So you now need to book a flight to Australia or New Zealand, where do you start? Well luckily we often get asked this question by our students; which airlines fly to Australia and New Zealand and what the good ones are.  As Jon from Intern Options is a kiwi who regularly flies to Australia and home to New Zealand for work and to see family, who better to answer this question!

The best site we have found (and use ourselves) for you when searching what airlines fly to Australia or NZ and to compare prices is Ebookers.com and another good site for a very good airline is Air New Zealand – This is the National Airline for New Zealand, also useful to check.

There are a couple of areas that you need to look at when booking a flight:

• How long you will be in Australia or New Zealand
• Flexibility
• Return or Single flight

These three will get us started.  For our Hospitality and Tourism students going to New Zealand, this is usually for 12 months of work experience.  For this trip you can get a 12 month ticket but most will want to arrive a bit earlier and depart a week or so after the 12 months.  There are a couple of airlines that will issue an 18 month ticket.  The ticket is valid for 18 months but the airline will only be able to book the return date a maximum of 12 months in advance.  For this you just rebook the return date when you are in New Zealand for a small fee of around £20.  Air New Zealand is one of these airlines and you can see their fares on their website www.airnewzealand.com

I just want to Book a Cheap flight Online!

If you are heading to Sydney for our 2010 summer internship programme or a graduate internship, then you can book a cheap fare online and there are plenty to choose from.  The best site that we have found and recommend to our students is Ebookers.com Jon has just booked his flight to New Zealand for Christmas on Ebookers.com and is a really good website that allows you to compare all the different airlines flying to Australia/ NZ and then look at details of each flight.

If you are booking a single airfare to Australia or New Zealand then online is by far the best way to go! – Check out Ebookers.com

I want to talk to someone in the UK and have someone my parents can call!

The third choice is to contact your travel agent and the main ones for students will be STA or Flight centre for Australia or New Zealand.  The benefits of this is you will get personal service and have someone you can call if you have any questions.

So hope this helps you when looking at budgeting for your internship, both sites are good for budgeting or just seeing how much a flight is going to be.

For a related article check out this one on; Travel Insurance – Where do I Start?

Any questions or comments feel free to leave a comment below!