Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Best Economy Airline to Sydney

Hello and Happy Holidays-

I am new to this site and was wondering if anyone had some opinions about the best economy travel airlines for international flights. I see a lot of opinions about traveling in Business or First class, but since this is for a honeymoon and I already spent all my money on the actual wedding, I am relegated to booking fares in Economy class. Not that I mind since I have never flown First anyway. (What you dont know won't hurt you is what I am thinking.) However, since it is a honeymoon and rather romantic, I would like to choose a courteous airline that will give me the best service for the money.

I will be traveling from the San Francisco area to Sydney next March and it looks like I have the choice of American (Probably operated by Quantas), Quantas, Air New Zeland, United and Malaysia air. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

The choice is easy, i was in SFO a month ago and took this flight.

Choose Air NZ, the seat pitch is 34", around 4 inches more than competitors, think of that extra leg space, no PTVs, but good inflight entertrainment on the screens. You can also reserve an exit row seat, if you book early.

Air NZ only fly into LAX, so might i suggest a cheap WN flight from OAK-LAX return. You can also catch the bart and airbart to OAK from SFO.

THe most direct of course is UA direct from SFO-LAX.

I would try to avoid UA( unless time is an issue), AC, QF (AA don't fly to SYD anymore), or one of the asian carriers via asia. You can also fly NZ via NZ (AKL).

Avoid AC like the plague, horrible.

Asian carriers might be nice for a stop through, MH (Malaysian ) are nice and you can stopover in Malaysia, great... SIN is a bit pricey for me, so i wouldn't go on SIngapore airlines, Thai is also good but the airlines are a bit older. You could also fly Cathay via HK, or JAL via NRT or Asiana via Seoul. All fly to Australia. Also Garuda, Phillipine airlines but I would try to avoid these.

Im surprised the nonstop SFO-SYD wasn't mentioned. I agree ANZ is exceptional in economy, but there is something to be said about not having to transfer on the return to a flight to SFO. I remember flying Nadi-HNL-LAX a few years ago on ANZ (a 13.5 hour journey) and I swear I didn't think I could make it as we landed in LA as I was so tired. I almost was going to skip the LA-SF connecting flight and get a hotel room because I thought I was going to pass out. I guess it depends on how well you sleep on planes, but as much as I love ANZ, the UA nonstop flight is too tempting, just get off the plane, hop into a cab and get home.

The direct from United was my first choice until recent events. I called and talked to the airline and they gave no guarantee of keeping this flight on the schedule. Since most of my plans in Australia depend on my arrival, I can't afford to fly out a day late in case they scrub the flight that day. (Hotel, island transfers and domestic flights are already booked). I know there is always this risk on any airline, but it seems more likely with Uniteds situation.

If anyone has any other experience or suggestion I might change my mind. An extra 5-6 hours of travel and layovers are the pits.

One more question- I was investigating the use of AA's VIPOW upgrade passes, but since AA contracts through Quantas these passes are not accepted. Does anyone know if Quantas offers similar upgrade passes that can be obtained?

I am also a big fan of Air New Zealand.

I make the trip from Sydney to LAX frequently and have found them the best.

As far as I know QANTAS only offers upgrade certificates to their frequent flyers, but you may want to check that out. My husband just made the trip frm LAX to Sydney on QANTAS in economy and hated it so much he decided to burn some of his CO miles and fly out here in April in first class. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif

I know changing planes is a hassle but considering the flights going from LAX to SFO, you really shouldn't have a long lay over if you want to fly out of LAX instead.

Phoebe

I'd go with Air New Zealand or Qantas. If you fly Air New Zealand, there's no need to buy a separate ticket from SFO/OAK/SJC to LAX because Air New Zealand sells through tickets from SFO to New Zealand/Australia that includes a code share flight within CA on UA. This is also true on Qantas except their intra-CA flight would be a codeshare on AA.

I've heard nothing but great things about the service on Air New Zealand. An acquaintance of mine just came back from Tahiti flying from LAX to Papette. She was sitting in economy. She kept raving about how nice the flight attendants were and how the food and booze kept coming and coming through the aisles.

Fly NZ via LAX if you want the best food, comfort, wine, service. If a direct flight on the return journey is of vital importance, NZ codeshare on the UA direct SYD-SFO flight so book that thru NZ and that way you are protected if UA goes belly-up, as NZ will just accommodate you on one of their flights anyway. I'm a big NZ fan but direct SYD-SFO (and avoiding horrors of international to domestic transfer at LAX) is too tempting, and UA's economy plus product is OK. Just make sure you don't end up in the nosebleed seats (ie non-Y Plus)!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by aneuhaus:
One more question- I was investigating the use of AA's VIPOW upgrade passes, but since AA contracts through Quantas these passes are not accepted. Does anyone know if Quantas offers similar upgrade passes that can be obtained? </font>QF does have upgrade points, but they are not transferable and cost much more than VIP (it would be like using 5 VIPs to upgrade one-way LAX-SYD). Now that QF has offered to buy Air NZ it's future is secure and flights won't be canceled, so I would suggest using Air NZ. It does have the most pleasant Y service of any airline, bar none. And if you happen to go through AKL, the duty free shopping in AKL is exceptionally good.

Yes agree with thoughts on here, if connection is vital, just stick with UA so you don't have to stop over. Having done the trek a few weeks ago on NZ, I would suggest just booking a cheap online flight on Southwest from LAX-OAK-LAX, the early morning flights are regularly available on WN and my round trip only cost me US$75 to OAK including all taxes. The Southwest (WN) terminal is next to the Air NZ terminal (T2), so it only involves a light walk out in the fresh morning air (NZ usually gets in about 6-6:30am) and you can catch say a 7:30 or 8 Southwest flight. If NZ leave late, i've found they typically pick it up in the air and bags come out quickly to wheels them over to Southwest. That early in the morning, I wouldn't expect a long wait at the Southwest security checks in LAX.

I did take some sleeping pills on my flight to LAX and would recommend it to anyone making the transpac flight, you'll feel fresh and ready to start the day when u arrive with no jetlag :-)

On the way back, NZ flight attendents are quick to bring out food so you can get ready to sleep on the way back to AU. If you can't sleep, inflight entertainment features all the latest movies (no PTVs in Y)

[This message has been edited by kawoh (edited 12-26-2002).]