Plus, didn’t the other Australian carrier (can’t think of the name - all I can come up with is Anzac, and that’s not right. Blue background, yellow letters. I can see it, I just can’t think of the name. Starts with an A. Dammit!) go out of business a coupla years back? That would explain why there’s no other Australian carriers doing the route. Not sure why more US carriers don’t make the route, however, unless business simply doesn’t warrant it.
Ansett went bust a number of years ago, and Qantas bought Australian. The “other Aussie airline” today is Virgin Blue.
rabbit, I didn’t see that option, but what the hell.
Ansett?
Yeah, Flight Centre locations are all over the place here in Toronto.
Are there any carriers that go non-stop from Canada/the USA to Australia/New Zealand? Are there any that stop elsewhere than Hawai’i? I was trying to find a flight crom Canada to Australia through Fiji once, but couldn’t find anything. Does anyone even go Canada to Fiji?
Nothing I could find that flew direct. Air Pacific flies to Fiji out of Vancouver with a stop in honolulu (no plane change).
Air New Zealand goes Canada (and US) to Fiji. Also Tahiti and various. I’m not sure if the Canadian flights are direct or via LAX.
They have some pretty neat package deals that give you a cheap stopover there on your way to NZ or Australia. It’s not even that out of the way on LAX to Auckland. Only 150 miles. Map
**Elvis **and Sunspace, Ansett’s the one! Thanks.
All flights originating in Canada will have at least one stop on flights to S. Pacific, Australia, New Zealand Asia etc.
Several years ago there were a few direct flights being set up, but that went out the window after 2001.
For many years Varig had a flight from Brazil to Tokyo, via Los Angeles.
Air Canada will soon by starting a flight Toronto - Los Angeles - Sydney.
Qantas just started flying Sydney- San Francisco - Vancouver.
So it’s not a hard-and-fast rule.
Ed
Correct - in fact, Air New Zealand’s LAX-Auckland service already mentioned is actually a stopover, on the route from London. I may be wrong, but I suspect it’s because bilateral agreements to restrict such operations can only apply to airlines based in the two countries involved. Example - the Bermuda Agreement which restricts point-to-point Heathrow-USA flights to Virgin, BA, American and United…but doesn’t prevent Air India and other operators from stopping at Heathrow en route to America.
Sorry, that was me being a bit vague - she’s flown JAL and Korean Air, I just couldn’t remember what they called Korean Air (stupidly enough).
As another option, Air Tahiti Nui has service from Los Angeles or New York to Auckland or Sydney, changing at Papeete, Tahiti, though the flights are only several times a week, not daily.
I recently flew them from JFK to Auckland, stopping for a few days in Tahiti. Aside from the inherent dreadfulness of a twelve hour flight connecting to a six hour flight, the service was lovely. It was much better than flying from JFK to LAX or SFO and changing to a trans-Pacific flight there.
There are so many options it’s hard to get your head around them all. My only real “requirement” is that I have to be in Brisbane on the 9th of September, and I’m flying from the NYC area. I would like to get to Sydney if possible, since it’s awfully far to fly to not see it.
At the moment, I’m leaning towards the Qantas Airpass. It includes 3 internal flights and lets you fly in and out from different cities. So I could fly to Sydney, then to Brisbane, and then home, for $1400 or so. (Or $300 less if I can find my own way to LAX or SFO.) Qantas published a fixed price for this and are currently undercutting their own fares on Expedia. (I think because they are including the fuel surcharges in the price.) That is amusing.
Another interesting option would be Air New Zealand. I could do LA-Auckland-Sydney-Brisbane-Auckland-LA. Fares are reasonable and I could see New Zealand for a day or too. But that’s a lot of connections.
I’ll have to look into that Air Tahiti option. Avoiding LAX would be nice. Plus, I’ve never been to Tahiti.
Look into an around-the-world fare too, since you’re going halfway anyway - it wouldn’t be much more than that, maybe less, and would let you make a lot more stops and have a lot more vacation fun. All you have to do is keep going in the same direction around the globe. Any travel agent, or for that matter Qantas itself, can find one for you.
“Korean Airlines” is now officially just “Korean”.
Do yourself a favor, contact a travel agent. We have access to rates that aren’t usually published online. Your best bet would be someone who has experience with Australia. I can pretty much guarantee that a knowledgable agent can get you a better price.
Well, as a native Sydneysider i’m obviously biased, but you’re certainly right that going to Australia without seeing Sydney and/or Melbourne would be a real waste of an opportunity. I’ve never found Brisbane that interesting, although i haven’t been there for over ten years, and i hear it’s not quite the sleepy town that it used to be.
But, no matter what’s happened to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne have a size and a buzz and a cosmopolitan atmosphere that is unmatched anywhere else in Australia.
That actually sounds like a pretty good deal, especially if the price you quoted includes your flights from the East Coast. The last time i went back to visit was just over two years ago, and i flew from Baltimore to LA to Sydney, then back via San Francisco, and it cost about the same—$1,400—and i didn’t get any internal flights.
I’ve never been to New Zealand, but my parents went a couple of years ago and said it was the greatest place ever. And every other person i know who’s been there loved it, including all the Aussies (who will generally only say something nice about New Zealand grudgingly :)).
That’s a good suggestion too. A couple Australian friends of mine who live here in Baltimore went home recently on a round-the-world trip, and after spending time in Australia they went to Italy and the UK on the way back to America. And it was really no more expensive than a return flight.
By the way, if you decide to buy this ticket, then i highly recommend including the east-west US flight in the ticket, rather than finding your own way to LAX or SFO.
Sure, it might be possible to save a few bucks by taking your cross-country flight with a budget carrier, but if there is some delay or cancellation and you don’t make it to the west coast on time, Qantas is less likely to try to accommodate you than if you’re flying on a Qantas ticket all the way from New York.
I would check out Air Tahiti Nui. They have some pretty nice fares on their JFK service if you are travelling on the right days. What we did was book the travel JFK to Auckland (with a stop-over in Tahiti) with Air Tahiti Nui, and booked individual flights in NZ with Air New Zealand. It turned out to be much cheaper that way compared to the package with the flights together.
It is also quite nice to get on the plane in New York with the speakers playing soft Polynesian music and know that once you take off, you are effectively out of the country and on vacation.