Which airline to fly with to melbourne?
 

Hey guys ill be flying from kansas city, missouri USA to melbourne, australia in september. I am in the verge of just buying an airline ticket, with that being said, i already have my ETA tourist visa also.

Ive looked into airline tickets and the cheapest one is United. It runs from 1400 to 1500 round trip.

Qantas is in the mid range cost. 1600-1800

Highest airline that i also wanted to fly with is American. It ranges from 1700-1900

I had experienced flying with qantas before when i was 8 yrs old from manila, philippines to melborune. I would rate that flight 9/10 because i just loved it! There was a lot of cool stuff or things onboard on that 747 plane.

I have never flown with United and American.

So which airline should i choose guys?

Thanks!!!!!!!!!

If you buy American you will be flying Qantas as it will be codeshare

Yes but my question is which airline should i choose? In terms of quality, etc etc.???

Tnx

Do you have an affinity to any particular airline, i.e., do you want to collect miles? If so, that tends to drive the decision.

Do you want to fly direct to Melbourne (from the U.S.) or are you willing to connect somewhere in Oz first?

If you want to fly direct, your choices are either Qantas (or the AA codeshare on Qantas), or Virgin Australia (or probably a Delta codeshare on VA). If you want to fly United, you will be arriving via Sydney.

Qantas flies direct from LAX to MEL and to SYD. From DFW, they fly to Brisbane on the way out and back from Sydney (headwinds are too strong to make it direct to SYD or MEL from DFW).

Personally, I would take the Qantas A380 direct from LAX to MEL. Buy it as a QF ticket or as the AA codeshare, depending on whether you want a cheaper ticket or want the AA miles. Note that, because you are buying a "cheap" ticket, you will get no AA miles if you buy it as a QF ticket.

Jet and Virgin Australia is Best !

Stick with Qantas. You may be using AA to the West coast and connecting to QF. Skip United.

Definitely Qantas, as above. Their customer service alone is fantastic. I've flown both solo and with others, and found it a nice flight, decent food, and friendly staff.

Jeffy, I made many a flight from St. Louis, my hometown, to Melbourne before finally moving here permanently. I'd say that it's pretty much a wash between Qantas and Air New Zealand. Both far more comfortable than the US based airlines, both with very good service in my opinion.

The only one I'd stay away from is United. Not good.

And if you pay that extra for American airlines, you're going to get the exact same flights anyway. They're partners... American Airlines doesn't fly to Australia.

Either place you buy, you'll get AA to LAX or Dallas, then Qantas on into Melbourne (direct if through LAX, via Sydney for another connection if via DFW). So you'll be paying a premium for nothing except perhaps some FF mileage consideration if you're in the AAdvantage program (sign up if you aren't). I too prefer the A380 direct out of LAX to Melbourne... but sometimes the long extended connection times at LAX are pretty miserable before you take off on that late night departure.

Avoid United. They are rip off merchants. Their few truly good staff shine like beacons and I wonder how long they can stand the job. Aircraft also tired on the inside so I wonder about the airframe and engine maintenance if they can't bother with the stuff we can see.

I flew United from Sydney to San Antonio last March and regretted it - we had a delay and were subsequently stranded for 2 days, and are still dealing with the airline to get compensation via our travel insurance. Very frustrating. Also there are no video on demand screens in the back of the seats, only TV sets for the cabin, which we considered a big disadvantage. Lastly there is not much leg room. Service was OK, other aspects of the trip were OK, but I doubt I'll be travelling them again. I would probably pick Qantas as they are generally OK on most things (I know them reasonably well from the SYD-SIN route) and the cabins are mostly up-to-date and service is efficient, although never quite reaches the standards of Asian airlines.

Lavandula