LAX to Australia/New Zealand

[shipsealand]

My DW and I made the cruise portion reservations this past March for a January 2017 Australian/New Zealand cruise with Celebrity. I have been checking the air couple of times a week. The ChoiceAir prices are high from about $2100 to $2200 per person going LAX to SYD and returning AKL to LAX. Air Pacific (Fuji Air) is lower but their reputation for on-time flights or cancelled flights is poor. Cathay flights take too much time.

 

Will the prices go down? Should we go ahead and book the air anyway while decent seat selection. Appreciate advice.

[Hawaiidan]

My DW and I made the cruise portion reservations this past March for a January 2017 Australian/New Zealand cruise with Celebrity. I have been checking the air couple of times a week. The ChoiceAir prices are high from about $2100 to $2200 per person going LAX to SYD and returning AKL to LAX. Air Pacific (Fuji Air) is lower but their reputation for on-time flights or cancelled flights is poor. Cathay flights take too much time.

 

Will the prices go down? Should we go ahead and book the air anyway while decent seat selection. Appreciate advice.

 

 

 

Why not go the credit card route.. Each of you go out and get a United from Chase credit card... and bingo you each have 30,000 miles each.... then quit using cash or checks for anything beans to home ins and taxes. everything. pay for your cruise with the cards,, then just pay off the cards at the end of the month with the cash or checks, Wait 3 months and each get a business Card ....Pow you have another bonus each. You have a year.... and you can buy UA miles for as low as 1.9 cents each and go for an up grade to business ( necessary for the 14-hour flight) 67,500 miles one way business or 40,000 coach each way.

[CruiserBruce]

Why not go the credit card route.. Each of you go out and get a United from Chase credit card... and bingo you each have 30,000 miles each.... then quit using cash or checks for anything beans to home ins and taxes. everything. pay for your cruise with the cards,, then just pay off the cards at the end of the month with the cash or checks, Wait 3 months and each get a business Card ....Pow you have another bonus each. You have a year.... and you can buy UA miles for as low as 1.9 cents each and go for an up grade to business ( necessary for the 14-hour flight) 67,500 miles one way business or 40,000 coach each way.

 

That is a heck of a lot of moving parts for a flight that is 7 months away. There are some good thoughts there, for a flight schedule that is 18 or 24 months away...but not in the next few months. We know, we went First Class for free, SFO-SYD-SFO, last year, to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. We planned for a long time, but the actual mile accumulation took a couple of years.

 

No one on this board will be able to predict what the air fares will do. As commonly asked here, what will you do if the fares go up??? You are flying to Australia in the middle of their summer- peak travel time.

 

Common recommendation here- when the fares are at a level you can live with, buy, and don't look back.

[Gardyloo]

Not knowing your dates, I looked up round trip fares (not open-jaw) from LAX to Sydney for some arbitrary January dates, and I'm seeing plenty of fares well below $1600, e.g. $1360 round trip to SYD on United. You could cross back across the Tasman on an Emirates A380 for $166 (separate ticket, so be careful on connection times) for something like $1520 all in. I can also see $1302 on United for LAX-SYD//AKL-SFO-LAX (i.e. an open jaw with a stop at San Francisco coming back).

[DogLover]

Have a look at Virgin Australia. We have flown them before, and got a super deal on Business class for our cruise in Jan. Just an FYI, we booked round trip Phoenix to Sydney with Virgin (connecting in LAX), then booked a second one way ticket Auckland to Sydney on Air NZ. It worked out to be cheaper than an open jaw. Our flight from AKL to SYD is the day before the Sydney - Phoenix flights (just in case of any delay, we have a full day to get across the Tasman Sea.) Even with the two airlines being in codeshare, the way we booked it saved quite a bit of $. We are on the January 12th Solstice sailing ... you?

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Good luck.

