Expensive airfares?

[Tabouli]

judyserenity:
> $2900?  Is it really that much?  I'm pretty conversant with intra-US, 
intra-Europe, US-Europe, and US-Asia fares, and that sounds high to 
me.  Adding Australia to the mix ups the cost, of course, but I still 
wouldn't think it was that high.  This fare gives you lots of intra-US 
and intra-Europe travel, but you might be able to get a lower fare if 
you didn't really need to fly that much intra-continent.<

For a trip covering four continents during peak season with 10 internal flights included, $2900 actually isn't bad, ex Australia.  (Remember also that we're talking wimpy Australian dollars here: in USD I'm only paying about $1500!)  International airfares anywhere are expensive here, because of the distances involved (in fact, domestic airfares are  pretty high as well, especially compared with the US).  IIRC, it's a 24 hour flight to the UK and 18 hours to the US west coast.  Urk.  I imagine the other factor is population... you just can't have the sort of ultra cheap deals you get trans-Atlantic and US-Asia because there aren't as many people or as many airlines competing.

Just to give you an idea, it would probably cost me A$1600+ if I just went to the US and back, without any of the internal flights I need included.  Hence I thought forget it, I'll get a RTW ticket and crush in a few more countries.

>There are tons of intra-Europe low cost airlines, that are not 
available through travel agents.  The US also has a few low cost 
airlines, although not as many.  There may or may not be one for your 
route.<

Not sure what you mean here.  You mean, get to Europe and organise things from there?  I suppose I could try, but seeing how little time I have there it would seem a bit wasteful to spend it tracking down cheap fares when I can do it from here in one shot and not have to worry.  Once I factor in the exchange rate issue and the inconvenience, I doubt I'd end up saving much.  I do see the odd ultra cheap fare advertised (A$600 one way to the UK, etc.), but given my very limited time and very strict timetable I suspect I'd have to be very lucky to get the flights I want to get to the wedding and the conference and the workshops back in Australia in time!

All the same, might be worth looking at the next time I travel and have the time to do so in a more leisurely fashion...

Tabouli


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