ShelleyC

We will be flying from Philadelphia to Sydney leaving Phila. on March 13, 2010. We will stay in Sydney for 3 nights, then cruise from Sydney to Auckland. Our return on March 30, 2010 is from Auckland to Philadelphia.

This is a big trip for us and we are looking for flights with the least number of stops possible.

We’d appreciate any suggestions about what airlines and flights would be best for this trip. Thanks very much for your help.

Bushranger

V Australia [Virgin] Qantas and Air New Zealand do US to NZ and Australia as do a number of other US and other airlines, some with non stop flights.

Depending on who you fly with they'll either have connections with other airlines to/from the westcoast or be an extension with the airline you have selected.

Air New Zealand are likely to make a stop at Auckland [maybe not so long].

Sites like www.mobissimo.com [ who have in past I've noticed run adverts for Qantas and AirNZ] and others such as www.travelocity.com are worth going to and then entering details to get prices.
You might as well also see what comes up under travel deals on Fodors.

One thing you'll need to make enquiries about is having a flight to Sydney and then doing a 'return' leg from Auckland, not always possible and so to save you having the extra cost of two long distance one way flights, you may be best to look at US to Auckland as a return and then book a one way Auckland to Sydney, about an extra $200 or less when specials are shown.

March may be high or high shoulder as far as prices go and so I would not wait too long hoping a good special arises and if you can get something westcoast to Auckland for then somewhere between A$1000 - 1500 I'd be taking it and matching up your one way Auckland to Sydney, there being quite a few flights daily.

KensingtonGirl

There are direct flights to both Sydney and Auckland from both LAX and SFO - so to shorten your flight times you want to fly direct from PHL cross county to your west coast departure city. Pacific flights generally leave the west coast in the evening, so you'll have to make the choice whether you want to fly across country the same day or spend the night prior in LA of SF to ensure you make your connection.

Go to a site like www.kayak.com and play around with the multi-city search and the different legs of the flight to get a feel for what the cost should be. I think it is too far in advance to book your March flights now since the domestic airlines generally aren't running sales for that time period yet. If you put in an Oct. departure date you could get a sense of how low you might be able to get your flights. You will probably find that an open-jaw ticket is not that much different from a round trip to Auckland and an extra ticket and might even be cheaper. Not recommended is to buy separate tickets for connecting flights.

Our preference right now is for Air New Zealand since they have more leg room in coach and they treat you a lot better on the long haul flights than some other airlines - and you will be on that flight at least 12-14 hours.

ivenotbeeneverywhere

Do a test plan flight from Phila - Honolulu return and then check both Hawaiian Airlines / Air Pacific / Qantas from Honolulu return to Auckland and/or Sydney. However your bigest problem is that you are not going back the same way as you came and that probably will preclude most of the cheapie airline flights. Twice I have flown on Air NZ and twice I vowed never to fly with them again - the first time was out of Hong Kong in a Force 9 hurrican when no other plane was flying in or out and the second time was when there was absolutely no power for lights or music in our seating section and was told to read instead - what with, a flashlight???????

ivenotbeeneverywhere

PS. Do those flight price checks on www.priceline.com of course.

ivenotbeeneverywhere

I did a check on Priceline from Phila via Honolulu and got $1445US However looking at Qantas if you were booking now the price from New York return Sydney is $1183AU or about $900 US. This of course does not mean that those prices will be available in March. I would leave booking until into the New Year to see if we still have a recession in the World - if so the prices will come down for next year I would say.

Bokhara2

Qantas has a brilliant flight from JFK to Sydney. One short stop in LAX. The check in is a breeze too; QF and BA share a check-in which is in a less crowded area than the other airlines.

QF (www.qantas.com.au) flies all legs and has been offering some great deals to the US, so you could probably do an open-jaw. Haven't costed your route, but everyone seems to be offering great rates just now.

I realize you're in Philadelphia, but figure you'd either drive the couple of hours, or take a feeder flight into JFK.

Bushranger

I would not blame you Shelley if you become more confused with options, but I'll just list a few things for you to consider as dot points incorporating other comments.

. First re open jaw tickets you had better check that whichever airline you find has them, they are applicable to two separate countries, ie. in to Australia and out of New Zealand for whilst I know Qantas has at times offers re open jaw for Australian airports I do not think NZ will be included.

. As for playing around with Honolulu options, you would be building in another stop-over and that you are seeking to avoid, beensomewhere having found himself that it is does not seem to be a great idea price wise anyway.

. Mobissimo can check prices for you in March next year, viz
http://www.mobissimo.com/results_air...199ccf05940001
If it does not bring up details, just plug in dates yourself and you'll have an array of information.

