Flying domestic Australia

[MN Cruizin]

Looking for information on domestic flights in Australia. We will be need to book flights from Sydney to Cairns, and then from Cairns to Melbourne. Does anyone have any recommendation on airline - Qantas, Jetstar, Tigerair? It looks like they all have fees for checked baggage depending on weight, but do they also have restrictions on dimensions of a checked bag? And I am guessing that they all have different costs associated with checking a bag.

[emzz_02]

If money isn't a huge issue then Qantas is your best bet. Baggage with them is included as well as it being a full service airline (eg meals and drinks included). Tiger and Jetstar are budget airlines ( and speaking as someone who works at Melbourne airport, not all that reliable.) they both have basic fares which you can pay more to include bags. They both weigh cabin baggage and will check anything that weighs over 7kgs ($50 fee to do that). They also don't provide entertainment or meals and limited in leg room but if you're budget conscious then they are the better way to go.

[kuldalai]

Its as simple as this you fly with Qantas or Virgin Australia you pay more but baggage and refreshments of sorts are included. Alternatively you can fly with Jetstar or Tigerair where you will be jammed in like battery hens,and you will be charged extra for everything, but the air you breathe. Luggage is extra, refreshments are extra everything is extra and at rip off prices too . Not uncommon for Jetstar an Tigerair to charge you more for extras than the actual fare. Be aware also that any stuff up and the discount carriers will leave you high and dry . So book Qantas (QF) direct on line. via. their Website . Book well in advance for each flight leg to get discounted rates. Printout your own e tickets at home. Book at the last minute and you will get ripped off by QF .

[emzz_02]

Not sure if virgin fly cairns - Melbourne - cairns but if they do, they also have 'happy hour' fares so you might strike it lucky with cheaper fares through them... Qantas also often has sales, you just have to sign up to their emails and keep an eye on it

[TLCOhio]

Looking for information on domestic flights in Australia. We will be need to book flights from Sydney to Cairns, and then from Cairns to Melbourne. Does anyone have any recommendation on airline - Qantas, Jetstar, Tigerair? It looks like they all have fees for checked baggage depending on weight, but do they also have restrictions on dimensions of a checked bag? And I am guessing that they all have different costs associated with checking a bag.

 

The previous posters from Australia have offered good options/factors to consider. Last year, we had flights with Qantas from Brisbane to Cairns, then Cairns to Melbourne and Melbourne to Adelaide. From Adelaide to Sydney, it was with Virgin Australia. All worked fine for us and our needs. Fortunately, we worked out the Qantas flight with American Airline Frequent Flyer miles. That helped and it was in business class.

 

Bottom-Line?: There are trade-offs on costs, services, extras, seating, etc. Lower-cost airlines might save money, but can make other factors less than perfect. You are kind of going to "pay" one way or another. The big focus should be about what you are going to do in around Cairns, etc. We had a wonderful time there with the rainforest, Great Barrier Reef, etc., before going to Kangaroo Island, then Sydney and the start of our cruise. More, including many pictures, are on the live/blog connected below.

 

Added questions and/or info needs?

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 118,586 views for this posting.

[Kinkacruiser]

Choose either Qantas or Virgin. It depends on the itineraries that suit best. I believe Virgin now has no extra fee for luggage (maybe just the first 23kg?)

Enjoy your time in Australia :)

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Choose either Qantas or Virgin. It depends on the itineraries that suit best. I believe Virgin now has no extra fee for luggage (maybe just the first 23kg?)

Enjoy your time in Australia :)

 

When you are a visitor and on holiday , time is precious, so its best to book a flight that suits your programme even though it may cost a bit more . You are saving in the long run.

Try to get direct flights . Some of the itineraries are called Kangaroo flights as they hop from town to town. Great service for the locals , but not a good use of your precious vacation time.

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Looking for information on domestic flights in Australia. We will be need to book flights from Sydney to Cairns, and then from Cairns to Melbourne. Does anyone have any recommendation on airline - Qantas, Jetstar, Tigerair? It looks like they all have fees for checked baggage depending on weight, but do they also have restrictions on dimensions of a checked bag? And I am guessing that they all have different costs associated with checking a bag.

