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From Times Online

July 2, 2007

Stopovers on the Kangaroo Route

The Sunday Times opens its travel clinic on a daily basis to answer your holiday queries. Today: globetrotting air tickets

Richard Green

We want to visit our son and his family in Perth this October, and hope to stop in Hong Kong on the way out to Sydney, and Singapore on the way back from Perth, ideally with a stop somewhere in Australia between. We see cheap deals advertised, but they all seem go out and come back the same way. Is it possible to do as we plan without it being prohibitively expensive? Margery Jones, Tonbridge

Sunday Times travel expert, Richard Green, responds: There are now more than 20 different stopover cities to choose from on a trip to Australia, and while the cheapest way is usually to book a return flight with a single airline, this does mean that you'll can only stopover in the same city in both directions. So if you choose Cathay Pacific, it means you'll see Hong Kong twice, with Thai Airways it's Bangkok twice, etc.

However, there is another way - a Dreamtime fare with Qantas and British Airways. You can use the combined networks of both airlines to have a different stop on the way out from the way back. Precisely the routing you mention costs from about £1,100, including taxes. This allows you to stop somewhere between Perth and Sydney too.

If you flew straight from the east coast to the west coast without a stop, or made you own plans in between, the Dreamtime fare is from £869. A good tip here is to buy the cheaper ticket and then use a low cost airline to fly from Sydney to Perth. A one way with a stop in Melbourne can be had from about £140 with Virgin Blue.

You can book with British Airways (0870 8509850) or Qantas (0845 774 7767), or through a specialist company, like Trialfinders (0845 058 5858), Flight Centre (0870 499 0120), or STA Travel (0871 230 8512).

There are some great stopovers on the Dreamtime fare. Just in case any of these tempt you, they include Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bali, Jakarta, Mumbai, Beijing, Shanghai, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Fiji.