticks against which to measure whether it is good value.

If you want to take the guesswork out of it, there are no shortcuts. You're researching a commodity market that's driven by supply and demand. It will take days and days of work, spread over a period of time. And even then, you have to remember that when you decide to buy a ticket, or at every time when you decide not to buy a ticket, you are still gambling on the future.

As CruiserBruce says, start doing your research now.

 

Find out which airlines offer reasonable routings to Sydney, and in which combinations. Who operates the flights? What service levels do they offer? Which are the more comfortable aircraft? What times of the day do the long-haul flights leave? How easy is it to connect from airports that are near to you?

 

Then find out what typical fares are - look further out from now, where you should find that they tend to bottom out. (Fares for travel in the nearer future tend to be more expensive.) Look at the impact of seasonality. What are the likely brackets for fares? See whether there are marked and persistent differences between different airlines/airline combinations. Try to find out what happens when there are fare sales. What sort of discount has typically appeared in the past, and how does that affect the fare bracket that you're looking at? Is there any pattern to when there are sales? When there is a sale, is there any pattern to which travel dates the sale will cover? How will you find out if there is a sale on?

 

That way, whenever you see a fare, you will start to have some yardsticks against which to measure whether it is good value.

 

If you want to take the guesswork out of it, there are no shortcuts. You're researching a commodity market that's driven by supply and demand. It will take days and days of work, spread over a period of time. And even then, you have to remember that when you decide to buy a ticket, or at every time when you decide not to buy a ticket, you are still gambling on the future.

Well said:)