Zach1213

Yeah, I know several people who have done LAX to Australia via Fiji on Fiji Airways and saved a decent amount. That and Hawaiian via HNL would probably be the two most direct routes. I have heard of people going via Manila or Hong Kong too, but that seems wild to me.

One perk of coming from the East Coast to London are those daytime flights. Those things are godsends and I take them whenever possible. Even O'Hare-London, though longer, makes things so much easier - take the morning flight, get there in the evening, head to the hotel and sleep, and recovery (for me at least) is pretty much instant in the morning. Heck, I remember once taking BOS-LHR and was able to wake up at a hotel in Boston for breakfast, and have dinner in London on the same day. A beautiful thing.

Whenever I check FlightRadar24 and see a Frontier flight overhead that is doing a route like BWI-LAS, all I feel is pain and sorrow for those onboard. I'm all for Frontier on short flights, but couldn't do more than like 60-90 minutes on them. And I am 6'1" or so.

I can only tell you what I do on overnight flights, but it works almost every time (and I fly longhaul internationally at least 2x roundtrips monthly, sometimes more): Take the latest flight possible. On the day of my flight, I try to stay active, take a long run, drink lots of water. Basically anything to make me tired. On the flight, I do have a few drinks with dinner. This allows me to get relaxed, and I understand it's against a lot of advice. But, I also drink a lot of water. Try to sleep as much as possible on the plane, of course. On arrival (again, as late as possible), keep going - don't rest, don't nap. Drink lots of water, keep active, get fresh air. Late afternoon/early evening, I have a few drinks and a good dinner out. This puts me in a relaxed mood and allows me to start winding down. Get as much sleep as possible. If you can sleep in the next day, great; if not, so be it. After these steps, I find myself pretty much accustomed to the time.

Yep, I second the "I have experienced it, but have no idea what the business model is behind it" other than them thinking they can make more money off of a J class LAS-SEA-LHR ticket than they can off of a J class SEA-LHR flight, and aren't willing to give that possibility up yet. The answer is almost always "money" with airlines 🙂

2013 called and wants their flash mobs back 🙂

That's fair. I am definitely guilty of a mindset that goes straight to compensation, but I think it's because I have been lucky (to date) that all of my EU261/2004 claims have been related to being delayed several hours and not overnight, so I haven't had to deal with the duty-of-care side of things beyond meals at the airport.

Possibly yes, according to this Points Guy article - https://thepointsguy.com/news/eu-flight-compensation-law-applies-to-domestic-flights/ . I have no experience with this situation personally, and would be curious to see how it would work in practice, especially if the delay is related to security and/or immigration, and no fault of the airline(s) itself.

As mentioned by fbgd, it's unlikely. Travel is in high demand right now, and international travel has come back with a fury, including between the US and Australia. And, as also mentioned, that's a great time to go to Australia - both for tourists visiting, as well as expats in the US heading back to visit family. That will be a tough time of year and route to get a deal on.

Plenty of time, as long as everything is on time (which can be said for 90 minute connections and nine-hour connections alike). I really haven't had that much of an issue with airports in the US for quite some time now, including at immigration.

It's actually not too short for Amsterdam. It's fairly common for KLM and Delta to make relatively short connections at AMS. It's generally a fairly efficient airport, and it seems as though the long waits in European airports that was occurring over the summer has gotten better. No get lazy, but 1h40 should be okay if everything is on time (which is always the caveat). Not to pick nits, but it's unlikely you went through passport control going SFO-CDG-TLV because you were never entering France/Schengen. What you likely went through was a passport check - one more check to make sure you had proper documentation to enter Israel, and that your name matched your boarding pass.