We are going to Australia and booking flights with miles. (No business class available). I can either fly Qantas to MEL and then AKL to LAX or on United to MEL and return from AKL on Air New Zealand. Any preferences? Any advantages going through LAX or SFO? We are continuing on to the east coast. I checked seat guru and width seems to be 17 on UA and 17, 8 on NZ. Qantas is 17,2". Thanks

I fly United a lot, but I try to avoid economy on its 747s. There's no individual seat-back entertainment (Qantas and Air New Zealand do have personal tvs on most long-haul planes). If you can get an Economy Plus seat (free with UA status or paid via E+ Access subscription at $349 for two people), you get a couple extra inches of legroom, but all other services are the same. I've only flown domestic economy on Qantas and not at all on Air New Zealand.

I did fly business class to/from Australia this past summer--there on United, back on Qantas--and thought Qantas was superior by most measures.

If mileage accrual in a particular program is important to you, that might be another consideration. For example, some lower discounted economy fares on Qantas don't earn full credit in the Aadvantage program.

Okay, never mind my last, irrelevant point. I now see that you're booking with miles.

NZ has more legroom than the others. I would shoot for NZ LAX-AKL-MEL//AKL-LAX. If they're United miles they ought to be good for NZ just as they would be for UA.

Thank you all for your replies. Posts on the Australia forum seem to prefer Qantas. We are leaving from the East coast-Newark seems to have the best connections. United offers flights through Chicago, but with all the hours, we prefer the direct flights. We'll either buy that portion or incorporate it into the 80,000 mile ticket. Continental offfers the most options.
If we go United and New Zealand, we'll break up the trip in Los Angeles, but if we go Qantas, we'll probably go straight through. Oh my, too many options.

Hi FTP

You know for the best direct flight to Australia is Qantas QF108 New York JFK via LAX (change to QF94) which flies direct to Melbourne. Only a 90 minute layover in LA.

Qantas has better in flight service than UA it also has PTV's in each seat, as does Air NZ on its 777s and 747s

Note that United 839 LAX-MEL, if you are considering it, is a direct flight with a stop in SYD. It is not a nonstop.

If you are into movies, I would vote for Qantas because they have Video on Demand in Economy and good Australian wine, which is free.