What's Reasonable Airfare to Australia from NYC?
 

Hi, I'm flying to Australia in January. I've not contacted a travel agent, and I've been doing some pricing on the web on my own.

The Qantas Airpass is at least 2200 according to the Qantas webpage.

I'd also like to break up my journey in Asia. It looks like round-trip to SIN and from SIN to SYD or round-trip to TPE and from TPE to SYD will cost in this range also.

Does anyone know what a reasonable airfare is? Is there a travel agent someone can recommend who will be good with these sorts of complicated itineraries?

Ideally I'd like to travel a little in Asia. For example, after lots of experimentation I found that this may work:

JFK-LAX-SYD, NRT-JFK for about $1800 on AA/Qantas (Orbitz).

MEL-BKK on Jetstar (about 550 AUD or $450).

BKK-KIX (Osaka) on Thai Airways (about $550).

This will cost me $2800 -- not adding all the side tickets I need to buy (I'm thinking of Siem Reap and Kyoto -- and I need to fly within Australia).

Thanks!

Given your routing, I am guessing it would be impossible to compare to anything else.
I have paid $2100 for Minneapolis- Sydney- NZ- Fiji- Minneapolis and $1600 roundtrip Minneapolis- Sydney.
If you are a student or under age 26, call STA Travel for discounts.
Liz

Have you considered an around-the-world ticket? We've purchased these several times in the past, although I'm not up-to-date on the fares or rules. As long as you keep going in the same general direction (no backtracking) and use an airline alliance (such as Star Alliance) you'd be surprised at the savings. We used to fly around-the-world in business class for less than a point-to-point in the same class. It also prevents mixing and matching separate airlines, which can sometimes cause problems.

Last time I checked, these could only be purchased through a travel agent, but you might be able to check out the fares and rules online.

PS - the tickets are good for a year from the day you depart

Take a look at this:

http://www.airtimetable.com/star_all...orld_fares.htm

Thanks -- I don't qualify for any student discounts.

Re RTW, that was my initial thought. If you click on my name, you'll see a thread about it. Initially I was thinking I'd claim FF miles, but that really was wishful thinking. Then a poster suggested buying RTW -- but originating in London instead (separately I'd buy tickets for London).

However it was unclear if that really would work.

By the way the routing is negotiable. I've broken the trip in BKK because I can find a cheap Jetstar flight there, and I noticed a return from NRT is convenient. So it led me to think about Siem Reap and Kyoto.

I can break the journey in SIN too, but flying back to the USA from SIN may not make sense if I end up in Taipei first (for example). I'd effectively be flying south and north again.

Thanks!

Sorry, missed your earlier thread about RTW tickets. They've worked well for us in the past.

As far as beginning your RTW from somewhere else - we did this almost every time, as we lived in the Middle East and there were no Middle Eastern carriers that were part of Star Alliance. For instance, our RTW officially began in Dubai, so we'd have to purchase a separate round trip ticket from Kuwait (where we lived) to Dubai. These additional tickets added about $300 to the cost - flying from the US to London however, would be considerably more expensive.

Remember though, if you're unable to use the entire RTW ticket, you can use the rest later. During our last relocation we flew from Kuwait-Europe-US-Singapore and planned to not use the rest of the ticket, as Singapore was our stopping point. Just short of a year later, we decided to change the original ticket routing (which had us going back to Kuwait) and instead flew from Singapore-Perth-Singapore. There were some change fees involved, but we got one more business class trip out of that ticket, which was a good deal.

So, don't rule out RTW until you've looked at all the angles.

Good luck.

Thanks. I think that I should learn more about the RTW ticket. By the way, there's a RTW option that originates from the US, but one poster suggested that one that starts in London could be cheaper (even if you have to buy a ticket to get there separately).

In January, it might be cheaper to fly to London and pick up Qantas or BA to Sydney. That is what I'm doing during the Christmas/New Year's holiday. I paid $2,135 to fly from Miami to London and on to Sydney. Yes it is longer, but BA and Qantas don't have "food for purchase" or "Five Dollar drinks."

How did you book the LHR to SYD portion?

Thanks.

I booked the flight at www.ba.com. The London to Sydney flight is a Qantas flight but I will get miles with BA.

Thanks. Did you need to pretend to be a UK resident? (I'm not familiar with the BA website as I've never flown them.)

Does anyone use a travel agent these days? :-)

Try using www.sidestep.com, www.itasoftware.com or www.kayak.com. No you don't need to be a UK resident to book with BA. If you have the time, you may want to do a stopover in London for two days.

If you have extra time, you may want to visit www.airtrecks.com and do an around the world airline ticket.

Last year I flew to Perth, which is 12 time zones or exactly half way around the world. I paid $2200 last year. This year I am flying Miami to Sydney round trip and paying $2100. Both times on British Airways/Qantas through London.

A lot of people don't like London Heathrow but I have no problem with the airport.

Flying from London to Sydney, the plane has to stop for refueling in either Singapore or Bangkok. One can get off the plane for almost two hours and stretch their legs.

Last year I got bumped up to Business going from Bangkok to London. I hope it happens again this year.

You can do a stopover in Singapore and Bangkok, too. So many options.

Thanks. I know that some airlines don't let you book trips with originating cities not in America unless you access a different version of the website. I wasn't sure if BA is that way.

I'm definitely interested in a stop in Asia. I'll try to take a look at BA. So far the Orbitz options haven't been very cheap. My other option is to fly across the Pacific instead, and I can do JFK -> SYD (change in LAX), NRT -> JFK for about 1760. But separately I've to fly to NRT from Australia (possibly with a stop somewhere).

Haven't looked at BA website yet, but quick question -- if it's code share with Qantas, was there a reason why you chose not to book on the Qantas website?

Thanks.

I have a BA frequent flyer card and also their credit card. When I booked the ticket, which was about $2,100, I got double miles on the credit card, or about 4,200 miles.

If you book it with Qantas, they will probably route you from LAX or SFO.

Why don't you call BA on the telephone and hear what they have to say. I believe the office is in Jacksonville, Florida.

I did call Qantas on the phone and I am flying from Melbourne to Hobart and Hobart back to Sydney. The price was cheaper on the phone then on the Internet. I gave them my Continental frequent flyer number because I need some activity on that account.

Thanks. I did check online yesterday to see the fares on BA, and I think that it's over $2100. Could be because of my dates.

The planning is going in fits & starts because I also haven't decided where I'm going for certain. But in the meantime, I've decided to go to Istanbul for Thanksgiving, so there's more distraction.

I checked the price of my ticket last Friday (just for fun) and the price has gone up. Up to $9,900. No coach seats available from London to Sydney--only first class. Glad I booked the ticket back in January.

You can get to SIN or BKK for about $1,150 (direct on SG or TG resp., via SFO and NRT on UA) and from there to Australia for about $650 (e.g., SIN-SYD on Gulf, SIN-PER on SG). Experiment with the month-long search option on ITA (the link was given earlier). Look under their help button for a description of the route language, which allows you to specify very complex queries.