Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Tour advice for Australia/New Zealand using UAL

Hi. For 2006, I am looking for a small group tour of Australia/New Zealand that uses United Airlines as a carrier from U.S. I would want to include Kangaroo Island, Uluru, Syndey and Cairns as well as key highlights in NZ. I tend to want the cheaper to middle of the road prices as well. I just returned from an Overseas Adventure Travel tour of Vietnam that had 14 people and good prices. Unfortunately OAT uses Qantas in Australia/NZ and that is not acceptable to me.

Thanks in advance, Mary Anne.

What do you mean by "using UAL"? If you want to fly on UA itself beyond its Australian gateways, it's going to be a very short trip with very few stops. However, UA puts its code on some Air New Zealand and Virgin Blue flights within Australia and New Zealand - you can see the available destinations on this map (http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,1022,00.html) and look up the timetables on the UA website.

Kangaroo Island is accessed from Adelaide, so you won't have a problem with that. But it looks like you won't be able to get to Uluru on a UA code, and I have a feeling that you can't do that except on Qantas. If Qantas is unacceptable, then it would be a long drive, or perhaps a train trip.

If you dont like Qantas then not many alternatives. Virgin Blue is a LCC, Jetstar is a low-cost subsidiary of Qantas. Other than that only train (to some places), bus or drive.

Some very big distances between the destinations you mention - unless you're spending a month or more in Australia, land travel will eat up much of your time.

Sorry for the confusion--what I was requesting was a tour of Australia and New Zealand that uses United for the transpacific flight to Australia....I am a United 1K and am always looking for flights that will help me requalify for the next year. I am not as concerned on intra-Australian flights. I was looking for a good tour company that covered what I wanted to see and would allow me to use United for the transpacific flight.

Most of the ones I have seen use Qantas. Have you looked into buying the tickets to Australia separately to the tour?

Have you looked into buying the tickets to Australia separately to the tour?Organising your own sightseeing etc. in Oz, independently from the flights, is pretty easy if you want to go this route. Lots of operators on the Internet, no language barrier, sophisticated financial arrangements (ie credit cards readily taken).

IME (although in London), even the big travel agents who organise tours often just offer mix-and-match arrangements for Oz and NZ. There's so much to do and see that people usually want to pick what they want, rather than what a tour operator thinks they want.

ATTkings or Australian Pacific Tours are two companies we have taken tours with in AU and in NZ. Both we good for the most part. Both have tours of varing lengths, exclusive of Airfare to the South Pacific.

Well, I've never used them myself, but United Vacations does offer several South Pacific packages-- for whatever reason the listed itins are mostly land-only, but the specials are air-inclusive.
http://www.unitedvacations-sp.com/index-uv.asp?OAC=
http://www.unitedvacations-sp.com/specials.asp