Guide to best Euro deals

By COLIN MOORE Travel Editor

First choose your dates. That, as the fabled Mrs Beeton might have advised, is the prerequisite to checking whether fare deals to Europe are indeed fair deals, even using the Net.

Few consumer items contain more variables than air fares which is why good travel agents are analogous to good insurance brokers.

As in all things, in travel you get what you pay for. If you are the sort who will do anything to save a couple of hundred dollars, and spend the first week of your holiday recovering from it, then you can take a fare to London for $1849, such as the Flight Centre is offering and fly to Sydney, on to Singapore, thence to Zurich and eventually to London. Be prepared to get on and off aircraft and sit around in airports.

A Japan Airlines deal at $1999 goes via Osaka but the airline pays for the overnight accommodation.

Once you have a departure date you can make valid comparisons and weigh convenience against cost savings.

Here is a selection of air fares to Europe for May travel as advised by various carriers to travel agents, to use as a starting point.

Air New Zealand via the Pacific, $2749; Air New Zealand via Singapore with Singapore Airlines, $2549; Qantas via Australia and Asia, $2525; Qantas in conjunction with British Airways, $2499; Canadian Airlines via Canada, $2535; Eva Air via Taiwan, $2549; $2430; Singapore Airlines via Singapore, $2449; Thai International via Bangkok, $2159; Malaysian Airlines via Kuala Lumpur, $2299; Garuda Airlines, via Indonesia, $2199; Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong, $2399.