Jules

My husband and I are flying Air Canada to Australia in the fall and I'm wondering if anyone has done this flight and could tell me what to expect? We are flying from LAX to Vancouver to Sydney (I think there's also a stop over in Honolulu for 30 minutes...) - It's going to be a killer flight, time wise -but we got a great deal on Priceline and feel it's worth it what with the money we're saving (aproximately 800 dollars off the lowest published fare). Anyway, we're flying coach (unfortunately) on an Airbus A320-200 (320) from Lax to Vancouver and back and our plane from Vancouver to Sydney and back is a 767-300 (763). We have never flown Air Canada and are just wondering what it might be like (in comparison to an US airline or just in general)?!? Thanks for your help!

Gavin

I fly Air Canada faily regularly (never been to Australia) but seldom use US carriers. Seat pitch is 32 inches. They will feed you. (I understand some US carriers don't anymore.) You may have to claim your luggage in Vancouver to walk it through Canadian customs. Vancouver airport has a web site: yvr.com

Jules

Gavin,

Thanks for your reply - it never even occured to me thatwe might have to claim our luggage, go through customs and then re-check luggage en route to Sydney. Does anyone else know if this is definitely required/standard procedure? That would be a bit of a pain....and hopefully we'll have enough time between flights to do all of that...

aaron

how mcuh did you pay for your tickets on priceline to australia?

Darin

Aaron,

Including all taxes, surcharges and so on (the taxes are horrendous for int'l flights...) we paid a total of $2300.00 (US) (total fare for two passengers) for our flight. As of today, the cheapest flight listed on travelocity for our same travelling dates was $3179.60 for two people....so we saved a good amount of money this way. I've checked on cheaptickets.com, expedia, orbitz, and yahoo travel and all of them have listed a price in the 3,100+ range (some going for as much as 7,000 bucks for two tickets - COACH!!!) as the cheapest fare available (including taxes...) if you're planning a trip to australia (or heck, anywhere!) and don't mind flying any airline at any time during the day you want to depart AND make sure you get to the airport a good three hours ahead of time (for int'l flights) you can save yourself a valuable amount of cash....We're young and adventurous and don't have a lot of extra cash, so for us, it's worth a bit of hassle and inconvenience for the savings adn the oppportunity to go see the world while saving some money!

koala

You paid too much. Consolidator fares, nonstop to Sydney, start at 700.00 plus taxes. Seats, FF miles all included on Qantas

Gavin

Jules

Toronto is my home airport and this is what I have observed at the luggage claim areas there:
1) Arrival from Heathrow- US bound bags are on the belt.
2) Arrival from US destinations- Heathrow bound bags are on the belt.

Odds are that it will be the same in Vancouver but I don't know for sure. If Vancouver is the same as Toronto you will clear US customs and immigration in Vancouver on your return trip.

Make sure you get your flyer points for this one. Air Canada will give you United points which are likely of more use to you. Air Canada's points don't expire.