Honey, let’s spend the weekend in Australia

V Australia really wants you to go Down Under. For the price of a typical round-trip ticket — on sale, I might add — V Australia is offering three nights’ hotel accommodations, including the flight between Los Angeles (LAX) and Sydney (SYD). However, your seat will be in economy class, not those luxe lay-down seats that the V Australia Fly Girls are showing off in the video above. Still, $720 per person is pretty cheap for a weekend for two in Australia and totally worth the bragging rights come Monday afternoon.

As its weekend in Australia website 4320Syd suggests, you can leave LAX at 11:45 p.m. on a Thursday night and arrive in Sydney at 7 a.m. on Saturday. Spend three fun-packed days in Sydney and leave Monday afternoon at 8 p.m., getting back home at 4 p.m. the same day!

Tested deal: The deal says to use package code SO9009 On V Australia to get deals starting at $720 per person, based on double occupancy. However, I couldn’t find where to book that deal on the website. I found flights for $394 each way, but I didn’t have anywhere to put the package code or figure out which hotel I’d be staying at. The page also asks you to book by calling or e-mailing. I tried calling next and was helped quickly. Note that your call will be picked up by Travel Scene, not V Australia.

I found the deal available for Sept. 3 - Sept. 8, staying at the Sydney Metro Hotel, for $792 per person including all taxes. It also includes the $25 Australian tourist visa you will need to get into the country. To compare prices, I checked the cost for flights on Kayak for those same dates and found rates at $846 on V Australia without the package and $896 on United.

Caveat: The agent cautioned me that if I were traveling alone, a single supplement would be added for $200-$300 extra.

When: Book by Sept. 30 for travel until Dec. 18, 2009.

Contact: Travel Scene, (888) 780-0052, Vaustralia@travelscene.com

— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger

[Video: V Australia]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 5:55 am by Jen Leo and is filed under Airline travel, Deals, News, Tips & Advice, Pacific & Australia, Weekend Getaways. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.