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Air Asia X cheap flights 2010: London Stansted to Perth, Gold Coast & Melbourne via Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Is it worth booking tickets for cheap flights on budget airlines to Australia in 2010? Australiaflightbargains.com investigates the London Stansted to Melbourne, Perth and Gold Coast route options with Air Asia X via Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

UK to Australia with budget airlines: Independent travel

Yesterday, Australiaflightbargains.com was featured as ‘Tip of the week’ in the Independent newspaper. The article highlighted the example I’ve used for flying from the UK to Australia with budget airlines.

Budget airline route to Australia

The route I picked out, of course, was absurdly complex. No-one in their right mind would contemplate taking it. There is, however, one way of getting from the UK to Australia using budget airlines that involves just one stop.

Air Asia X: London Stansted to Perth, Gold Coast and Brisbane

That method is with Air Asia X. The Malaysian low cost carrier flies from London Stansted to Kuala Lumpur, and then from Kuala Lumpur to Perth, the Gold Coast and Melbourne.

Cheapest air fares to Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne

But does it work out cheaper? Well let’s see. As a general rule, the rock bottom cheapest fares to Perth are around £550, whilst fares to Brisbane (which is a short distance away from the Gold Coast) and Melbourne tend to start at £600 if you get the right airline sale and time of year.

Cheapest Air Asia X fare: London Stansted to Kuala Lumpur in 2010

Checking with Air Asia, the cheapest return fare from London Stansted to Kuala Lumpur is around £368. This price is available for many dates in 2010, although there is particularly good availability in August, September and October 2010.

Air Asia X cheapest fares: Malaysia to Australia

For the connecting return flights, the prices were as follows:

Kuala Lumpur to Gold Coast – approximately £143.35 (total £511.35)

Kuala Lumpur to Perth – approximately £103.53 (total £471.53)

Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne – approximately £146.55 (£514.55)

London – Kuala Lumpur – Australia flight dates

As you can see, there are savings to be made – although they are not massive sums. There are some massive ‘buts’ about using the Air Asia X approach, however. Firstly, the dates of the cheapest prices for each leg are limited, and they rarely match up. You would almost certainly end up paying more than this.

Extra costs with budget airlines

Secondly, you would have to pay extra for food and entertainment on board – which could end up adding significantly to the total sum. There may also be a necessity of booking a hotel for at least one night in Kuala Lumpur. In this case, there are barely any savings to be made – in fact it will probably work out more expensive than a considerably more comfortable return flight on whichever full service airline is offering sale fares.

Reasons to fly Air Asia X to Australia via Kuala Lumpur

In mitigation, Air Asia X doesn’t currently have a sale on – these prices could be lower when they announce a special promotion. And I would argue that there are three instances where flying Air Asia X to Australia may be worth considering.

1. You want to stop over in Kuala Lumpur. To add this to a full service airline return ticket will cost extra in taxes.
2. London Stansted is your local airport – the cost in getting to Heathrow or Glasgow could add a substantial sum to the price.
3. You are planning to go on holiday to northern New South Wales. The Gold Coast airport is at Coolangatta, at the southern end of the Gold Coast. It’s very easy to get to the Gold Coast from Brisbane airport on a direct train. But to get to Byron Bay, to use a good example, flying to the Gold Coast will cut a good couple of hours and a fair few dollars off the drive/ transfer.

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