Why is it so EXPENSIVE to fly to Australia from the USA?
 

I know it is a long ways to Australia from California but it it worth $1500? You can fly to China, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Europe (all very far away) for half the cost.

Trouble is, I have been to those other cities already. Tell me, there has to be a cheaper way to get to Australia?

$1500 is a pesk season rate. If you fly in the spring (australia's autumn) the rates will be half that.

Thank should say PEAK season rate!

You will drive yourself crazy trying to make sense of airfares. Distance is only one of the considerations airlines use when they price flights. Competition from other airlines, peak/slow travel seasons, overall demand for a particular route, size of plane on route, etc. all play into the pricing. That is why I pay twice the price to fly from Seattle to Minneapolis that I pay to fly from LAX to NYC. The demand for flights to Oz is never going to approach the demand for flights to Hong Kong and Tokyo, so it will generally be a more expensive flight.

Perhaps you are looking within the square. I just checked Air Pacific prices ( Fiji's Airline) and they have a price for Los Angeles - Nadi - Auckland and return for $1399 NZ$ which roughly is about $900US (at a bit of a guess) - I see no reason why they would not have a fare to get to Australia at a similiar discount. Just last week Qantas had fares from Australia to Miami for less than $1000US - this week they don't have that fare available anymore.
It depends when and where you look! Perhaps not always is it a good idea to just check the USA sites.

Ok I just checked something else and came up with a fare with Air NZ from Los Angeles - Sydney return for $1046 Australian - now that is about $700 US so I don't know when you are wanting to go and where you are looking. I also checked to see if there were seats available and the first dates I put in i.e. November 7th and 18th were available:
Check the following which I cut and pasted but which probably won't come out in the same form as the original and you will see what I mean.
Fare Airline To Special Rules
A$ 1046 AIR NEW ZEALAND[NZ] LAX

A$ 1224 CHINA AIRLINES LTD[CI] LAX


A$ 1244 CHINA AIRLINES LTD[CI] LAX


A$ 1301 AIR NEW ZEALAND[NZ] LAX

A$ 1331 UNITED AIRLINES[UA] LAX

A$ 1346 CHINA AIRLINES LTD[CI] LAX


A$ 1428 JAPAN AIRLINES[JL] LAX


A$ 1448 CHINA AIRLINES LTD[CI] LAX


A$ 1452 HAWAIIAN AIRLINES[HA] LAX


A$ 1469 CHINA AIRLINES LTD[CI] LAX


A$ 1479 CHINA EASTERN AIRLINES[MU] LAX

A$ 1479 KOREAN AIR[KE] LAX


Page 1 ( Fares 1 - 12 of 85 ) Next
If you would like to see more international airfares, then click here and select the "OPTION 2: I NEED MORE INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS AIRFARE SELECTIONS"

So you see you CAN go to Australia for the same cost as your other named destinations if you check around a bit.

Janese, what site were these fares on? The format sounds like Webjet, but you managed to find fares from LAX to Sydney, which I can never manage to do on that site (only ex Sydney). How did you manage to do the reverse, and in Aussie dollars?

I dunno Alan - just punched in a few things and up it came. I shall do it again and see if it comes up the same. There is always a special if you go looking for them. You will miss out though if you don't take it when its there just as I did last week when I could have gone from Brisbane to Miami, return for $1300 - as they say " he who hesitates is lost".
I had started looking at the Air Pacific flights actually because I did notice that there were some rather good prices with the smaller airlines. What I can't understand is, I thought that Hawaiin Airlines were not coming into Sydney anymore, so you live and learn. Sometimes going direct into these airlines gets you the good deals too.

Ok I'll bite! Is Travelerquestion a real person with a real question or a set up because I have just looked at the Qantas USA site ( the Qantas site that an American would use if they were booking a flight with Qantas to Australia) The fare quoted from LA to Sydney is $850US thereabouts - similiar from San Fran. So maybe I should ask the question this way:
If you can go to Sydney for only $850US why would you only go to an Asian destination when you can get everything Australia has to offer for the same price?

Can you use Webjet from the US? I don't understand how you get the quotes for flights in NZ or AU dollars on the site-I know y'all live in OZ or NZ but it looks like on webjet you can get deals flying from OZ but not from the US?? I"m confused. Please explain. Thanks.
P.S. When I went to NZ I used Qantas/NZ site and it was fine.

Abbey43-
Living in Hawaii, we often run into the situation you mention...from LA to Honolulu is a super special fare ($299) but the same trip from Honolulu to LA will be much higher ($389). It happens when they want to encourage tourists in one location (the Hawaii economy is hurting, so Hawaiian air is helping bring them in cheaply) I hate it as we're usually on the losing end. :-(

Icuy - that doesn't explain why I can get a quoted fare of $850 from Los Angeles on Qantas, using the exact site that would be used in the USA when travelerquestion states that the cost is $1500 - it shows that if you look you can get cheaper rates. The way travelerquestion posed the question was the he/she could get to China etc for half the price of the $1500 and was it worth $1500 to get to Australia - I have shown that the price is NOT $1500 at all.
How the prices were shown on Webjet the way they were Abby is beyond me - perhaps a glitch.

