So I’m considering flying to Australia for a trip next month, but seeing as this is my first time flying outside the country, I really no nothing of where to look! What airlines should I be looking at? Are any known for particularly low costs?
I use www.kayak.com which compares prices from a number of sources. The earlier you can start planning the more likely you are to find a good rate.
If madmonk28’s site doesn’t give you what you need, give Qantas or Jetstar (Qantas’s no-frills alternative).
Where are you flying from and planning on flying to?
From San Francisco to Sydney.
Sydney and Hobart are the only capital cities I’m yet to visit in Australia, but I get over to Melbourne fairly often. Based on that, if you get a chance, go and visit Melbourne. I’d be happy to give you some links/ideas of great restaurants/cafes to check out if you make it there.
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival also runs for just about the entire month of April and is worth a look.
Try Delta and Virgin as both have just started flying the Kangaroo route.
Also try United and Qantas since they are now competing for the first time with Delta and Virgin.
ETA: Also, since you are a Rush fan (obviously) and there are none here, will you PLEASE CALL ME AND TALK TO ME? sob
Awesome, thanks so much for the info so far guys; I really had no idea who flew where. (And that kayak site seems really helpful madmonk, as well as what you posted TastesLikeBurning).
Right now, I’m trying to book a trip through a group-traveling place so I’ll be with other people, but I’m torn between two trips: A 8-day trip (including flying time) that takes place March 21st-28st, or a 13-day trip that spans April 16th-28th.
The longer trip would be ideal, but I’m concerned about the weather/temperature change–is April still a nice time to visit? Or should I opt for the shorter trip in March?
Hey, Rush fans are hard to come by here too (or at least people who’ll admit to such) 
So yeah, anywhere near Sydney? 
The weather either time should be pretty good as Australia’s summer tends to drag on right through March.
Air New Zealand operate a service that goes San Francisco-Auckland-Sydney, if you don’t mind being in the air for 15 hours or so. I usually fly Air New Zealand to and from the US and have found them to be reasonably priced and comfortable, with a good in-flight wine selection and decent meals. And they have LCD in-flight entertainment systems with a really good movie selection, too.
Virgin and Delta are doing some good deals at the moment too, as has been mentioned.
I would focus on the Asian airlines -
Eva air - Who fly out of Taipei have a SFO- Taipai and then Taipei to Brisbane (ok not exactly next door) route.
they are a pretty reasonable cost airline with not bad service. They also have a decent executive economy class if you need a little extra leg room.
Thai Airlines also go from LAX - Bangkok - Sydney they can be very reasonable and good service - although their tickets tend to be non endorsable if you need to swap airline in case of revolution / barricaded airports etc. Approx 2000 bucks direct off their website
Malaysian - pretty cheep Asian airline - hope you like chicken or fish. their entertainment system can suck donkey balls on the older aircraft - although beyond the curtain they are actually quite nice to fly with
These routes also give you the opportunity to take a few days in one of the cities.
The inflight service is generally good (and the beer is still free if that helps) although if something does go wrong with flights / connections I have found generally the US operators are a little more helpful in getting you to your destination. If it happens with some of the other guys you have to figure out your route home then tell the guys/gals at the desk what you need to do. (obviously my opinion/experience)
Only take Quantas if you don’t like yourself.
Another option would be to use one of the airlines mentioned above to get you to KL or Bankok then look at air Asia who are a regional low cost airline. www.airasia.com
You can go KL-Melbourne (no Sydney) for 600USD. You can probably get to KL from LA/SFOfor about 1,000 USD.
Hope that is of some help.
No, dear, we’re not talking hard to come by, we’re talking nearly none at all (and all the ones I know are musicians.) Rush never toured here, were never promoted here, nobody has ever heard of them.
And yeah, live in Sydney.
ETA: The Delta/Virgin thing, I mean that’s if you’re booking in the next five minutes or so and are flexible. I’m looking for go visit home tickets and I’ve been sorely tempted by the “Hi, We’re New In The Market!” prices.
April is fantastic, a bit on the cool side, and somewhat rainy at times (but somewhat rainy at times is just sorta what happens.)
In that case shouldn’t you just be taking the train to Bangkok rather than messing around with this flying business.
Edit to add - I would be careful of that 8 day trip - the flight time will chew into it quite a bit.
I’ve flown to London and return twice on Malaysian Airlines and the service and entertainment was superb both times. And it was incredibly cheap. (Well the curries had a down side after being digested if you know what I mean).
I think you will find Qantas pretty cheap at the moment as well.
April is about the best month in Australia.
You may want to look into Air Tahiti Nui.. It flies from the US to Tahiti, with connections to Australia and New Zealand, though only on a several times a week schedule. They may have some deals.
Two years ago we took it from New York City to Auckland, and stopped off for a couple of days in Tahiti for good measure. The service was lovely. The airport in Tahiti, however, is a bit interesting in that it feels like you’re in a 1940s Noir movie. You deplane by stairs onto the tarmac and walk into the warm Tahiti night to a transit lounge cooled only by big ceiling fans. Flights from New York and California come in and all of the passengers wait in the lounge until the connecting flights to Australia and New Zealand are ready (and vice versa). It’s rather romantic, except that it’s in the middle of an overlong flight where you time sense is all screwed up.
Another Rush fan here who wants to go to Australia and New Zealand. I was even taking pictures of the kangaroos at the Toronto Zoo on Sunday.
Of course, I am from the Greater Toronto Area, and so is Rush… they were my favourite band when I was in high school 25 years ago, for Pete’s sake. The arches on the front of the Moving Pictures album? That’s the front steps of the Ontario Parliament Building.
You should be able to come in well below $1000 from the West Coast for round trip to SYD. In fact, I just did a search on April 16-28 +/- 3 days on Cheaptickets and United has flights for $803 from SFO to SYD…non-stop.
As others have said, the flight time is really going to eat into the time you have to do stuff. It sounds like this group-trip thing you’re doing has you responsible for booking your own flights. So what I would do is build in either some time before or after the group trip (or both) so you can strike out on your own. Maybe fly up to Cairns for a few days, drive down to Melbourne and do the Great Ocean Road, or as others have mentioned, arrange a stop in NZ or Asia (or Fiji, Tahiti, HI, etc.) on your way to/from SYD.
I’ve found that Wikitravel is good at listing the airlines that service a particular city. I’ve also noticed that Travelzoo is good at letting me know when the Pacific airlines offer free stopover deals or other sales, so it wouldn’t hurt to check out those sites.
I have almost always found Qantas and Air NZ to have significantly (not just a $10 fee or something) cheaper prices on their own sites than can be found on the online travel agencies.
As the first post mentioned, I use kayak a lot, but when I went Philadelphia SFO to Sydney to Cairns. My travel agent was able to get the exact itinerary for $600 less than the best I was ever able to find.
There was a time when flying through places in East or Southeast Asia was worthwhile, in spite of the extra flying time. However, with the new competition on the direct California to Australia routes, I suspect that they give the better prices at the moment.
I used to live in MI and have spent a fair amount of time in TO, including Alex’s bar there.
Let me know if you come visit!
Having done some research recently, I absolutely agree with this. Normally I’d fly China Air or something, but Delta and Virgin are absolutely smashing those prices right now. I don’t know if that will last but I do know at one stage it was cheaper to fly to London than LA and I suspect that will change now that there’s more competition.