. It'll come down to whether you wish to play the price market and lock in for something reasonable now or hope prices could go lower for whatever reason for next March - as I stated above it is high/high shoulder flight time for Australia and NZ.
Hence a price showing of US$1153 for NY to Sydney for March and if you click on lowest alternate dates you'll get about $800 which beensomewhere found for October.

. The above is typical of differences between low season to high season.

. You'll also see a nonstop fare shown for $1191 and click on that you see it is no longer available to be replaced by another for an additional ~$500 and actually you would need to check the validity of nonstop from east coast US to eastcoast Oz for I suspect nonstop flights will only be ex westcoast US.

. The other thing you need to note with such a fare is that it has lengthy stop overs in LAX and thus some incentive to see if you can book an eastcoast to LAX flight separately for a lesser transition time if that is what you are after, but you could pay a bit more.

. You can confirm that by putting just LAX to Sydney into the flight selection panel and about the same fare as NY to Sydney pops up.
Likewise when you put NY to Auckland in you'll get a fare considerably higher than NY to Sydney, all to do possibly with ammount of traffic and competition on main routes.

. And so regardless of which return flight you choose, you'll still have the problem of in Sydney and out Auckland and your options may well be a return flight to either and a connecting flight, ie.
[Also sometimes best to have a look at airlines sites and certainly book direct with the airlines if you can]
1. To Sydney - with UA or http://book.qantas.com.au/pl/QFOnlin...verrideServlet shows a higher fare than UA [though cheaper than UA nonstop]
and you'll need a flight back from Auckland to Sydney for the return.

2. To Auckland with Air NZ [and appears best nonstop pricing]
https://flightbookings.airnewzealand...hForFlights.do

If you contact Air New Zealand in the US, they'll advise on best Sydney one way tack on for you but if it is well over A$200, pay to do a search yourself

The Air New Zealand transition times at LAX are not so bad either, and though a little dearer than Qantas, you would be minimising your flight times, ie. not flying back to Australia just to head all the way back across the pacific.
https://flightbookings.airnewzealand...m/default.htm&

I've flown with Air NZ between NZ and Oz without any drama as beensomewhere has experienced but malfunctions can happen on any airlines from time to time.

And at the price on offer now, waiting until New Year is just a gamble for even if prices dropped a bit, they do not usually do so for peak or close to peak times and the closer to flight time you leave it for booking, rule of thumb is that you can pay more for most airlines can have a certain number of cheaper fare seats that disappear once they're all sold.

Bokhara2

Shelley: I just called Qantas (QF).
Here's the FACTS as at 1:10pm 26th July 2009:


JFK - SYD 13 March 2010. QF108 Dep 1840 ETA 0920 15 March*
AKL - LA** 30 March 2010 QF 25 Dep 1535 ETA 0715
LA - JFK 30 March 2010 QF107 Dep 0915 ETA 1730 30 March

Cost - IF YOU BOOK AND PAY BY 4TH AUGUST 2009 ... USD 1535 + 15 BOOKING FEE. This is for economy. Qantas also has Premium Economy, Business and First Class.

* You lose a day crossing the International Date line. There is a short stop in LA (re-fuelling). You leave the aircraft and re-board in the same seat an hour or so later.

** Meets QF 107 SYD - JFK. You will clear customs in LAX, as you would even if you were on a SYD-JFK flight.

Getting to JFK: Qantas flights depart Terminal 7, so if you can get a feeder flight into that or one close to it, flying from Philadelphia might be an option. If it were me though, I'd take the fast train or get someone to drive me to save the airport pfaffing around for such a short flight/distance.

Thee option of flying Philadelphia - Sydney seems far too convoluted to me.

Bushranger

If you want from Philadephia to Auckland return, that is possible with Air New Zealand, US$1641 and may also be possible doing what Bokhara has suggested with Qantas.
https://flightbookings.airnewzealand...lectFlights.do , LA transition times being even better than if leaving from NY.

The other thing you do need to be conscious of is the date differences for if your cruise starts on the 13 March you'll need to leave the US on the 11 March if not the 10th depending on cruise sailing time.

The Air NZ flight shows a scheduled arrival in Auckland of 5.25am and www.webjet.com.au shows Auckland to Sydney @ 7.15 for just A$127 and arrival 8.45 am Australian time.

http://travel.webjet.com.au/webjetts...tside&x=49&y=9

So you can compare with what Qantas have from/to Philadelphia.

Bushranger

Does not look like Qantas actually flies out of Philadelphia from their US site - http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/home/us/en

And you'll find the AirNZ links above may not take you direct to flights for their booking windows have timing out but probably just need to hit 'continue' amd put Phila.. and Auckland in.

