validation trip/holiday/flights/hotels/tips

sponge_bob

hi guys
as a few of you know on here, iam currently in the process of applying for residencey for myself and the family. i know alot of you will probably say that iam being a bit optimistic and to hold your horses until i get the visa, but i would like to have some sort of plan made as we are not a get up and go type family and things will take a bit of organising and planning.
initially we were planning on emigrating early next year if we had our visas in place. but things keep changing and it looks like now that if we do get our visas we are looking at a validation trip first as it just won't suit to go straight away. we have forfitted our annual sun holiday this year so that we can travel to australia next year for a few weeks probably 2-3 weeks. i have two brothers in australia one in perth and one in sydney, so we will most likely go to each for a week at least and probably give a week somewhere else aswell.so i have a few questions(well there is a surprise:rolleyes:).

so first and most obvious is flights, am i better off going through a search engine like expedia,skyscanner,gohop,etc, or am i better off using a travel agent or searching each airline individually?
i have 3 kids 12,10 and 8, do airlines offer reductions on their ages and if so which airlines and does 12 count as a child?

next up. when i was in australia years ago i met alot of people that had gotten flights to australia and had 1 or 2 free internal flights included, are these deals still available? and where can they be got?
what time of the year is best for flying to australia price wise? if we do get our visas we would be looking at jan-feb 2012, going by the timelines of medicals and police certs expiring.

hotels and places to stay is next up, like i said i have a brother in perth and sydney. the one in perth has a fine big house and has invited us to stay when we are there so that is perths accomadation sorted. the brother in sydney despite being the better off of the two has a more modest abode and hasn't go the space to put up 5 extra people for a week, so just wondering does anyone know of any nice, reasonable and fairly centralish acommadation in sydney.
i was also hoping that we could do maybe a few extra days in cairns or melbourne aswell while we were at it if we could fit it in. so any info on hotels/accomadation in these places would be handy.
i know this sounds like alot to squeeze in but the way i see it is that when we move we probably won't be going on holidays for a year or two due to getting setup, so i would like to make a decent one out of this one if we do get the goahead.

lastly: once we cross the border and validate our visas am i right in assuming this extends them by a further 2 years.
do we have to stay a certain length of time? if you know what i mean, or to put it another way would it just do to cross the border, stamp the visa, grab a cup of coffee and a sandwich in the airport and get on a flight home again that evening.

i think thats it for now
if any people have experience of doing this kind of thing then their thoughts on the whole thing is welcomed. also pros/cons pitfalls that anyone sees in this fire them up aswell.
i know some people will say you are mad to be spending all that money when you will need it for when you emigrate. but family and circumstance just might prevent/delay the move for 12-18mths:(

mandrake04

once you validate your PR visa its good for 5 years, but you must return to live in Australia before it runs out.

Crossing the border is all it takes, if you only want stay a few hours thats sufficient.

Zambia

Do you really have to do this ... its going to feel like someone is extracting your testicles out via your wallet.

You will sure miss that cash when you get here.

sponge_bob

Zambia wrote: »

Do you really have to do this ... its going to feel like someone is extracting your testicles out via your wallet.

You will sure miss that cash when you get here.

if i can avoid doing it i will, but at the moment it looks like we will have to go for a validation trip of some sort first.
just seems pretty pointless flying halfway around the world and back again with out making some kind of holiday out of it. worst will happen is that we stay with the brother in perth for 2 weeks to cut costs to a minimum if we have to.
probably throw him a fifty to cover food expenses while we are there;):D

Zambia

sponge_bob wrote: »

if i can avoid doing it i will, but at the moment it looks like we will have to go for a validation trip of some sort first.
just seems pretty pointless flying halfway around the world and back again with out making some kind of holiday out of it. worst will happen is that we stay with the brother in perth for 2 weeks to cut costs to a minimum if we have to.
probably throw him a fifty to cover food expenses while we are there;):D

Ha Fifty , that would just cover a slab.

Seriously the set up costs really start to mount up. The price of those flights could be the family car.

But if you have to I would go the few weeks in Perth. Where do you plan on living full time?

sponge_bob

Zambia wrote: »

Ha Fifty , that would just cover a slab.

Seriously the set up costs really start to mount up. The price of those flights could be the family car.

But if you have to I would go the few weeks in Perth. Where do you plan on living full time?

perth hopefully when i eventually move
brother is living in perth/bunberry and he says there is plenty of work and alot cheaper than sydney from what he hears, but the wages are that bit lower than sydney also.

Zambia

Yeah that sucks because then your really just spending all that money to stay in a place for a few weeks that you will spend more than enough time in soon enough.

Seriously try and knock the obstacles to moving quickly out of the way.

Cooperspale

Zambia wrote: »

Yeah that sucks because then your really just spending all that money to stay in a place for a few weeks that you will spend more than enough time in soon enough.

Seriously try and knock the obstacles to moving quickly out of the way.

Totally agree with Zambia

Unless you have lots of spare dosh, you're talking about those 'once in a lifetime' family trips as your validation trip.
All boils down to $$$ and how much you have to blow.

Flights: you can phone Trailfinders or personally I preferred ATC
http://www.australia.ie/australia/Australia%5bL,R=301%5d
They're on Abbey St in Dublin and can answer any query about flight/kids ages/internal flights etc.
Online just go direct to the airline sites. Qantas/BA/Emirates/Etihad etc
and then double check prices against your ebookers/expedia etc.
They change all the time. Personally I found Qantas and Etihad direct as best prices on last 2 trips to Europe.
January/ Feb will still be school holidays here, though hopefully by mid Feb you should be right.

AUD$ is strong at the moment something like 75c Euro so you have to bear that in mind if you have 4 others in tow.

Gregsor

May aswell jump in here too i am looking at 3 fares oneway to Brisbane final destination in August,all adult(daughter just turned 12,ouch) and was hoping to spend 2 or so nights with the sister living in Singapore on the way.

I have used Cathay Pacific before for the trip and found them pretty good overall,would it complicate things by delaying a connection flight from Singapore for a few days and would it carry much more cost if any?

Will try the guys Abbey Travel myself or can there be good deals to be had on the internet to be self had still?