Buying tickets for the ghan

 

When Ian and I woke up on Friday 27th February we had no thought of making a railway trip on the Ghan, but by 3 pm our tickets were booked. The Trans Siberian was going to be our first train venture but, as Ian had said, how can you have a website about train trips when you haven't even been on one. OK, so everyone is going to learn how our Trans Siberian trip was planned but we thought we had better, at very least, have one actual train trip under our belt so we have something of substance to report on.

 

 

 

Travelling from Adelaide to Darwin

Early that particular morning we received an email from Qantas telling about their special discount of 40% off lots of domestic flights. Being thrifty people we figured that now might be that time to go on our first official railway trip. We thought the Ghan would be a great place to start. We could get ourselves from Perth to Adelaide with a discounted Qantas air fare, travel north from Adelaide on the Ghan to Darwin, then from Darwin fly home to Perth again with Qantas. This would be a reasonably cheap way to organise our trip and then we really would have something worthwhile to detail on this web site.

Getting seats on the Ghan

Fortunately, with the work we do, neither of us is tied to strict holiday times so we thought we'd have no trouble getting seats on the planes or on the Ghan. We were quite prepared to buy the cheapest seats on the Ghan. One obvious reason, of course, was their price but the other was that we thought we should buy seats at the very basic level so we could experience a little basic travel in readiness for the forthcoming Trans Siberian journey. Not that basic in Australia would ever be anything like basic in Russia! 

Booking tickets on the Ghan railway

So, off I headed to Jet Set, a travel agency in Bunbury that I had driven past many times. I met a lovely travel agent by the name of Nikki who really is a gem. She knew of a free Ghan ticket upgrade that was available so that we could be upgraded from Red Service (basic) to Gold Service for free. However booking for this upgrade offer finished the very next day. I had to make some quick decisions on this holiday in the absence of Ian who was then at work. Nikki made quite a few quick phone calls and netted us the last upgraded fare that was available on that trip. Wow were we lucky! An upgrade on the Ghan is certainly worth having and it cost us nothing. We decided to add in a couple of nights extra accommodation so that we could see some of the city sights at the start of the Ghan ride and then again at the end of the Ghan ride and not just fly in or out of the two cities like lightning. 

Cost of the Ghan train trip

For the two of us we have paid $4304 for:

1. Three nights accommodation at the start of the train trip.
2. The actual train ride on the Ghan
3. Two nights accommodation at the end of our journey before flying home.

Find out the cost of your Ghan tickets at Ghan Ticket Prices

Free Gold Service upgrade on the Ghan

With the Gold Service upgrade, which is really worth over $600 each extra, we were entitled to free meals on the train along with a shower and toilet in our own little compartment. Meals are:

A hearty breakfast,
A two-course lunch and
A three-course dinner! 

It sounded divine. Who could refuse a free upgrade or a Ghan discount like that. The only catch was that because it was the last compartment available for that deal, we had to go in early April and do the trip in reverse. So I booked us to go from Perth to Darwin by plane, from Darwin to Adelaide on The Ghan and then from Adelaide to Perth on the plane again. Told hubby what I'd organised and he was well pleased.

Free upgrades are often available on the Ghan and the Indian Pacific. Visit Great Southern Rail to see what their current Special Offers are.

 

Next page: Getting organised to go on the Ghan train

 

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