Travel to Australia
 

Planning a June 2005 trip to Sydney--want to depart San Francisco (starting in Buffalo, NY), stopping in Hawaii for a week and then staying in Sydney for two weeks and finally visiting New Zealand for a week prior to returning to the States--does anyone know of an airfare or airline that allows multiple stops and breaks in the travel?

I'd look at Air New Zealand - but I don't think they fly from SFO - only LA!

A.A are one of the Oneworld group that Qantas is a member of and I am sure that Qantas has a flight into NY but not Buffalo. I know that they also have a code share flight into and out of SF so you should be able to do something with Qantas. You can contact them in the US or try the Australian website www.qantas.com.au and it should have other world sites in there if not the information you need. With the amount of changes with airlines of late it is difficult to keep up with what they are doing.

The Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Sydney does stop over in Hawaii. Mind you, for us it was about 11Pm and not much was open. They make everyone get off anyway so they can refuel, I assume. We spent some of our 90 minutes going through immigration and security to reboard.

I think the Air Canada from Auckland does the same thing; you can phone and check prices, and hope they're still solvent in 2005.

Most airlines don't mind these circular tickets. ALso, maybe you cn find a deal SF to Hawaii, and board Air Canada there. They code-share with AirNZ (and United), but it was an Air Canada jet. The same flight from different airlines may have a different price, and the price will sometimes go down if you wait long enough or book late enough.

Alternatively, you could check on Pacific rim circle tours if you're feeling adventurous - Star Alliance and one world have them.

There's also Pacific Air (or Air Pacific) if you would settle for Auckland via Tahiti stopover from LA instead of Hawaii from SF.

If you are driving to SF, drive up the coast about a day and a half through Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia. If you are flying, there may be cheap flights into Vancouver or Seattle. You could also drive across from Buffalo to Hamilton or Toronto and catch WestJet or JetsGo to Vancouver or Abbotsford (30 miles from Vancouver) depending on how cheap you're feeling or where the Canadian exhchange rate is by then.

Check United who code-shares with Air New Zealand and with American who code-shares with Qantas.

You'll probably fly to the West Coast, either SFO or LAX to connect to a flight to Hawaii on either UA or AA (though some flights on either UA or AA might route you to Hawaii from Chicago or Dallas).

Then from Hawaii you'd connect with either ANZ or Qantas to SYD (though belive ANZ stops in NZ before going onto SYD, while Qantas will be no-stop). Then you need the connecting flight from SYD to NZ. From NZ, whichever carrier gets you back to SFO or LAX (for customs) then continuing flight back to the East Coast.