Skyscanner

Everywhere search lets a traveller enter Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth or Adelaide as the origin and Everywhere as the destination, returning a country-level list of cheapest fares in the chosen month. It is the fastest tool for open-ended exploration when the destination is flexible: pick a month, sort by price, drill down to city-level results, then compare specific dates on the Cheapest Month calendar. Bali, Fiji, New Zealand, Japan and Singapore typically surface near the top of Everywhere from Australian origins on cheap-fare months. Combine with price alerts on a shortlisted route to catch airline seat sales. Activate ShopBack Australia before clicking through to Skyscanner so any downstream hotel or car hire booking through the Skyscanner path can track.

Cheapest Month is Skyscanner's price-calendar view for a specific route, showing the lowest fare found for each month of the year. For flexible AU travellers on routes like Sydney to Tokyo, Melbourne to Bali, Brisbane to Fiji, Perth to Singapore or Sydney to Los Angeles, Cheapest Month typically surfaces shoulder-season fares (late Feb to early Apr for North Asia, May and June for Bali, Feb and Nov for Europe) below peak periods. Combine with the Whole Month calendar view to pick specific cheapest dates. Verify the fare on the airline or OTA site before locking; meta-search prices update on a delay and can shift on click-through.

Price alerts on Skyscanner track a specific route and date pair and send email or push notifications when the fare moves. For AU travellers watching a peak-season route (Japan cherry blossom late March to early April, Bali dry season May to September, European summer, Christmas and school holidays), setting alerts 10 to 16 weeks before travel typically catches airline seat-sale windows from Qantas, Virgin Australia, Jetstar, Rex, Singapore Airlines and Emirates. Alerts do not lock the price; act on them same-day since airline sale windows are usually short.

For AU travellers, the typical sweet spot on North Asia routes (Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong) is 10 to 16 weeks before travel, with cherry blossom and autumn foliage peaks benefiting from 16 to 20 weeks lead time. Short-haul Pacific and Southeast Asia routes (Bali, Fiji, Singapore, Bangkok, Auckland, Queenstown) usually price well 4 to 10 weeks out. Long-haul Europe and USA often reward 14 to 22 weeks lead time. Domestic routes (Sydney to Melbourne, Brisbane to Cairns, Perth to Adelaide) price well 2 to 6 weeks ahead outside school holiday windows. Use Cheapest Month first to pick the window, price alerts to monitor, and book same-day when an airline seat sale drops. Hotel and car hire booked via the Skyscanner tracked path can earn cashback on shopback.com.au/skyscanner.

Skyscanner compares domestic Australian carriers Qantas, Virgin Australia, Jetstar and Rex on trunk and regional routes (Sydney to Melbourne, Brisbane to Cairns, Perth to Adelaide, Hobart to Sydney and similar). On the busiest triangle routes, Jetstar and Virgin Australia typically undercut Qantas on base fare while Qantas leads on schedule breadth and status benefits. Cheapest Month surfaces off-peak weekday and shoulder-holiday dates below peak weekends. For last-minute domestic travel inside two weeks, booking directly on the airline site is often no more expensive than meta-search and gives cleaner change and cancellation options.

Skyscanner does not run its own fixed sitewide sale calendar. Flight pricing follows airline-specific seat-sale windows: Qantas typically runs Red Tail sales and EOFY campaigns (late June), Virgin Australia runs Happy Hour and EOFY sales, Jetstar runs Friday Fare Frenzy and school-holiday flash sales, Rex runs periodic regional sales, and international carriers Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Emirates run headline sales tied to Chinese New Year, EOFY, school holidays and year-end. Hotel and package inventory on Skyscanner follows OTA sale windows (Click Frenzy in May and November, EOFY, 11.11 and 12.12 on Asian OTAs, Black Friday, Boxing Day). Use price alerts to catch airline drops; use Cheapest Month to plan around OTA sale windows for hotels.