 

We prefer Virgin Australia these days. Here is a link to their included checked baggage limits. http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/plan/baggage/checked-baggage/. They don't appear to have restrictions on dimensions as long as the weight doesn't exceed 23kgs http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/plan/baggage/oversized-fragile-items/

[emzz_02]

In fairness to tiger it now has a better reliability record than all the other airlines apparently. Probably because of its strict 45 min check in policy but still [emoji38]

[Jacs]

Compared to American domestic airlines, any of them are going to be pretty good lol. We usually fly Virgin but I've had no issues with Jetstar in the past either, we flew them to Cairns and back from Melbourne with no problems. You just need to adhere to their baggage weight and check in policies and you'll be fine.

 

For comparison I've flown AA from LA - Orlando, Orlando - Las Vegas and Vegas - LA and all three have been the worst flight experiences I've ever had in my life, nothing I've experienced in Australia has ever come close to being as bad as those US domestic flights were.

[bubbles2014]

personally it's horses for courses

 

Qantas you pay in the fare - so all inclusive

While Virgin, Jetstar & Tiger are budget carriers and you pay as you go.

 

We have travelled with all and find nothing wrong with the budget carriers if you stick to their sometimes strict limitations

As far as food and drink...personally won't care about their airline food. I'd rather wait until I got to my destination and had a lovely meals outside airport.

 

LINKS:

Qantas

http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/home/au/en

 

Virgin

http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/

 

Jetstar

http://www.jetstar.com/au/en/home

 

Tigerair

http://www.tigerair.com/au/en/

Edited September 7, 2015 by bubbles2014

[OzKiwiJJ]

personally it's horses for courses

 

Qantas you pay in the fare - so all inclusive

While Virgin, Jetstar & Tiger are budget carriers and you pay as you go.

 

Virgin is no longer a budget carrier, baggage and food is now included. They are going head-to-head with Qantas. Virgin's prices tend to be just a tad cheaper than Qantas, the seats are more comfortable and the service is better IMHO.

Edited September 7, 2015 by OzKiwiJJ

[Blue Elephant]

We also prefer Virgin Australia. But will travel QANTAS if there is a reason to do so.

 

I think that there were some cases a few years ago where one of the budget airlines could not get people on a flight and the next flight was not till the next day.

[Womble99]

In fairness to tiger it now has a better reliability record than all the other airlines apparently. Probably because of its strict 45 min check in policy but still [emoji38]

 

Nope, they are still the worst performing according to the last annual report from the Department of Infrastructure and Transport.

[dizzy1948]

Its as simple as this you fly with Qantas or Virgin Australia you pay more but baggage and refreshments of sorts are included. Alternatively you can fly with Jetstar or Tigerair where you will be jammed in like battery hens,and you will be charged extra for everything,

1. but the air you breathe.
   

Luggage is extra, refreshments are extra everything is extra and at rip off prices too . Not uncommon for Jetstar an Tigerair to charge you more for extras than the actual fare. Be aware also that any stuff up and the discount carriers will leave you high and dry . So book Qantas (QF) direct on line. via. their Website . Book well in advance for each flight leg to get discounted rates. Printout your own e tickets at home. Book at the last minute and you will get ripped off by QF .

 

Sorry Kuldalai - I can't resist this: they do ask if you want to contribute to the carbon tax......................so they're working on it :p

Edited September 7, 2015 by dizzy1948

[3littlepigs]

If you have a deadline stay away from Tiger and to some extent Jetstar...any problems and you will soon discover you get what you pay for!

[Aus Traveller]

We always fly with Qantas. If here was an enormous price difference, we would go with Virgin. We have not ever even considered Jetstar ("One Star") or Tiger. Maybe we haven't been desperate enough. :D

[emzz_02]

Personally I've never had a major issue with Jetstar but still... For time conscious international travellers I would fly virgin or qantas just for the security of getting there on time

[dizzy1948]

Personally I've never had a major issue with Jetstar but still... For time conscious international travellers I would fly virgin or qantas just for the security of getting there on time

 

I suppose it's all down to what's available to Cairns from Sydney, and to Melbourne from Cairns. Done Jetstar Perth to Melbourne, 2 hour delay. Melbourne to Perth Tiger, spot on. My choices were simply fiscal, and time wasn't an issue. So I guess it's what the OP is comfortable with. There are some good prices out there with Qantas, just book early.

