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SFO to Sydney flight cost question


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Am planning a 3 week trip to Australia and New Zealand in January 2018.

Two months ago the flight from San Francisco to Sydney then returning from Auckland to San Francisco started out at $14,000 plus (two people business class).

It went down to $11,408. I was hopeful it would go down again.

For the past 10 days it has been $15, 200 plus.

Did I miss the lower price? Do long distance fares come down as the dates get closer??

I am freaking out. This is sooo expensive!!

I have other flights to book too as we are doing a land tour in Australia then catch a ship in Auckland.

Any info will be appreciated.

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Hi fellow Petaluman!

 

There is absolutely no way to predict what the airfare might do. And no one that can do it.

 

You are going in peak season, so I can't think the chances are good the fare will go down. In fact, they might have gone up because the flights are selling well. Given that you had a chance at a $5700 fare, for a 14 hour flight, and fairly limited capacity...that fare is not historically out of line. I am curious what you feel a "reasonable" fare is?

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I have no idea what is "reasonable" having never flown international before. That is why I asked the question.

My total in flights is going to be well more than double the price of our land tour (which includes some food) and cruise.

I guess I just have to remember this is a once in a lifetime and suck it up.

(and I moved to Cotati 3 years ago but forgot to change my info here)

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Am planning a 3 week trip to Australia and New Zealand in January 2018.

Two months ago the flight from San Francisco to Sydney then returning from Auckland to San Francisco started out at $14,000 plus (two people business class).

It went down to $11,408. I was hopeful it would go down again.

For the past 10 days it has been $15, 200 plus.

Did I miss the lower price? Do long distance fares come down as the dates get closer??

I am freaking out. This is sooo expensive!!

I have other flights to book too as we are doing a land tour in Australia then catch a ship in Auckland.

Any info will be appreciated.

 

 

It will get higher closer to the date you want. Business and First class have limited capacity and get sold out quickly.

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Am planning a 3 week trip to Australia and New Zealand in January 2018.

Two months ago the flight from San Francisco to Sydney then returning from Auckland to San Francisco .......

This is what is termed as "open jaw" ticketing.

IE: In to one destination and return from another.

 

Try a normal SFO - AKL - SFO return fare.

Then, if that is more reasonable, you can just get one of the many flights from AKL - SYD separately. ( Ideally after a 1 night stopover in AKL if possible )

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Look into buying two one way tickets . Sometimes if you a ticket connecting in the airport your flying might be cheaper. SFO to Sydney via Auckland, return from Auckland to SFO. Basically the airline considers the Auckland to Sydney as an add on fare not open jaw.

 

 

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It will get higher closer to the date you want. Business and First class have limited capacity and get sold out quickly.

 

There is plenty of capacity on these routes. I have been in near empty business class lots of times. The issue here is that there isn't really much competition on this or similar routes and that means the premium part of the plane is priced at a true premium.

 

There's not much you can do really.

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For example

A direct flight from Yvr to Sydney Airport is about $6500 each. If Via

SFO and Auckland the fare drops to $4500 All

Business clas flights.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

OK, to clarify this, using Jan 19th, and ita.matrix, and looking at a wide range of airlines with stops all over the place, I got Asiana one way SFO-SYD $2810, and roundtrip SFO-SYD $5881 (return date Feb 6). The one stop is South Korea.

 

The cheaper flights are all one stops, and run in the $3300 one way range, close to $7000 round trip. But those one stops add 6-10 hours to total travel time.

 

I didn't get into the AKL-SYD issue.

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Not sure if you can get to this site but it is for Air NZ booking from the States (San Fran) to Auckland. I am getting return business for 2 from San Fran to Auckland at $11,633,92

 

$5,816,96 per person.

 

These are direct flights and I asked for dates in January returning 3 weeks later.

 

 

https://www.airnewzealand.com/business-premier-flights-to-new-zealand

2 Adult fares

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There is plenty of capacity on these routes. I have been in near empty business class lots of times. The issue here is that there isn't really much competition on this or similar routes and that means the premium part of the plane is priced at a true premium.

 

 

 

There's not much you can do really.

 

 

The usual reason for empty business seats is that people cancel or change flights . Most Business class seats can be changed at the last minute at no cost or penalty. I've seen that on Premium Economy cancelling or changing at the last minute.