Both are flight meta-search platforms without direct booking; both route the traveller to airline or OTA sites for payment. Skyscanner typically wins on flight-price exploration through Everywhere search and Cheapest Month, plus deeper coverage of budget carriers and mixed-airline itineraries out of Australia. Google Flights typically wins on interface speed, integration with Google Calendar and Google Maps, and clearer fare-class breakdowns. Both surface similar cash-price ranges on major AU-out routes; for open-ended exploration Skyscanner is typically the faster tool. Google Flights has no ShopBack merchant page; Skyscanner hotel and car hire bookings are cashback-eligible on ShopBack Australia at the current published rate.

Kayak and Skyscanner are both flight meta-search platforms. Kayak's Hacker Fares surface mixed-airline itineraries by combining two one-way tickets into a round trip, which sometimes undercuts standard round-trip pricing. Skyscanner does the same via mixed-airline results with typically wider LCC coverage on Asia-Pacific routes. For AU travellers, Skyscanner's Everywhere and Cheapest Month tools are typically stronger for open-ended exploration; Kayak's Travel Planner and price forecast tools are stronger for locked-route monitoring. Neither books flights directly; both route to the airline or OTA at checkout.

Skyscanner is a meta-search platform that compares Trip.com among other providers; Trip.com is a direct-booking OTA under the same Trip.com Group parent. For an Australian traveller with a set route to a mainland China or North Asia destination, Trip.com typically has strong direct pricing on Chinese carriers, Shinkansen tickets and mainland China hotels, plus Trip Coins loyalty rewards. Skyscanner is the better starting point when the destination is still flexible or when comparing across multiple OTAs. Practical pattern: search on Skyscanner for the cheapest fare, click through to Trip.com or the airline if that is where the price lands, and route through ShopBack Australia for the hotel booking. Both have ShopBack AU merchant pages at shopback.com.au/skyscanner and shopback.com.au/trip-com.

Skyscanner is meta-search; Agoda, Expedia and Booking.com are direct-booking OTAs. Skyscanner surfaces prices from all three (and others) side by side, then routes to the chosen provider for checkout. Agoda typically wins on Asia-Pacific hotel inventory depth and Insider Deals; Booking.com typically wins on Europe, North America and global free-cancellation breadth; Expedia typically wins on package pricing (flight plus hotel bundled) and One Key OneKeyCash. For an Australian traveller, using Skyscanner as the comparison surface and then booking directly through the winning OTA is the common pattern. All four have ShopBack AU merchant pages: shopback.com.au/skyscanner, shopback.com.au/agoda, shopback.com.au/expedia-australia and shopback.com.au/booking-com.

Wotif is an Australian direct-booking OTA (Expedia Group) with strong domestic hotel and package inventory, particularly Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Hunter Valley, Tasmania and regional AU stays. Hotels.com is a global direct-booking OTA (also Expedia Group) whose loyalty programme is now One Key, where members earn OneKeyCash on eligible bookings and burn it as a discount on future stays. Skyscanner surfaces both alongside other OTAs on any given hotel search and routes to the winning provider. Practical pattern for AU domestic: search Skyscanner, then check Wotif directly for AU-specific package rates. For global hotel loyalty stacking, book directly on Hotels.com. All three have ShopBack AU merchant pages at shopback.com.au/skyscanner, shopback.com.au/wotif and shopback.com.au/hotels-com.

Skyscanner combines separate one-way tickets from different airlines into a single itinerary when it undercuts a round-trip fare, sometimes routing via a third-party booking partner such as Kiwi.com. The savings can be meaningful on Australia to Europe and Australia to South America routes; the trade-off is that the two legs are separate contracts, so a delay on the first leg does not obligate the second airline to rebook. For time-sensitive trips, connections with short layovers, or itineraries with checked baggage transfers, a single-carrier ticket is safer even at a premium. Compare the mixed-airline saving against the risk before locking.

