Ok, to set the stage; I’m in college and haven’t traveled on my own before.
I’m attending a summer abroad program to Australia and am looking for cheap tickets. To complicate things, I will enter Aus via Melbourne, but our program ends in Broome.
Now the real questions:
Can I get a roundtrip ticket leaving from a different airport than I entered?
Is there good transportation between these two cities that I could get from Broome to Melbourne and fly out from there? Would that be worth the hassle?
Any other advice appreciated as well. I’ve only traveled before with family and organized groups, so this solo stuff is confusing.
Yes, this is called an open jaw ticket, and it’s very common. The price might be slightly higher than a round-trip leaving and returning from the same city, but not by very much. If you go to a good student-oriented travel agency like STA, they should be able to fix you right up.
Broome and Melbourne are about as far apart as Seattle and New Orleans. You wouldn’t want to go all the way back to Melbourne if you didn’t have to. You could probably get a flight out of Darwin to Jakarta or Singapore and get a non-stop the the west coast from there (Assuming you are in the U.S./Canada).
I don’t know of any reason why you would need to leave from the same place you arrived, but there could be some restriction, I suppose. I’l leave that up to someone else to answer.
Yeah, it looked pretty far, but part of me wanted to hope for an easy way Looking at a map was easier to rationalize that they could be closer than it looked! Oh well.
Melbourne and Broome are on opposite sides of Australia, about as far apart as it’s possible to go, about 3,100 km or 2,000 miles apart in a straight line. There won’t be any direct flight: you’ll probably change planes in Perth. Then, to leave Australia from Broome, you’ll have several options: one might be to fly to Darwin, then to a major airport in East or South East Asia like Singapore or Bangkok, then back to the US. Alternatively, back to the US through Sydney – which again won’t have direct connections to Broome: you’d have to go via Perth or Darwin.
I’ve never been to Western Australia outside Perth and Fremantle, but I do know that it’s really empty and isolated: far more isolated than anywhere in the US. And Broome is closer to most of Indonesia than it is to Perth, but I don’t think you can travel direct unless you hitch a ride on a fishing boat or yacht.
Ok, thanks for the info. I found a place and got my tickets, probably paid more than I should have. This is the single largest amount of money I’ve ever spent so far!
I went to cheaptickets.com, recommended by my roommate who flew to Austria last summer.
With taxes, insurance, and fees, $2200. Originally they said $2400, but by the time I filled out the information, it had gone down a bit.
I’ll be going from San Francisco to Auckland, NZ to Melbourne.
On the way back its Broome to Perth to Melbourne to Auckland to San Fransisco. That’s probably gonna suck; I’ll have to buy extra books. I’ll be flying Quantas and Air New Zealand.
My guide dog puppy is going to board for 2 weeks at Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael (my co-raiser will have him for the other two weeks). Since he’s their dog, they board him for free, and we thought we’d take a tour of their facilities when we drop him off, since I’ve never been there before. And I just noticed that he’s going to be dropped at GDftB on his first birthday. Poor guy, we’ll have to have and early b-day party for him or something.
Speaking as a former travel agent…this might be one of those things that you might want to use a travel agent for. I say that because an agent has access to all of the same fares offered through the discounters, but they might also have a little knowledge regarding peak/shoulder/off season fares, minimum/maximum stay restrictions, carrier combinability, and some other things I can’t recall off the top of my head.
Just noodling around I came up with a fare of $1822, but I had you staying less than 30 days. That could make a big difference.
Anyway, if you haven’t locked in, you might want to give you friendly local travel agent a call.
Sure, they’ll charge you for their services…but they might save you a few hundred bucks, too. Just tell 'em, “If you can beat $2200 including your commisison, then I’ll book with you.”
I had written a fairly long post but it dissapeared because stupid IE7 decided I was no longer logged in, and once I was logged in again, I was unable to go BACK to my post. Whatever.
Here’s an abbreviated version.
There ARE direct flights between Melbourne and Broome, and Sydney and Broome with Qantas and sometimes Virgin blue but only during Broome’s “dry season” (Australian winter.) If you are going to be here in the Australian winter then you should be able to fly direct to Broome.
Driving distance from Melbourne to Broome is about 5000 km or 3100 miles. There is no train service. Flying is the only practical option.
Options to leave the country from Broome would be:
Broome direct Sydney then onward.
Broome - Darwin then up through Indonesia or Singapore.
Broome - Port Hedland then Indonesia.
You could also go via Melbourne but that holds no advantages over Sydney.
Broome - Darwin is serviced by Skywest and Air North. Skywest fly jets and the flight is about 1:30. Air North fly small turbo-props via Kununnura with a total flight time of about 3 - 4 hours. Air North also have very restrictive baggage limits due to the size of the aircraft. IMO Air North is not a practical option for someone carrying luggage for a long trip.
Broome - Port Hedland - Bali is done by Skywest.
If you just want to get home quickly, Broome - Sydney would be the best option.
I hope you have a good trip.
Sorry, I missed where you’d already booked Broome - Perth - Melbourne. You might want to look into changing it for a direct Broome - Melbourne flight closer to the time of travel.
I’ve just plugged Broome - LA into the Qantas website and been given a direct flight to Melbourne and then direct to LA. That is travelling in September. When are you actually going to be here?
Looking at a map was easier to rationalize that they could be closer than it looked! Oh well.
Poor guy, we’ll have to have and early b-day party for him or something.