Qantas, Virgin Australia and Jetstar International Flight Sales: 2025–2026 Guide

Australia's big airline sales can slash fares, but they come and go fast, often within days. If you're hoping to snap up a cheap international fare from Qantas, Virgin Australia or Jetstar, it helps to know how these sales work, when they usually happen and how to be ready.

This guide rounds up the 2026 sales so far and explains how to make the most of the next ones, including what they mean if you're travelling to Nepal.

The 2026 sales so far

August 2026 was a busy month for Australian airline sales:

• Virgin Australia ran a one-week international sale in early August, with return fares from the low $400s on leisure routes such as Bali, plus holiday packages to destinations including Fiji, Vanuatu and Queenstown. Travel dates ran from October 2026 into mid-2027.
• Qantas launched a large Red Tail Sale in mid-August, with more than two million discounted seats across around 100 domestic and international routes.
• Jetstar followed within a day with its Get Onboard Sale: hundreds of thousands of fares, including international routes to Bali, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, for travel between September 2026 and June 2027. Club Jetstar members got early access.

These sales have now ended, but they show the typical pattern: short booking windows, specific travel periods, and limited seats at the headline price.

When do Australian airlines usually run sales?

There's no fixed calendar, but some patterns are worth knowing:

• Frequent short sales: Jetstar in particular runs sales often, sometimes weekly, including its regular "Friday Frenzy"-style promotions.
• Big seasonal sales: the major carriers often run larger sales around late summer (February–March) and mid-year to August, to fill off-peak travel periods.
• Black Friday and Cyber Monday (late November) have become a regular trigger for travel sales.
• Competitive responses: when one airline launches a sale, others often follow within days, as Qantas and Jetstar did in August 2026.

How to catch the next sale

1. Join the airline mailing lists and loyalty programs (Qantas Frequent Flyer, Velocity, Club Jetstar). Members often get early access, sometimes 12 hours or more before the public.
2. Know your dates and routes in advance, so you can book within minutes of a sale opening.
3. Check the travel period. Sale fares often only apply to off-peak dates and exclude school holidays.
4. Read the fare type. The cheapest "Lite" or "Starter" fares often exclude checked baggage and have strict change rules.
5. Compare the total cost, including bags, seats and meals, against a full-service carrier's regular fare.

What these sales mean if you're flying to Nepal

Qantas, Virgin Australia and Jetstar don't fly to Kathmandu (and Nepal Airlines' Sydney route still hasn't launched), so their sales rarely help directly for a trip to Nepal. There are a few ways they can still be useful:

• Domestic positioning: if you live in a regional city, a cheap domestic sale fare can get you to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth for an international departure.
• Getting to an Asian hub: a sale fare to a hub such as Singapore or Bangkok, then a separate ticket to Kathmandu, can occasionally be cheaper. It comes with real risks, though.

The risks of separate tickets

• If your first flight is delayed and you miss the second, the second airline won't rebook you for free.
• You'll usually have to collect and re-check your bags, which means passing through immigration. That can require a visa for Nepali passport holders. See our transit visa guide.
• Low-cost fares may not include checked baggage, which matters on a trip home with gifts and supplies.

For most Nepal trips, a single through-ticket on airlines such as Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Thai, Cathay Pacific or China Southern is safer and often competitive, especially when those airlines run their own sales. Read our Sydney to Kathmandu flight guide for more.

Tips for the best international fare, sale or no sale

• Book 3–6 months ahead for peak periods such as Dashain, Tihar and December–January.
• Be flexible by a few days. Mid-week flights are often cheaper.
• Compare several airlines and connection points.
• Ask a specialist travel agency. Agencies can often access consolidator fares that beat public sale prices on Asian and Gulf carriers.

Let us watch the fares for you

We track fares across all the airlines that fly between Australia and Nepal, including sales that never make the headlines. Search flights now or tell us your dates and we'll find the best deal.