[Chairsin]

We used Fiji Airways for our February LAX flight to SYD and returning from AKL in March (each with a change in Nandi).We were able to get very good prices for business class tickets -- the price of two one way tickets was actually less expensive than a multi city ticket. It is true that the seats are not true lay flat beds however we both slept quite well. The service was good (though when we first boarded in LAX they said the sparkling wine was not cold so we would have to wait for that to chill [emoji15]) and the food was fine. Everything looked quite new and we were very pleased with our flight experience.

[pcur]

I am currently planning our third flight back from SYD. Anytime we fly over the West Pond, we fly roundtrip from LAX to HNL, and stay a few days. The flight from HNL to SYD and Aukland to HNL is shorter and cheaper, plus you can fly economy to HNL and go business or PE for the longer flight.

 

I suggest a Chase Sapphire card for points. Get one each, put each other on as authrized users. Then, combine the points. You will end up with about $1,000 worth of airfare, and they have a great booking tool. Points can be coverted to credit on the card, or cash.

 

We fly Jetstar business to/from HNL, and Hawaiian Air for LAX -HNL.

Edited May 8, 2016 by pcur

[shipsealand]

Thank you for all your good advice and especially encouragement.

 

My DW & I have only used cruise ship air in the past. It seemed simplier when we first started crusing many years ago and then later on competitive compared with booking directly with the airlines.

 

This time around the air fares were way too high on cruise air. So from all your replies, I went direct to couple of airline websites. Some of the flight schedules/prices were not do-able for us. But then I did Air New Zealand, essentially round trip LAX/AKL with "short hop" AKL to SYD on going to the cruise. Found schedule that was do-able and save much $ so we are going on the cruise :)

 

Air New Zealand which was our first choice but didn't think the price would work but following suggestions it worked out great. I had flown with them decades ago to Australia/New Zealand and had very favorable impression.

 

BTW, it is on the Solstice Jan 12, 2017

[pcur]

Thank you for all your good advice and especially encouragement.

 

My DW & I have only used cruise ship air in the past. It seemed simplier when we first started crusing many years ago and then later on competitive compared with booking directly with the airlines.

 

This time around the air fares were way too high on cruise air. So from all your replies, I went direct to couple of airline websites. Some of the flight schedules/prices were not do-able for us. But then I did Air New Zealand, essentially round trip LAX/AKL with "short hop" AKL to SYD on going to the cruise. Found schedule that was do-able and save much $ so we are going on the cruise :)

 

Air New Zealand which was our first choice but didn't think the price would work but following suggestions it worked out great. I had flown with them decades ago to Australia/New Zealand and had very favorable impression.

 

BTW, it is on the Solstice Jan 12, 2017

 

I'm so glad this worked out for you! I LOVE Air New Zealand. We flew their Premium Economy from London to LAX last year (I know, weird route for them, right? It was a code share flight.) in the "space seats". WOW!!

[CruiserBruce]

I'm so glad this worked out for you! I LOVE Air New Zealand. We flew their Premium Economy from London to LAX last year (I know, weird route for them, right? It was a code share flight.) in the "space seats". WOW!!

 

Wait a minute. Did you fly on a ANZ plane LHR to LAX? I don't think they fly that route...can't find any evidence they do.

 

You say it was a codeshare? So you may have been flying on another airline's plane, and NOT actually experiencing ANZ's Premium Economy.

[Globaliser]

Wait a minute. Did you fly on a ANZ plane LHR to LAX? I don't think they fly that route...can't find any evidence they do.

Yes, NZ flies AKL-LAX-LHR.

[pcur]

Wait a minute. Did you fly on a ANZ plane LHR to LAX? I don't think they fly that route...can't find any evidence they do.

 

You say it was a codeshare? So you may have been flying on another airline's plane, and NOT actually experiencing ANZ's Premium Economy.