Skyscanner is meta-search, not a direct flight booking merchant. Flight results link out to the airline (Qantas, Virgin Australia, Jetstar, Rex, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Cathay Pacific and others) or an OTA partner (Trip.com, Expedia, Kiwi.com and others) where the traveller completes payment and receives the ticket. The airline or partner OTA becomes the merchant of record for that flight booking. ShopBack Australia cashback for flight bookings is not typically available via the Skyscanner path; cashback on Skyscanner is typically limited to hotel and car hire completed via Skyscanner's own tracked path. Verify the current cashback categories on shopback.com.au/skyscanner before assuming.

Skyscanner's hotel search compares rates across Agoda, Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, Trip.com, Wotif and other OTAs, then routes the traveller to the winning provider. Hotel bookings completed via the Skyscanner tracked path are typically eligible for ShopBack Australia cashback at the current published rate on shopback.com.au/skyscanner. For deeper Asia-Pacific hotel inventory or member-only Insider Deals, booking directly on Agoda via shopback.com.au/agoda can be an alternative; for global hotel breadth with free-cancellation flexibility, shopback.com.au/booking-com; for AU domestic packages, shopback.com.au/wotif; for Hotels.com Rewards loyalty stacking, shopback.com.au/hotels-com. Compare side by side before committing.

Skyscanner car hire compares prices across major suppliers (Hertz, Avis, Budget, Sixt, Enterprise, Europcar, Thrifty, East Coast and local operators) at Australian and international airports and city depots. For AU travellers on self-drive trips around Tasmania, New Zealand's South Island, Japan, the US west coast or European road-trip loops, Skyscanner is a quick way to price a hire across suppliers on one screen before locking the reservation with the winning provider. Domestic self-drive holidays out of Cairns, Hobart, Launceston, Alice Springs and Broome are typical use cases where Skyscanner surfaces regional suppliers alongside the majors. Car hire bookings completed via the Skyscanner tracked path are typically eligible for ShopBack Australia cashback at the current published rate on shopback.com.au/skyscanner.

Because Skyscanner is meta-search, the booking contract sits with the airline or OTA that processed the payment. For flight changes, cancellations, refunds or seat selection, the traveller contacts the airline or the booking OTA directly. For hotel and car hire bookings made via the Skyscanner tracked path, the same rule applies: support goes through the property or supplier. Skyscanner's own support handles price alerts, account and app issues. Keep the airline or OTA booking reference handy since Skyscanner itself does not hold the reservation.

To earn cashback on Skyscanner, sign in to ShopBack Australia, open the Skyscanner merchant page at shopback.com.au/skyscanner and click through before starting the search. Complete the eligible hotel or car hire booking in the same session via the Skyscanner tracked path, and avoid pasting unsupported third-party voucher codes at checkout since they can break tracking. The current cashback rate and eligible product categories are published on shopback.com.au/skyscanner. See also, learn how to earn cashback on travel bookings.

Cashback on Skyscanner is typically limited to hotel and car hire bookings completed via Skyscanner's own tracked path. Flight bookings routed from Skyscanner to airlines or OTAs are typically not cashback-eligible under the Skyscanner path since the merchant of record shifts to the airline or partner OTA at checkout. Verify the current cashback categories on shopback.com.au/skyscanner before booking. If the intended booking is a flight or a hotel where a specific OTA lands the best price, checking that OTA's ShopBack AU merchant page separately is often the higher-cashback pattern.

For AU travellers who want both Skyscanner's price comparison and OTA-side cashback, one pattern is to use Skyscanner as the comparison surface (Everywhere, Cheapest Month, price alerts), identify the winning OTA, then close the Skyscanner tab and open ShopBack Australia separately to click through to that OTA's page (shopback.com.au/trip-com, shopback.com.au/agoda, shopback.com.au/expedia-australia, shopback.com.au/booking-com, shopback.com.au/wotif or shopback.com.au/hotels-com) before booking. The OTA becomes the tracked merchant and cashback lands at the OTA's current published rate.