Best airplanes/airlines for a NY to SYD long haul flight?

[Skippy442]

Looking to book a NY to SYD flight for an upcoming cruise in April 2025. Deciding between premium economy and business. Is business worth twice the price? When will the best prices be offered? Which airplanes have the best seats with regards to comfort (seat width, pitch)? Which airlines do you recommend? What is the minimum layover time I should have? What are the best layover cities in order to minimize delays and cancellations, easiest to navigate? The most options are at LAX and HNG. Any wisdom would be appreciated.

[CruiserBruce]

First, welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

Second, what does "best" mean to you.

 

Third, "worth it" is a very subjective term, meaning lots of different things to lots of people. That being said, Business is definitely worth it for any flight of that duration, or even much shorter, in our opinion.

 

HNG? What is that?

 

A common way to SYD is through SFO or LAX. In both cases, the flights leave at 10pm or thereabouts. That would present you the option of departing mid day out of NY, arriving on the West Coast around 6pm or so, with a very safe layover time.

 

I imagine you could go east, with one connection in a variety of European connection airports. I am not experienced in that routing, so others will have to comment.

[Astro Flyer]

I just researched a LAX to Brisbane flight in March 2025. After reading & watching video reviews, for me Air New Zealand is our best option. We decided on ANZ’s Premium Economy for a few reasons…seat with a good legrest, more room with a 41” pitch vs 38” in most other airlines’ PE and a better meal service…some reviewers said they got 8 hours of sleep on the 13 hour portion between LAX & Auckland in PE.

 

Obviously as CruiserBruce wrote, there is no best for everyone & that flights from JFK will usually make West Coast stops. For their Premium Economy booking ANZ flies passengers on Alaska JFK/SFO in Economy, on ANZ SFO/AKL in PE and then AKL/SYD in Economy. When booking your flights check to confirm the class for each flight because all of them might not be in the same class.
 

I haven’t checked all airlines & will use booking sites such as Travelocity to check all flight options. I also check the cruise line’s air program which for our PE flights (LAX/AKL/BNE) booked through Princess’ EZair they were 20% less expensive than a direct booking with options to change or cancel up until 45 days in advance.

 

Here are ANZ’s prices by class for JFK/SFO/AKL/SYD in mid April 2025 which seems to be standard for flights that I have checked…PE is about half the price of the BC airfare.

 

Economy

$1,079

skycouch™ available

Premium Economy

$2,888

Business

$6,391

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:52 PM by Astro Flyer

[Skippy442]

Sorry, I meant HKG (Hong Kong). It looks like a number of flights from  NY layover there.

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

[CruiserBruce]

JFK-HKG -SYD is 25 or so hours flight time, not counting whatever lay over you have. 

 

JFK-West Coast-SYD should be under 20 hours, not counting connections, with the JFK-West Coast being normal awake time. 

 

I won't fly through HKG.

[Astro Flyer]

Checking EZair, there are PE flights available flying west (HKG-$1863) or east (SIN-$2015) from JFK.

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 11:20 PM by Astro Flyer

[Zach1213]

14 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

Checking EZair, there are PE flights available flying west (HKG-$1863) or east (SIN-$2015) from JFK.
 

 

Fun fact (well, to me) is that JFK-HKG will probably go east too. Well, more like north northeast, with an emphasis on the north. 

[Shorex]

4 hours ago, Zach1213 said:

 

Fun fact (well, to me) is that JFK-HKG will probably go east too. Well, more like north northeast, with an emphasis on the north. 

Way north 🙂

 

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=jfk-hkg

[d9704011]

4 hours ago, Zach1213 said:

 

Fun fact (well, to me) is that JFK-HKG will probably go east too. Well, more like north northeast, with an emphasis on the north. 

You sure about that easterly component?

[d9704011]

On 6/26/2024 at 1:04 PM, Skippy442 said:

The most options are at LAX and HNG. Any wisdom would be appreciated

I recommend you look at Delta Premium Economy JFK/LAX/SYD.

[Astro Flyer]

Checking Singapore flight #23 listed in Princess EZair here’s the route of that flight currently flying JFK/SIN…it begins with a typical US to Europe route before turning southeast to SIN. For Cathay Pacific #843 (JFK/HKG) it’s what I believe is called the Polar route & is not westbound as I incorrectly presumed.

 

SIA #23

 

 

 

CPA #843

 

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, d9704011 said:

You sure about that easterly component?

When we took the then-longest flight back in 2019, from Newark to Singapore, on Singapore Airlines, I just assumed we'd be heading west, based upon nothing at all.

So we were rather surprised as we watched the plane route map as we progressed... to the EAST.  Almost right over Moscow (it was 2019; no way would that be the route now).

And then there was Kabul, Afghanistan, a bit to the south of our route... and on and on... Watching that map was quite a fun surprise!

 

So yes, "easterly"!

Or at least some of the time; we've only taken that flight once.

 

(We went business class and used "Book The Cook", and had the best airline food ever.  My dinner choice was a sort of short ribs, the most tender and flavorful ever.  I would have been very pleased to be served that at some high-end restaurant, it was that good.  Even the breakfast choice was delicious.  Amazing.

And we used points.  Many of our points are bonus points in addition to the points for spending, so we get more "value" from them.)

 

Back in 2019, the flight from JFK to Singapore had a stop in Frankfurt, so we knew that one would be heading "easterly", but it hadn't occurred to us that a non-stop would also go "easterly".

 

Note that we definitely did not take a polar route as shown in this link (although this mapped route is to Hong Kong, which is quite different from Singapore, obviously!):

1 hour ago, Shorex said:

Way north 🙂

 

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=jfk-hkg

 

On a different flight, non-stop from HKG to USA east coast, we went up the coast of Asia, near Tokyo, and then headed back down sort of the Alaska coast.  That could look a bit like a polar-ish route, but it didn't get close to the polar region.

Again, it was an easterly route.

 

Question:  How much does the wind direction/speed affect the route?

Do the flights that go half-way around tend to always go easterly. and thus not reverse the same route, or do they head east in one direction and west in another?

GC

[Astro Flyer]

19 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

Almost right over Moscow (it was 2019; no way would that be the route now).

Very true… Today’s flight en route to HKG goes nowhere near Moscow.

 

 

Edited Friday at 05:44 PM by Astro Flyer

[d9704011]

22 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

So yes, "easterly"!

JFK to SIN.... some easterly  component.

 

JFK to HKG.... no easterly component (see post 7 and my response to that).

 

Check your longitudes and great circles.

Edited Friday at 05:52 PM by d9704011