 

 

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Two months ago the flight from San Francisco to Sydney then returning from Auckland to San Francisco started out at $14,000 plus (two people business class).

It went down to $11,408. I was hopeful it would go down again.

You can still get quite a lot of itineraries at around the $6,000 mark. I can see published Cathay Pacific fares, for example - although Cathay often has a lot of cheaper private fares only available on its website or through specialist distributors.

 

The main question really is: What are you prepared to pay? What are you going to do if you cannot get business class tickets at a price that's acceptable to you? Merely being hopeful is not a decent strategy.

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I also have a question regarding air. Denver to Perth 2/22 then 18 night cruise to Sydney. Sydney to Denver 3/23. Planning premium economy. Fares have been around 4500/person Qantas, etc. but Delta premium economy around 2000/ person. Can someone tell me about Delta PE ? There must be a catch. I'm hoping to get multi segment fares for about 3000/person Qantas , Air New Zealand.

 

 

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Hi, m41475

 

I checked my above link for you and looked at your dates a return ticket to Sydney from Denver.

 

The total cost for 2 adults premium economy came in at US$6,637.72

 

The total cost 2 Adults for economy on same route was US$3,187.72 There is currently a sale on for these flights in economy.

 

I would book this as a return ticket and then arrange a one way ticket from Sydney to Perth.

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... but Delta premium economy around 2000/ person. Can someone tell me about Delta PE ? There must be a catch.
It's very simple. It's not premium economy.

 

Delta's product is something that it calls Delta Comfort+. If you look at the seat map for the long flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, you'll see that the configuration is 3-3-3, just as in economy. All you get is a bit more pitch and perhaps a bit more recline.

 

If you scroll down the options on the Delta website, you'll see some in the same column where the long flight is operated by Virgin Australia. These are significantly more expensive. And the simple reason is that Virgin has a true premium economy cabin, and that is the cabin in which you'd being seated if you were to book to fly on a Virgin-operated flight.

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I would book this as a return ticket and then arrange a one way ticket from Sydney to Perth.

Why? What's the benefit in doing that? It just tends to create more hassle on the trip to Perth because of potential uncertainties about baggage through-checking and misconnection protection, as well as ruling out some possibly convenient routing options (eg Denver-Los Angeles-Brisbane-Perth or Denver-Los Angeles-Melbourne-Perth - the latter a particularly good one for the ease of connection at Melbourne).

 

And the pricing difference wouldn't be great: it looks like you might save about $200 on the main ticket doing what you suggest, which would be mostly if not all eaten up in the cost of the add-on Sydney-Perth ticket.

 

It should be perfectly possible and pretty easy to book a trip which is exactly as m41475 has been researching: outbound Denver-Perth, inbound Sydney-Denver. I'm seeing prices from about $3,800 on Qantas for the dates given; I don't know why they're not showing up for m41475.

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Why? What's the benefit in doing that? It just tends to create more hassle on the trip to Perth because of potential uncertainties about baggage through-checking and misconnection protection, as well as ruling out some possibly convenient routing options (eg Denver-Los Angeles-Brisbane-Perth or Denver-Los Angeles-Melbourne-Perth - the latter a particularly good one for the ease of connection at Melbourne).

 

And the pricing difference wouldn't be great: it looks like you might save about $200 on the main ticket doing what you suggest, which would be mostly if not all eaten up in the cost of the add-on Sydney-Perth ticket.

 

It should be perfectly possible and pretty easy to book a trip which is exactly as m41475 has been researching: outbound Denver-Perth, inbound Sydney-Denver. I'm seeing prices from about $3,800 on Qantas for the dates given; I don't know why they're not showing up for m41475.

 

Just my opinion that's all. I would have a stop over on such a long flight too, we are all different we don't all think the same way to be sure. Did you even look at the flight hours a minimum of 28 hours travel time? A couple of days in Sydney would probably be a good idea to get over the main flights before flying onto Perth.

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I am looking in the other direction for early next year. Sydney to Vancouver and return from San Francisco. Generally business class fares are five times the price of economy. We simply refuse to pay that sort of differential even though, strictly speaking, we could. One reason is that we know a lot of people who fly business and first and they rarely pay for it themselves. Most are current or former airline staff or related to airline staff. Others can combine a leisure trip with a business trip paid for by their employer. I really would have the feeling that we would be subsidising the premium travel of all these people who pay very little.