[ozscot01]

Flying domestic, Jetstar is my airline of choice. I find the seats the most comfortable of all of the domestic carriers, though I'm not long in the leg! It really comes down to what suits your budget and itinerary. Horses for courses I guess.

[Karennella]

I think Jetstar is fine for short domestic flights. We flew Cairns to Sydney on Monday evening. It was like kindergarten zoo, full of kids and backpackers. They ran out of food but we just made toast when we got home! People around us were reading old fashioned books, the lady next to me and I had a long and interesting chat and the time went really quickly. It is only three hours and was well worth the $109 it cost! The taxi fare home from the airport was $65 and it certainly did not provide food, drinks and entertainment!

[shrekaus]

I would suggest you think what airline you would fly in the US, AA, Delta Southwest, Allegiant, Skyblu etc.

 

We really don't have the choice here in Aus, I would not recomment Tiger if you are on a schedule.

However I see you are on Solstice arriving in Sydney on November 26th, you get off, we get on ........yeahhhh!!

 

At present Jetstar has a Spring Sale for the next couple of days, yes you have to pay for baggage, but they are quoting Sydney-Cairns $105 and Cairns-Melbourne $109, not including baggage.

I looked at Virgin and for approx those dates Sydney-Cairns is $195 (good) but Cairns-Melbourne is $356!!!

 

here is a link to the Jetstar sale which ends 14 September http://www.jetstar.com/au/en/special-offers?from=&to=&date=&sale=spring%20fever%20sale&price=&RMID=20150910_Spring_sale_kinetic_au&RRID=327670669&utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20150910_Spring_sale_kinetic_au_H#/?from=sydney&to=&date=&sale=spring%20fever%20sale&price=

 

Virgin has a weekly happy hour sale on a Thursday from 4pm- 11pm AEST.

 

I didn't check Qantas prices because they are a lot higher, btw Jetstar is the budget arm of Qantas.

 

We are flying Jetstar from Brisbane to Sydney return to get on Solstice, the original fare was $198 on a 2 for one sale but by the time we added 50 kg baggage and chose seats it ended up at $344. Hope that gives you some idea. After we had booked Virgin had a sale which would have cost us $380, if I hadn't already booked I would have booked with Virgin.

 

Hope this helps you. Hope you have a wonderful cruise and holiday.

Edited September 10, 2015 by shrekaus

[datone]

For those that don't know Jetstar will price match basic fares and beat it by 10%. On top of that, for some reason, they do not charge credit card booking fees on this. As an example I was looking for flights from Sydney to Gold Coast on 21 December and Jetstar's basic price was $105 for the time I wanted. Tiger were having a sale and theirs was $65. So I contacted Jetstar as I would prefer to fly with them rather than Tiger and they gave me the flight for $58.50. You can add luggage onto this if you want. Saving the credit card fee is also a bonus.

[shrekaus]

For those that don't know Jetstar will price match basic fares and beat it by 10%. On top of that, for some reason, they do not charge credit card booking fees on this. As an example I was looking for flights from Sydney to Gold Coast on 21 December and Jetstar's basic price was $105 for the time I wanted. Tiger were having a sale and theirs was $65. So I contacted Jetstar as I would prefer to fly with them rather than Tiger and they gave me the flight for $58.50. You can add luggage onto this if you want. Saving the credit card fee is also a bonus.

 

Thanks so much for the reminder, never thought of trying price match with Tiger - duh! I have in the past with Virgin when their fares were lower and they had a sale prior to Jetstar, these days Virgin are never cheaper.

 

Next time I will check Tiger before I book. Thanks again.

 

That is a great price you got :)

Edited September 11, 2015 by shrekaus

[Queenbee44]

We will be flying from Los Angeles to Auckland in February. Anyone have comments on this airline?