You probably do not remember but last Fall/Winter, I announced reductions in fares to Australia for 2009. But I also suggested waiting because of Virgin Australia;s introduction of service to Australia might result in lower fares than what we were seeing in Dec.I noted in November that I saw fares on Qantas of $1160 from LA, though there were sporadic $770 fares available but with 'book-by, fly-by' restrictions.
Just like clockwork, TravelZoo just announced $600 fares (incl. all taxes and fees!) from 'several' airlines serving Australia, also from LA. The better news? The fares are good through ALL of 2009! They did not indicate whether there was a purchase by date but they test booked this fare and found several dates from July through December available. They noted it is best to be flexible with your dates and try to go mid-week for the best savings.
I myself tried Qantas and entered several dates in August and September. While I was unable to get the fare as low as the $601 reported, I easily found rates in the $600s, including on weekends with Sydney as the destination. (Click on the "View Lowest Prices Around This Date" option for the lowest fares) Assuming you get a $49 fare to LA, even paying $725 round trip is as cheap as Australia has been in years. I saw similar fares (albeit higher) for Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Kalgoorie, etc.
Ironically, V-Australia not only does not have these fares available, I could not even FIND fares from the US on their site. Where it asks for your country and you choose USA, it immediately defaults back to Australia and shows no US destinations or origin cities. So the airline that started this fare war appears to not even be bookable. (What fares I did see from LA in their advertisement is over $900 to boot!)
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