When prices fall this low, can you afford not to travel?
V Australia was selling roundtrip tickets from Los Angeles to Sydney for most of the day yesterday as low as $185 base fare, or $484 after taxes. The airline is scheduled to start service at the end of February 2009 and tickets were available for most dates from March through July.
Considering the website advertisement for $1,759USD all-in for flights from February 28-April 30, 2009 the $484 all-in is quite a discount.
V Australia homepage promotional fare is $1,769USD all-in.
Yesterday’s fare shaved the price to $484USD all-in.
Onward travel within Australia from Sydney is available on the cheap using the Virgin Blue Airpass .
V Australia Airlines is a new international airline start-up of Virgin Blue, the Australian discount airline founded by Virgin Airline’s Richard Branson back in 2000. Initial flights are scheduled to operate between Los Angeles – Sydney and Los Angeles – Brisbane, Australia.
Sydney Skyline from Ferry, July 2003
The fare was posted on this FlyerTalk thread at 10:20am California time Thursday morning and the fare was available for at least 6 hours after that. I purchased tickets at 4:30pm after several unsuccessful attempts during the day to get the credit card processing to work from my wife’s work computer. It was quite aggravating to click purchase and see the processing page frozen in time. Back at home the processing worked fine and I received the ticket purchase confirmation page.
Sailing in Sydney Harbour, July 2003
The fare booked as a V Saver, which is not even the lowest fare class. According to the ticket rules, the V Saver fare is allowed date changes for $100 per person per change. Rules state passenger must pay fare difference between original and new fare, so this might be an expensive change to make, but at least it is an option.
The ticket has a $300 cancellation fee.
Sunset over Sydney Opera House
Aircraft is supposed to be a 777-300ER. A 15 hour flight in economy is an endurance test, however, after our trip to Australia in 2003 I swear that Australia is a trip to be made in your lifetime if you have the opportunity. We found the abundant wildlife, even in downtown Sydney with cockatoos and grey-headed flying fox bats, makes Australia an exciting vacation destination.
Flying Fox Bats in Sydney
My intrepid animal-loving wife braving Cockatoo love in a Sydney park
