Advice needed for booking flights to Sydney

[woodley]

I am looking for flights to sydney from LA in Nov 2011 and then back from Auckland to LA.

 

Does anyone have a favorite airline and if so why are they your favorite and is it better to book one way tickets rather than a multi stop/destination ticket.

 

Airlines I have considered are Virgin, Air New Zealand and Qantas but I do not know the pros and cons for each one. Are there any other good ones I have missed?

[moyaroo]

Air New Zealand (but watch out for code share on United equip) Qantas both excellent., V Austalia also but will require a backtrack to Australia so longer flight.

 

Service, food and on the 380 (when they fly again) quiet and a bit more room despite the high payload.

 

You are looking at the best.

[room010]

Everyone who has flown those airlines will have good/bad stories to tell. Of the 3 you mention I'd go with V Australia first because it's a newer fleet and their flight attendants actually seem to enjoy their jobs. It can make a huge difference on a 12-hour flight. The worst flight I had was Qantas and the best was with the much maligned United. You just never know but since choices are so limited :mad: I'd probably look at the best price for the best seat you can afford.

[joandian]

We always fly Qantas from LAX and have bad flights and good flights. My best was when I had enough points to get a return business ticket :D We are flying premium economy this time so I'll see how that is. I've heard the new planes are nice but they've had some engine trouble lately.

 

We have friends who fly United and really like it. We are elite members of Continental and intend to try United once the merger is done and use points to upgrade to business.

 

I've also heard from people who liked V Australia and people who hated it.

 

I think it's all pretty hit and miss and like most companies, you get good flights and bad flights. One thing I have found is bad cabin crew can ruin any flight.

 

Jo

[Cruisin_on_th_net]

I have to admit, when we flew Bris Chch (NZ) with Jetstar we were pleasantly surprised.

 

VAus (Virgin) seems to be dearer if you want to do 1x way trips, may be cheaper to book a return to sydney and a 1x way from Auk - Syd?

 

*raises eyebrows* joeandian, how very uptown - business class, was it good, was it good, did cha like it????? :D *envious lookin*

[Stelladoro]

We thought the service was quite good when we flew to Auckland on Air New Zealand last March. We only flew oneway and cruised back from Sydney.

I checked prices frequently and booked when I saw a seat sale. Flew economy (reserved a couple of the 2 row seats at the back of the plane, to avoid the 3 across). There's also a bit more legroom and storage room by the window in those seats, which we appreciated on a 12 hour flight.

[joandian]

*raises eyebrows* joeandian, how very uptown - business class, was it good, was it good, did cha like it????? :D *envious lookin*

 

It was good and great to be able to lay flat and sleep... mind you it only happened because I pinched all my husbands points and transferred them to my FF account. That will be the only time I will sit in business on Qantas :D

 

Have to say though, Continental business/first is much better than Qantas. We buy economy and upgrade with points when flying to the UK and it's amazing. The seats are better, the service is better, the food is really good and the crew are wonderful.

 

Jo

[Glaciers]

We flew Qantas from LA to Sydney last year and booked the first row of premium economy seats for the two of us, directly behind business class. 747 They had a configuration change and those seats were turned into business class. The service (food) was still premium economy but it was the business class seats that made the flight. If we go again we will do the same thing in hopes of a config change.

[Grumpy100]

We flew last November from LAX to Sydney roundtrip and flew Qantas the A380's that they say they are going to start flying again soon.

Best flight, best food, best service. It was the most quiet flight we ever had and absolutely no turbulance. Of course our engine did not blow up like on Singapore Airlines a few weeks back.

Still I would fly Qantas again in a heartbeat...I am sure they will be the safest ever.:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

[woodley]

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. One more question, is it better to wait a while to book or do prices tend to go up closer to travel dates?

[Grumpy100]

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. One more question, is it better to wait a while to book or do prices tend to go up closer to travel dates?

 

We are also from fla. We booked our flights in April and took our cruise in November. We did two separate segments. First I booked wantad FTP

Lax to Syd. Then I did a separate flight from fla to lax. It wad cheaper that way and because they were a code share airlines I was able to check our luggage all the way through from pbi to syd. American airlines came through for us and everything arrived safely and in one piece. Enjoy your trip. It was our best cruise ever.

[joandian]

Book your flights as soon as possible since you aren't doing a standard return. Prices do go up.

 

Just a FYI, you don't need to be on a code share/alliance flight to get your luggage booked through. We travel Continental in the US and Qantas from LA - Australia. American Airlines is the alliance airline for Qantas in the US but you can ask to have your bags checked all the way through on different full service airlines. I have my bags checked Houston - LA - Brisbane - Mackay by Continental and then reverse by Qantas on my return.

 

It sure saves dragging bags around airports.

 

Chilkoot - I checked our seats last night and we are booked in 24A & B on a 747 and after checking out the seat plans, it looks like we are the last row of business class. That would be a bonus but I'm not getting my hopes up.

 

Grumpy, it was a Qantas A380 that blew an engine on the flight from Singapore :eek: There has been a few incidences of problems and talk of servicing not done properly on Qantas planes since they sent the servicing contract offshore.

 

Jo

[Grumpy100]

I said A380 didn't I?

[joandian]

I said A380 didn't I?

 

Sorry, yes you did but I thought you said it was a Singapore Airlines flight that blew an engine. It was Qantas.

 

Jo

[moyaroo]

It doesn't always work. We flew Delta JAX to LAX and Qantas LAX BNE last September and had to reclaim and recheck in LA as we were on separate tickets so it doesn't always work if the tickets are separate. (and if you are on a Jetsstar even though coded as QF going Cairns to Brissie to LA it won't work even on a through ticket)

[The_Big_M]

There has been a few incidences of problems and talk of servicing not done properly on Qantas planes since they sent the servicing contract offshore.

 

Though that doesn't seem to be related.

 

The A380 engine problem is one affecting three airlines, Qantas, Singapore and Lufthansa, and due to a fault in the British made engines from Rolls Royce rather than servicing. (Though I guess you could say that as they're British production, that's also offshore :-) ).

[joandian]

I know the lower cost airlines won't book bags through but I've never had any problem flying anywhere on the main airlines and not having my bags checked through to my destination. Sometimes I have 3 different tickets. A few times I've had to insist it can be done because xx and yy airline can do it, and they've managed to find it can be done. At the International terminals you need to drag your bags through but there is usually a bag drop outside immigration/customs or a counter to re-check in Brisbane/Sydney.

 

I wish they would just do the bag drop like they do in the US if you already have your bag checked through and it would save so much time.

 

Jo

[lais]

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. One more question, is it better to wait a while to book or do prices tend to go up closer to travel dates?

I booked my cruise last May and have checked airline prices weekly. Well a few weeks ago the prices started going up and I jumped on getting a ticket before it went sky high. I booked United because they were having a sale to upgrade to economy plus and then I was able to be waitlisted (one way) to upgrade with miles to business. I am crossing my fingers on that one.

Someone on my roll call in flying Air Pacific so I checked and they have a good price. $1000 rt pp via Fiji from LAX.

[Globaliser]

I am looking for flights to sydney from LA in Nov 2011 and then back from Auckland to LA.

 

...

 

Airlines I have considered are Virgin, Air New Zealand and Qantas but I do not know the pros and cons for each one.

If you want non-stop flights for both of those sectors and you want to fly on the airline that you've chosen, it'll have to be Qantas.

 

Otherwise, you'll either have to connect, or end up on a UA-operated flight.

 

You'll definitely want to book this as one ticket, otherwise you'll end up paying very expensive fares for long-haul one-way tickets.