Best Deals on International Flights

[Slippy Chips]

Wondering what the forum uses to find the best deals on international flights? I subscribe to thepointsguy.com, onemileatatime.com, Travelzoo and just signed up for Scott’s Cheap Flights. Perhaps there are some others out there you use to get alerts on great deals.

My end goal is to fly to Australia in the near future. Long story, but I’m a dual citizen and haven’t been back to Australia since ‘99. It’s crazy how we (me) get so caught up in the day-to-day. My family is aging so I’ve prioritized getting back down there to see them. Problem is I have 4 young kids now so my options are.
1) fly all 6 of us down there, plus a friend for backup (2 days on a plane with 4 sub-8 year olds——shoot me now). Make a big 2-3 week trip out of it and break the bank on it.
2) wife says I can go solo but I only can only leave her for 7 days with all 4 kids. So I would only have 1 fare to worry about but I would want to upgrade to business or 1st (at least for the LAX > SYD leg) since I would be in the air for so long

This past summer they had fares as low as $770 so I’m wondering if I wait until next summer if I might find something in that range.

[bayerische]

Some of these "points guys" mentions in their videos on YT how "you should stay tuned until the end of the video, where I will tell you how to fly business/first for REALLY CHEAP or free"....

Well, there is never any good advise from them IMHO. Because there aren't any shortcuts. The advise they'll end up giving you is what the airlines are telling you... Points points points. These are easy for frequent travelers (I have several friends who fly a lot) having the airlines platinum FFC. This most certainly is going to upgrade you even for free.

What I do is to follow the airlines offers rigorously. My travel dates are usually flexible, meaning I usually find great deals. I rather stay home than fly coach long-haul.

Business of first tickets are seldom found cheap on flagship carriers, but can be had for a reasonable cost. Most also have surprisingly cheap point upgrades. Finnair to Miami (as an example from Helsinki direct) can be had for around 1850 euro, which in my book is reasonable. We used to fly AirBerlin to Miami (when they where still around). This was usually trough Berlin, took a bot longer, but could be had for as little as 1350 euro.

These prices are return tickets.

In january we thought about flying to Australia (Sydney), but we ended up in California instead. However the Business tickets on Qatar I think it was... where under 2000 euros to Canberra. This was of course an offer they had, normally this would have been a 4-5k euro ticket.


What it really takes is persistence, and flexible dates, to find great deals.

[Abdullah71601]

Originally Posted by Slippy Chips

Wondering what the forum uses to find the best deals on international flights? I subscribe to thepointsguy.com, onemileatatime.com, Travelzoo and just signed up for Scott’s Cheap Flights. Perhaps there are some others out there you use to get alerts on great deals.

My end goal is to fly to Australia in the near future. Long story, but I’m a dual citizen and haven’t been back to Australia since ‘99. It’s crazy how we (me) get so caught up in the day-to-day. My family is aging so I’ve prioritized getting back down there to see them. Problem is I have 4 young kids now so my options are.
1) fly all 6 of us down there, plus a friend for backup (2 days on a plane with 4 sub-8 year olds——shoot me now). Make a big 2-3 week trip out of it and break the bank on it.
2) wife says I can go solo but I only can only leave her for 7 days with all 4 kids. So I would only have 1 fare to worry about but I would want to upgrade to business or 1st (at least for the LAX > SYD leg) since I would be in the air for so long

This past summer they had fares as low as $770 so I’m wondering if I wait until next summer if I might find something in that range.

Take the kids. You'll want them to meet the family before they start passing away. And you may not make it back for a while.

Fly economy. Hire a travel agent to set up your flights. You want all your seats together on a bulkhead so the kids will have a play area where one of you can watch over them. You can book that yourself, but a travel agent can get it done with fewer hassles.

Have your pediatrician get them ready for international travel. Vaccinations may be required/desired.

Your kids will be pretty annoying at some point. Bring some cool travel trinkets to give away to the passengers that give you that look (little bags of fine chocolates are always good).