wlzmatilida

Good Morning!

Just wanted to give everyone a "heads up" that "V" Australia will be starting up February 27th with flights from Los Angeles to Sydney.

While they will be having promo fares, as always, it comes down to availability and dates. I fooled around checking fares yesterday and got a roundtrip fare of $776, including taxes.

"V" will depart LAX on Mon/Wed/Fri and return from SYD on Wed/Fri/Sun.

This is a great fare for anyone in the L.A. area, or for anyone wanting to break up their trip by overnighting in L.A., or if you can make the connect from your departure city in time for the departure at 11PM.

There were so many airfare specials from LAX, SFO, Vancouver & NYC that crossed my desk on Thursday, I had to print out a "cheat sheet" to list them! (just counted -- approx. 11 total from Qantas and Air New Zealand).

Two of them have a cut off date of Feb. 2 (gee, thanks for sending that - on Jan. 29), but as with the previous Air NZ promo, I suspect that they may extend it as well. Most of the others need to be ticketed by March 2.

Hope this is helpful!

Regards,

Melodie
Certified Aussie Specialist

northie

I will be more cautious booking such fares as we booked the 2 for 1 Qantas offered which at the time were much cheaper but now the fares are considerbly cheaper for 2 than we paid for one. GRRR Hindsight is a marvellous thing.

northie

Qantas announced today 160% increase in bookings from US to OZ from the same period last year. Probably the arrival of Virgin and Delta in July has helped them lift their game!!!

stormbird

Wow Melodie, that's a fantastic fare isn't it? I wish I could go - but soooooo many places to see, so little time, I just can't fit it all in.

Thanks for the update though - very interesting.

Neil_Oz

"Probably the arrival of Virgin and Delta in July has helped them lift their game!!!"

From my last experience of flying Qantas, SYD-SFO-SYD, their game was already pretty good. It was certainly a world of difference from UA. Air NZ is also pretty good. Judging by the occasional comment I've heard re Delta, maybe they'll be the carrier that needs to lift their game.

My daughters and SIL booked SYD-LAX-SYD with V-Australia a few weeks ago for AU$1200, very close to Melodie's US$776. I'm assuming that like Virgin Blue they're not what you'd call a full-service carrier though.

Patty

I flew SYD-LAX in Qantas business last year and was actually quite disappointed. I found the service ho-hum, the seats OK and the entertainment system was down for most of my flight (I realize this can happen on any carrier). Overall it just came across to me as really mediocre (but perhaps that's still miles ahead of UA I don't fly them). I found myself comparing the on board service to Air France in business which is never a good sign.

I also flew several domestic business segments on Qantas prior to my long haul experience and found the domestic service to be excellent so I think that further raised my expectations.

I've flown Delta many times in business and think that they have really made some improvements in their product in recent years. I'm looking forward to trying out their version of the flatbed herringbone seats. I've always found the service to be good.

Perhaps my Qantas long haul experience was a fluke but I don't feel that Delta is the one that needs to step up their game, at least not in the business cabin.

northie

Probably the arrival of Virgin and Delta in July has helped them lift their game!!!"
Neil, I was only referring to the Qantas Aus/Pacific fares. I travel Qantas when possible and am usually very happy with the service etc