Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - US - Australia

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to fly to Sydney from Washington DC with my husband and our 5 month old in mid February (feb 18) for two weeks.

1. What would be the most economic flight option? I've heard about getting a business class flight which allows a partner to travel for free. Need more information regarding this, or cheap flights.

2. Also...any advice about traveling with infants? Which airline would be best and accomodating to infants?

It'll be fairly expensive at this short notice I'm afraid. A number of carriers offer "Z-class" business fares, but these tend to need to be purchased at least 40-50 days ahead. Amex in the US and UK offers a 2 for 1 on full fare business class tickets, which isn't too bad a deal at this notice, if you've got an Amex card.

We just flew to Australia using a One World Circle Pacific fare - it cut the cost in half from the cost of flying NYC - SYD - NYC in business. We ended up flying JFK - LAX - SYD - HKG - JFK on AA, QF and CX.

Some info at http://www.oneworldalliance.com/products/details.cfm?ObjectID=28 though you'll probably need to call an airline to get actual fares.

(If you do this on one world - be sure to do a platinum challenge on AA as well...)

Welcome to FT rohitaustralia :)

As mentioned by NNH it will probably be quite expensive - it is expensive route anyway, it is short notice, and you are travelling peak season.

At least there are options to check out. Direct or a round-the-world ticket (on One World or Star Alliance). Only Qantas and United fly directly, but could also try via NZ, South Pacific or Asia (obviously will take longer).

When we did it, we found the circle pacific fares to work better (read - be cheaper) for us than the RTW fares, though it was easier to get info on RTW.

For cheaper fares you should also check Air Canada they have direct flight from YYZ and YVR. Recently they had a very decent seat sale to SYD.

In Dec i did YYZ-DEL non stop on AC with my 3 month old son. Air hostess were very helpful as long as you feed the baby during takeoff and landing you will be fine.

I'm looking to fly to Sydney from Washington DC with my husband and our 5 month old in mid February (feb 18) for two weeks.

SYD to IAD with 2 adult pax and 1 infant pax, 18 Feb-Mar 2 I've found it cheaper to use either a straight SYD-LAX-IAD route or possibly SYD-LAX-ORD-IAD route if you're feeling adventurous and need some miles.

I did the quick route, SYD-LAX-IAD on itn.net and got the following prices.

2 adults = $ 2964.00
1 child = $ 1112.00
Taxes and Fees = $ 367.85
Service Fee = $ 15.00

Total Price = $ 4458.85

Qantas.com.au can do the same routing [funny, that] for about the same, but in AUD making it cheaper.

Price Passengers Total Price
$2143.46 x 2 adults = $4286.92
$395.20 x 1 infant = $395.20
$4682.12 (AUD)

We just flew to Australia using a One World Circle Pacific fare - it cut the cost in half from the cost of flying NYC - SYD - NYC in business. We ended up flying JFK - LAX - SYD - HKG - JFK on AA, QF and CX.


What flight did you use for HKG-JFK??

What flight did you use for HKG-JFK??

We flew Cathay Pacific 830 - the non-stop flight. It felt very, very long - but certainly beat stopping in Vancouver.