Recently released early bird airfares from Australia to Europe have attracted Greek Australians wanting to book a European holiday or trip to Greece over the northern hemisphere spring and summer 2015, with early bird sales relatively unchanged from last year’s levels.

With the majority of big airlines having released their promotional fares over the last month, travel agent Christos Niaros of Parthenon Travel told Neos Kosmos it all comes to seasonality and seat availability when booking early bird tickets.

“The prices haven’t gone up a lot this year. It is all subject to the availability of seats and all the tickets have conditions. This early bird ticket offer finishes at the end of this month or middle November for some airlines – but it all depends on seasonality, the seating, how you want to travel. If you want direct flight, it’s not as easy. If you want to fly through European cities, there are more seats and the price is reasonable.”

Mr Niaros stressed the importance of familiarising yourself with the conditions of tickets before proceeding to booking. Some of the tickets are subject to the black period returning days that often include school holidays, July and end of September.

“These tickets are sometimes non-refundable, there is a big change fee; some tickets have a change fee to return only, some for departure only. At the end of the day, if you plan to go to Europe, you must be very quick, clear and careful, make a decision and ask about conditions,” Niaros said.

Etihad Airways has released its early bird fares for travel in 2015, with the offer including a range of great value airfares in economy, business and first class to popular destinations in Europe, as well as the Middle East and USA.

Highlights include a Brisbane to Madrid economy return fare from $1532; Sydney to Amsterdam from $1532; Melbourne to Istanbul from $1489; and Perth to Rome from $1503.

From Australia to Greece, Etihad Airlines economy class early bird fares offer flights from Brisbane to Athens for $1554, Sydney to Athens $1550, Melbourne to Athens for $1535, and Perth to Athens $1512, with airfares on sale until 31 October for travel outside of peak season – between 1 February and 24 March 2015 and 1 October and 31 October 2015.

Emirates, on the other hand, is offering flights to 37 European destinations and is taking bookings until 19 November for travel from March 1 to September 30 next year, with the early bird fare economy class flight from Melbourne to Athens available for $1,569.

With Singapore Airlines early bird fares and its 117 weekly services from six Australian points to Europe, you can fly from Melbourne to Athens for $1,565, or $1582 from Sydney to Athens.

Peter Rozos, of helloworld in Oakleigh, says the early bird airfares come out every September with the cheapest possible options and more availability for everyone to have access to. But those wanting to come back in late September often have to wait for October to book.

“The only problem is that when they do come out in September, it puts a lot of restrictions on a lot of Greek people who want to come back in September, as the computer will only give you the opportunity to book 11 months in advance. And many Greek Australians want to come back in late September, early October,” Mr Rozos says.

For Mr Niaros of Parthenon Travel, early bird tickets are a good idea, as long as the customer checks the conditions, the rules of the ticket and the flight.

“Early bird rates are what people would normally like to be paying because that means there is a saving of about $400-500 on the normal airfare. But the important thing is to pick days that suit their itinerary and secondly, for the itinerary to have the booking classes available,” Mr Rozos agrees.

“Emirates, Qatar and Etihad are the three main ones that service the network between Australia and Greece. It’s a bit of cat and mousing around to try and match it all up.”

When it comes to the best deals, each day determines the price the client will pay. For the best offers and depending on the airlines, tourist agencies are given a 24 to 72 hour bracket, are quite instant with their conditions and have very strict cancellation fees – up to about $500.

For those who prefer to save time rather than money, the two quickest options to fly to Greece are with Qatar airlines, with only a 1 hour and 10 minute stopover on the way back and 1 hour and 40 minutes on the way there. With Etihad, it’s 2 hours and 30 minutes. Emirates will allow a lot of cheap tickets when not on a direct route through Dubai, but via Singapore and back via Kuala Lumpur.

With a great demand from Greek Australians who are already booking their holidays in Greece for next year, Mr Razos says on average a dozen tickets are purchased through helloworld each day.

“Advice for those travelling to Greece – tickets are subject to availability. The earlier you book, the more seats there will be for you to take advantage of. The longer you leave it the seats get fewer, airlines start reconstructing fares, and normally they go slightly up as per the availability of seats.”

*Airfares mentioned in the article are subject to weekly taxes change and the actual fare could be different on the day of booking.