I've booked an award LAX-xMEL-SYD outbound and SYD-xHKG-LAX homeward both in F . The trip will be with my father as a gift for his birthday.

The return via HKG will take a total of nearly 17 hours longer. But almost 11 of that is in HKG.

For me, the questions were:

Pick CX if your preferences are like this:
- Do you want a true flat bed - yes
- Do you want superb AVOD entertainment - yes
- Do you mind having a wall between you - no
- Do you mind the extra travel time - no
- Do you want to visit HKG for the 1st time, even if it's for less than 12 hours - Absolutely
- Do you want to try CX in addition to QF - Absolutely

(Yes, the last 2 questions clearly indicate that I'm a noob in the world of TransPac flying.)

That's my calculus -- YCMV.