prinret

I posted this under airlines but later thought it would be better under Australia.

We are going to Sydney Australia (LAX is our gateway) and have a choice between flying Qantas and United. I would be interested in your comments regarding the pros and cons of each airline before we make a final decision.

We are going on a cruise from Sydney that ends up in Honolulu. Does Qantas fly from Honolulu to LAX? I haven't been able to find anything regarding this but Hawaiian Airlines keeps coming up when I search. Is Hawaiian a partner of Qantas?

Our plan is to go a week before the cruise departs from Sydney to do some siteseeing and stay a few days in Honolulu when we disembark.

Any tips and suggestions would be appreciated. We are a couple of active seniors.

Neil_Oz

At last a question I can answer unequivocally. If you have the choice of flying Qantas, don't even think about United, not for a nanosecond. In my experience the difference in food and drinks service is like chalk and cheese. But the most dramatic difference we found was in the efficiency and attitude of the respective cabin crews - Qantas cheerful and obliging, United crew too old to be doing this for a living, grumpy and frequently missing in action. This experience was mirrored by our daughter, who was treated rudely when she pointed out that she'd pre-requested a vegetarian meal. She ended up with nothing.

If you have reciprocal airline lounge membership I would also mention that the UA "Red Carpet" lounge was very defnitely a poor and impoverished relative of the Qantas lounge. They even charged for drinks.

Normally I'd hesitate to generalise from limited experience, but I've heard similar comments from many other travellers. In fact when we boarded our first UA flight the first thing a young American sitting next to me said was "Pal, you're on the wrong airline." (For some reason he hadn't had a choice.)

longhorn55

I, too, have flown both United and Qantas to Australia. If you have a choice, go with Qantas--hands down a better experience!

Karen246

Qantas would be my suggestion - have flown both across the Pacific and must admit that United were ok - but Qantas were far superior. United check in - LAX was disgusting - really rude. Have fun

LizzyF

If you are leaving from the Bradley Terminal in Lax then the Qantas Lounge is nothing to write home about although the alcohol is free but nowadays unless you arrive 4 - 5 hours ahead of flight leaving by the time you get through the lines x 3 in the terminal there will only be time for a coffee anyway - if that.
Qantas wins the "which airline" question without a doubt.

Tim_and_Liz

I haven't flown United to OZ but I have flown with them from London to the US. I MUCH MUCH prefered my two trips on Qantas.

LizzyF

PS: Qantas flies to Hon. but not from HON to LAX as those flights have been taken up by the non-stop flights from Aust to USA. I do think that Hawaiian Airlines is a partner in a sense but AA is the OneWorld partner if you are after FF points and they fly from HON to LAX and just about anywhere else.

Neil_Oz

Just to give my pedantry gland a workout, Liz, HON is the IATA airport code for Huron, South Dakota. Honolulu International is HNL.

LizzyF

Quite right Neil, quite right. I am sorry that I got it wrong and promise not to do it again.

Neil_Oz

See that you don't Liz.

It's an occupational hazard for airline staff (ex in my case). To be honest, I thought HON was Honiara but checked to be on the safe side. Lake Huron might be a perfectly fine town but I don't think I'd be impressed if I ended up there when I was expecting to be confronted by warm breezes, beaches and wahines.

LizzyF

You would think that I would have remembered seeing that I was there less than 10 weeks ago. S'pose those that say I should hang up my keyboard are right!

Sarvowinner

Definitely Qantas. I flew Business to the US. Flight attendant asked what wine I wanted, I asked what she had. She replied red or white. When I looked in askance, she said Oh, I think it is French.

Our seats were beside the galley and the crew used that galley to party for he whole flight.

I got better service in Qantas economy.

twoaussies

Could I ask about Qantas or Air New Zealand. I would like to stop over in Auckland on the way to Sydney.

Bokhara

Hi Two Aussies:

Where will you be flying from?

These links will have routes, so you can check.

www.qantas.com.au
www.airnewzealand.com.au

twoaussies

Sorry, forgot to say flying from L.A. or S.F. Seems S.F. would be preferable. Starting journey in Florida.
We were thinking of United until these reports.

prinret

Thanks for your responses. There doesn't seem much doubt that Qantas is the airline of choice on this route.

Kiwi_acct

Two aussies, if you are wanting to go to Australia via NZ you have the choice of four airlines.

Stopping in AKL

Air NZ and Qantas non stop from LAX
Air Pacific via Nadi from LAX
Air Tahiti Nui via Papete from LAX

Air NZ also flies non stop from SFO to AKL

Air NZ, Qantas and Air Tahiti Nui have the better service. It may come down to which frequent flyer group you are with. Air NZ being Star Alliance, Qantas One World.

As an aside I am always careful to be civil with FA's I have met a few over the years and am well aware of what retribution they can inflict upon a complining passenger wielding nothing more than something as seemingly benign as eye drops. To be honest though, I cannot remeber being on the receiving end of truely bad service, unprofessional maybe but bad.

Carrabella

Flew from LA to Sydney last Sunday with United - part of a RTW ticket which included Qantas to South Africa and Lufthansa to Germany and to New York. Just no comparison - on this route, Qantas is better - better food, nicer staff, video screens on the backs of all seats with a great choice of movies etc. but not all was perfect. I got drenched on take-off by some sort of condensation from the air conditioning, but was compensated by a $50 duty-free voucher, and the leg room was not as spacious at on United, where we are Economy Plus flyers.

Have found United food to be unappetising, especially the snacks, no masks or socks were handed out on this 14 hour overnight flight (on Qantas, we got these, great snacks and an ice-cream) and some of the staff are only just polite. On this last flight, loud announcements were made to use the "Call" button, ONLY for emergencies. This means someone in a window seat has to disturb two others to get a drink of water. But the lack of continual beeping by some demanding patrons may be an advantage.

United definitely has the best frequent flyer scheme - we used to need only 60,000 points to fly from Australia to the USA. It has recently gone up to 80,000, but still far fewer than Qantas demands, I think. If this is not an issue, then please fly Qantas - you'll have a more pleasant trip.

LizzyF

I didn't write the joke and it was only loosely pointed at you. It was more to make people lighten up a bit.

Bokhara

Seems I wasn't the only one to object to MarcsRed's language. Thanks for the support NeilOz.