 

Absolutely. Wonderful flight:

 

Check-In Depart Arrive Flight Details

Final check-in time

2 hours before departure

Depart TUE 12 MAY 2015

LONDON, HEATHROW

(Terminal 2)

Arrive TUE 12 MAY 2015

LOS ANGELES

(Terminal B)

NZ1

Operated by: AIR NEW ZEALAND

Premium Economy

Booking Class: A

STATUS: Confirmed

Not valid before 12MAY15

Not valid after 12MAY15

CHECKED BAGGAGE:

2 Pieces

See 'Baggage' below for details

4:15

PM

7:45

PM

Information

Edited May 10, 2016 by pcur

[Globaliser]

NZ1

Operated by: AIR NEW ZEALAND

But what I can't immediately find is any evidence that there is any codeshare arrangement on this flight.

 

There's nothing "weird" about this route, though. To get from Auckland to London, you either have to go west or east, and you have to stop somewhere. LAX is the most natural and obvious choice when going east from Auckland.

[pcur]

But what I can't immediately find is any evidence that there is any codeshare arrangement on this flight.

 

There's nothing "weird" about this route, though. To get from Auckland to London, you either have to go west or east, and you have to stop somewhere. LAX is the most natural and obvious choice when going east from Auckland.

 

 

Oh, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa: I should have said "I THINK it was a codeshare". It seemed weird to have ANZ originate in London.

[Mr. Click]

Because ANZ wants to go from AKL to LHR and they have to stop at least once for fuel etc they are allowed to fly that LAX to LHR route. We flew the AKL to LAX part last November in Premium Economy and we loved it. The space seats, the service, the attitude. It was all great. To get out there we flew SFO to AKL to MEL because we were doing a week in Australia before our cruise out of Sydney. If you are booking ANZ just make sure you are on plane that has Space Seats. Those are their 777-300 series. The 777-200s don't have them yet so their Premium Economy is not as great. Better than coach but no where near the Space Seat.

[maxi1218]

My friend recommended a company that books business class at a discount. we are flying United Dreamliner 787 and will have a very comfortable flight in business class. We will arrive in Sydney on Wednesday morning. Plan on getting at least 8 hrs shut eye and have found a hotel for a one night stay. Want to get as much sightseeing in 12 hours with hop on hop off bus. Do you have any tours for other ports? we love joining a small group . any insights will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Maxine Drapkin, Las Vegas NV

maxi51@centurylink.net

[Gardyloo]

My friend recommended a company that books business class at a discount. we are flying United Dreamliner 787 and will have a very comfortable flight in business class.

First, I wouldn't put my identity and email address in posts on an open internet forum.

 

Second, regarding your tickets, there should be alarm bells sounding someplace. Google "mileage brokers" - companies that buy (or in my case, steal) frequent flyer miles and redeem them for "bargain" business or first class tickets that they then sell to consumers. This process is against every airline's program rules, and you run a serious risk of having the tickets canceled before you fly, or even at the gate. My stolen miles were used by a broker to sell three first-class tickets on Cathay Pacific to unsuspecting bargain hunters - the broker received $3000 from each of these people for tickets that would have cost $7000 to buy. All three tickets were cancelled and the buyers had to go to the broker for any compensation, and who knows how that went. Sleazy in, sleazy out.

 

The airlines are cracking down on this practice big time, and the odds of getting away with it are shrinking hour by hour. Read this article - http://thepointsguy.com/2016/03/should-i-use-mileage-brokers/

 

What company did you buy your tickets through?

[Desert Cruisers]

My friend recommended a company that books business class at a discount. we are flying United Dreamliner 787 and will have a very comfortable flight in business class. We will arrive in Sydney on Wednesday morning. Plan on getting at least 8 hrs shut eye and have found a hotel for a one night stay. Want to get as much sightseeing in 12 hours with hop on hop off bus. Do you have any tours for other ports? we love joining a small group . any insights will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Maxine Drapkin, Las Vegas NV

maxi51@centurylink.net

 

Agree with Gardyloo's caution re posting your full name. I actually live in the same community as you and have met you.