KensingtonGirl

1. Open Jaw Tickets - Never heard of an open jaw ticket not being available because of different countries - it has entirely to do with where the airline and its codeshares fly. I have gone in and out of different countries several times on an open jaw ticket.

2. Buying a separate ticket to reduce transit time in either LAX, SFO, or JFK - if you don't know why this is NOT good advice than I would recommend a travel agent or head over to www.flyertalk.com and let them educate you (those guys could probably give you much better advice anyway since they fly these routes regularly).

3. From PHL, any flight on QF or Air New Zealand would be a code share with a US domestic airline like American or United. Between now and next March, there will be major schedule adjustments that have the potential to impact your booked flights. (E.g. they cancel your direct flight to the west coast and rebook you on one that hops across country). Once again, if you really feel you need to nail down your travel plans now rather than waiting it would be better to find a good travel agent and let them deal with the airlines as the schedule shifts. There are several good travel agents who use to frequent this forum - you might try one of them.

This trip is a big trip for you, don't take chances on getting to the cruise - allow yourself plenty of time at connections, use a single ticket for all the flights over and plan on getting there at least a day or two early.

Bushranger

Just to clarify for you some of what Kensingington Girl alludes to:

1. The Open Jaw Qantas flights ex JFK that Bokhara has shown is not a normally standard offer but a sales special they have on at the moment re one way fares based on round trip tickets [and taking a flight break as they call it], details here - http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airl...irportCode=AKL

2. My reference to buying separate tickets to westcoast to reduce transit time was because initial mobissimo search which brought up UA showed quite lengthy transit times at LA.

That reference is now superseded if you buy a ticket ex PHL with transit times a more reasonable 2:25 each way or opt for the Qantas system ex JFK.

3. Yes Air NZ out of PHL codeshares and that is shown on the Air NZ selection chart along with all scheduled times and flight numbers.

As to how major any schedule adjustments might be, most airlines flying across the pacific seem to have flight time at night with early am arrivals, been that way for yonks.
If you book direct with an airline for a ticket ex PHL, even with a code share, the airline can be spoken to direct about any changes and I would be suprised if their computerised bookings/connections system did not flag schedule shifts that would affect their international flight services.

For what Qantas may or may not do re connections/code sharing out of PHL you would be best to contact them.

Bushranger

Just to take your searching a step further Shelley, Qantas are also applying that special ex LAX as well - http://book.qantas.com.au/pl/QFOnlin...verrideServlet

Thus doing that, you could then go back to having a separate flights between PHL and LAX, picking your times to suit dependent on what confidence you have with the vagaries of the US airlines that KG mentions.

But allowing yourself a bit of a break at LAX [ seeing as all flights will stop there] you'll have time for an evening meal, maybe a shower and put something on more comfortable for the night flight on way out and then the same and breakfast on arrival back at LAX.

http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll...id=35050-1.0.1

Cost wise, doesn't seem as there'll be any great advantage if at all but it'll avoid the additional stop in Auckland.

Bokhara2

I've been a bit amused & bemused too, Neil. Given the OP's parameters, it seemed a pretty easy thing for me to ring QF and ask them to confirm what I thought would be the case: That the OP could use QF for all legs with only 1 stop between JFK and Sydney and Aukland & JFK. So I did, and managed to post the correct & current information in 16 lines, including a reminder that one loses a day on the US/AUST leg, and a note about transit to JFK.

Given ShelleyC's initial advice that they're cruising to Auckland AFTER 3 nights in Sydney, I wondered why B'ranger thought they were leaving Sydney on Shelley's stipulated departure date from Philadelphia. And at the "additional stop in Auckland" comment.

Perhaps others of us just spend more time reading and less typing.

I am grateful though, for the information that the open jaws I've done in & out of various ports & countries with QF over the years isn't standard.

JYK

ShelleyC: I am from Virginia and going to Sydney in the fall. My flights are from VA-ATL-LAX-SYD. Delta/NWA just launched a new service to SYD so their fare is CHEAP! I don't see any better way than PHL-LAX/SFO then to SYD. Qantas and Virgin Blue seem to be running crazy specials to match Delta. I would not mess with going up to JFK, IMO. That's a mess of an airport, not that PHL is any better

Neil_Oz

Will Delta survive on the Sydney route? Too soon to tell, but they're already in trouble within weeks of starting services, and no longer offer a daily service. I doubt that Qantas and even the mediocre UA have much to worry about. V Australia though is trailing the load factors of both. Delta is declining to report its load factors, not a good sign.

http://business.smh.com.au/business/...0717-do76.html