Suggestions for breaking up long flight time to Australia, afraid the long in flight time not the best for me. Have heard stop overs in Hawaii, Fiji, etc.To and from. For you that have done it your help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I broke up the flight by going to Fiji. It was a nice thing to do if you can't fly for a long, long time. Wasn't that impressed with Air Pacific,though.

either hawaii or fiji stop overs would be good. fiji is a good stop over. if not air pacific try air new zealand.

its hot this time of the year go. let me know if you need more info.

We have found in the past that stopovers of less than 2 nights are worse than no stopover at all, as you feel as if you've just gotten off the plane, tranferred to the hotel, unpacked a few things, then you are doing the whole thing over in reverse. You need enough time to have a break from the plane, have a proper sleep and you might as well see something of the country you are stopping over in. I would suggest 3 nights minimum as a stopover if you can afford the time. We have flown the 14 hours from Melb to LA and back a few times and if you have the right mindset, it's not as bad as you'd think. Drink plenty of water, try to sleep a bit and walk around the cabin as much as possible.
If you had heaps of time, you could stop in Hawaii, then Fiji then New Zealand, on your way to Australia.
Kay

As already said, if you can't stay on the stopover for a couple days, just go on through. I'd grab the chance to see Fiji too though if I had that much time.

We fly STL-LAX-MEL and back again and had once picked the Auckland, NZ connection because *I* thought it would be good to have a chance to get off that plane and stretch. Wrong! Getting back on another plane - smaller plane, less comfortable - and riding for 4 more hours was the worst part of the trip. It works out much better to just have to get into that travel frame of mind once each direction. 5 weeks and we test that theory once again.

When I head out on vacation I just want to get there, regardless how long the trip. Having done Australia and even South Africa, I know long flights. Once you've arrived, you can worry about jetlag, if any, but stopping on the way to I find frustrating.

Most flights to OZ are night flights and just about everyone sleeps (do get something for sleep from your doctor if you can't sleep on your own) and next you know it will be morning (1-day lost going over) 3rd day, and hopefully with sunshine you'll get out into the city and reset your clock you hopefully won't have any jetlag.

On the otherend, many people stop on the return trip - in Fiji or Hawaii - my choice would be Fiji for 3-4 days, then continue to the States.

But in the end you know your body best - these have all been recommendations - so go from there.

If you had a choice between Air Canada,Quantas or United to fly to Australia-who would you pick? Thanks!

QANTAS!!! Love that airline. Very courteous, food isn't that bad, eager to please.

QANTAS!!! (no u)

Better than the others!

Been flying Air New Zealand and they've been exceptional in the way of service. But it'll be Qantas for the first time in December (for me anyway, my wife has flown them) so we'll see how that goes. Decided to make the change to Qantas as they're the American Airlines partner and AA services my home airport most heavily.