What we do is fly with a good airline, as many direct flights as possible and possibly add a stopover. No more than a three hour transit stop.

We have enough points to book business flights at least one way but it seems these are reserved for their more frequent flyers.None seem to come up on the website of Qantas.

It does all make me nearly lose the will to travel. Yet last year we had great flights to Europe with Cathay and really felt that it would have been a real waste of $20,000 had we gone business.

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Just my opinion that's all. I would have a stop over on such a long flight too, we are all different we don't all think the same way to be sure. Did you even look at the flight hours a minimum of 28 hours travel time? A couple of days in Sydney would probably be a good idea to get over the main flights before flying onto Perth.
It would have helped if you'd said that the idea of buying Sydney-Perth as a separate ticket was based on having a stopover before that sector. That would involve m41475 adjusting their travel dates, as they already have a specific outbound travel date in mind, on the way to meeting a ship.

 

If you do not have a stopover, as may be m41475's plan, then buying a ticket for Denver-Sydney and then buying a separate ticket for Sydney-Perth has a lot of disadvantages which it would be useful to spell out (in other words, it's usually a bad idea). The cost advantage would have to be significant for it to be worth running the risks of buying a separate ticket. Even then, there are many advantages to connecting at Melbourne rather than Sydney, so a Denver-Sydney-Denver round-trip ticket may not be the best option. (As you and I both know, the idea of an international-domestic connection at Brisbane is definitely third-best out of these three.)

 

Even if m41475 would like a stopover on the outbound journey, it would still be worth looking at the options of having a stopover in Melbourne or Brisbane.

 

BTW I don't think that I need to be told how long it takes to fly to Australia or New Zealand. I'm typically flying from London to Aus/NZ two or three times a year, and have often done London-Wellington/Auckland or Wellington/Auckland-London straight through.

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Even then, there are many advantages to connecting at Melbourne rather than Sydney, so a Denver-Sydney-Denver round-trip ticket may not be the best option. (As you and I both know, the idea of an international-domestic connection at Brisbane is definitely third-best out of these three.)

 

 

Why would Brisbane be third best? Melbourne is simplest, but I had an impression Brisbane's terminal connections are easier than Sydney's.

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Why would Brisbane be third best? Melbourne is simplest, but I had an impression Brisbane's terminal connections are easier than Sydney's.
The systems at Brisbane and Sydney are similar, but I think that both Qantas and Virgin now have their own dedicated transfer systems at Sydney which makes the process smoother there.

 

The Qantas operation at Sydney is pretty slick and in the international-domestic direction it's all airside after you drop your bag in the international terminal's transfer facility. Although I haven't used the new Virgin arrangements here, they have been put in place to compete directly with the Qantas experience so I would expect them to be similar.

 

However, at Brisbane both airlines still rely on putting everyone onto the landside public transfer bus or train, so that you clear security through the normal channels at the domestic terminal. For someone like me who has an interest in airline operations, the Sydney airside bus ride is also quite fun in itself.

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Airlines use "dynamic pricing" for airfares based on demand, time before flight, etc. They also continue to charge excessive "fees" to maximize profits: they charged "fuel fees" when oil was expensive and today charge simply "fees" to keep profits high, similar amount. Interestingly, in recent testimony to Congress one airline exec claimed these excess "fees" were for the benefit of the passengers... Flew to China from Miami last May. At the earliest point, 330 days from return date, the R/T was $3200 Business. It dropped to $2,900 within several days and then rose to $3,100 a few days later. We purchased at that point. Month prior to the trip the same seats on the same flights were sailing for $6,990. It a game of chance, not unlike gambling. The airlines hold all the cards, including the aces, and compare competition pricing daily. Have to keep checking, checking and rechecking, then buy when you think you have what you want/afford. Also check airlines outside the major carriers. We "saved" $1,000 each on upcoming business class R/T flights to Venice by flying out of Miami instead of Orlando or Tampa and flying TAP instead of the "major" carriers. Google flights is a good source.

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Out of curiosity, ran a search for LAX-SYD Business class for this September. Spouse is interested in traveling Australia late Summer/Fall 2018. LAX-SYD R/T on Xiamen Airlines Business Class is $2,579 on 9/1 returning 9/23. Just one example. Stop each way in Xiamen, China with long layovers. They fly the Boeing 787 on all four legs. Price is right to make up for the long layovers. China's first private airline with a good reputation.

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