The typical sale fare from LAX or SFO to Hong Kong is $600.00. The cheapest to Sydney is $900.00. My question still stands.

The cheapest fare that there is from LA to Sydney was $690US ( $1000 Au ) - that ended today however.
The other answer to your question is that in Asia there are something like 2.4 BILLION people ( if you count India) who can take planes - Australia's population is 19 Million who could take planes so presumably the difference of $90US means that there could be less planes coming here and therefore it is a matter of supply and demand????? However the cost difference is made up with the first night accommodation and meals because we are not as expensive as the Asian distinations. Try eating out in any of the listed cities/countries ( with the exception of road hawker stalls in say Bangkok, Singapore and H.K.) for anything like you would pay here. Or for that matter the cost of accommodation. I don't think though that travelerquestion wants to know this but is just being contrary.

What I really meant was how can Janese, who lives in Australia, see flights COMING FROM LA to Sydney, when I went on Webjet I could only see flights FROM Australian cities to the US.You know what I mean? I could not figure out how to see these great deals that originate in the US, only ones that originate from Australia.

Abby: I don't know how they came about myself - I just got into the site, clicked a few things and up it came. It was cut and pasted so I presume that it was kosher. However the Qantas US site ( the one that you would use in the US) had a similiar fare anyway and so they are obtainable, albiet if only to the end of October which has just gone.

I also question the validity of the rates... I mean, back when SARS was in full force, the flights to Hong Kong and Taiwan from LAX or SFO were only as low as $900, and I looked everywhere! Mind you, I also have friends who work for international airlines, and this was the best I can do. So, how you can find an Asian flight for $600 is beyond me....

Back in September, I was seeing rates on both Qantas and Air New Zealand for $800 and that included a free stop over in Auckland or Tahiti. Still not as cheap as Hong Kong though.

On the other hand, we're traveling US midwest to Australia over Christmas and whewwww.... major gouge. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that there is just more competition between airlines flying to Hong Kong. Air NZ, Qantas and United are pretty much the choices going to Aus unless you do a big re-route through HK, Japan or Singapore and those aren't cheaper due to the vastly increased flight length. Cathay won't even price it except as two different flights, LAX to HKK, HKK to Oz.

That, and it really IS further to Sydney from LA than it is to HK.

The politics of the usa-down under direct route are interesting.

The route is regulated by the oz govt.

Singapore are trying to get rights to fly the route but are rebuffed by the govt (qantus influence)

Conversely Qantus is trying to take over air nz.

If qantus manages to take over air nz ,leaving only united and qantus on the route (and demand in the usa remains high) then watch those prices soar.

Don't buy a ticket buy qantus shares.

I live in southern California and have traveled to Australia, New Zealand,and several countries in Asia from LAX. As several posters have pointed out, I think the discrepancies in airfares are partially attributable to the time of year that you travel.

I have been fortunate to use frequent flyer miles on 2 of my 3 trips to Australia. However, when I was searching for airfare for a trip to Sydney for my sister and me, there were times when the best fare I could come up with was indeed $1500 or more. Conversely, I was considering going back to Hong Kong in mid-January for my birthday and I found a fare on Northwest (LAX-HKG) for $650, which includes all taxes and fees.

Travelerquestion, please don't let the high airfare to Australia scare you off. If you have some flexibility and can travel during off-peak times, you can get there for considerably less than $1500. Check the airlines' websites for specials, as well as the Sunday travel section of your local newspaper. You can also check airfares on a "summary" search engine such as sidestep.com or travelaxe.net. These are downloadable Windows programs that search multiple travel sites for the lowest fares. There are also specials on travelzoo.com, which does not require you to download anything (Some people dislike the idea of downloading programs like sidestep and consider them spyware. I, however, have had no problems and have found many good fares there).

Sometimes you can find air/hotel packages for less than the cost of airfare alone. Of course, if you have frequent flyer miles, that is a good option also.

Australia is one of my favorite places to visit,and I hope that you get the chance to go there soon. Good luck!

I know that this will seem stupid to ask but.........if we could get a free flight to Narita,(TOKYO) Japan from the USA-would it be any cheaper or would we be able to get a better deal down to Australia or NZ from there than the USA?
I am trying all angles in order to get a reasonable fare to OZ or NZ for 4 in January. Does anyone have any info on the better discounted air/or with vacation package sites for that area of the world? I have tried the Quantas and a few others but everything is easily over $3000 USD for 10 days at only 3 star places.Our family can only travel in January and I know that it is high season. Thanks!

Try Hawaii - Australia OR Fiji to Australia and see if you can get good connections $ to those areas.

What I do is subscribe to travelocity email list for price changes on the route I want. I have looked into air pacific via fiji, but at the time they matched the qantas fares. In some cases a round the world airfare may let you beat some holiday restrictions (fr NYC for example)

vancouver bc can make a cheaper gateway

try continental to cairns

Sue-I just went on Continental's website and they appeared to have stop flying to Australia and that part of the world. Thanks anyway-anyone else with suggestion?

dutyfree,

what city(s) are you wanting to visit and list them in order of preference.

Japan to aussie should be cheaper than US to aus but its more time???