First up. If you are flying from eastern US then going via europe and asia may be cheaper (although longer time) than going transpac to asia and then down to australia.

Since others have mentioned SQ - they fly JFK-Singapore (via Frankfurt) and can then easily connect down to Australia.

The direct route - Qantas, United or Air NZ (via Auckland) are the shortest and quickest ways. Air NZ is rolling out PTVs and AVOD in all seats in the 747s from about May 2005 but for travel in July 2005 there wont be any guarantee you will get the new fitout or the current one (no PTV except in business and first).

Just to clarify - you are travelling next US summer (ie around June 2005)? That is not peak season. (msett would have been thinking of australian summer - Dec to Feb is peak season).

Both Qantas and Air NZ have packages and specials from US from time to time. Typically cheapest from LAX (or SFO) with add-on to other cities using code-share partners AA and UA/US respectively.

Travel within Australia is pretty much limited to Qantas (and LCC subsidiary Jetstar) and Virgin Blue. Air NZ does not have any domestic australia routes but does serve MEL/SYD/PER/BNE/CNS all direct from AKL (and usually connecting well with the US flights).

For more info I'd suggest the Australia and South Pacific forum, or the Qantas forum.