Flow control is when ATC slows down landings and departures, mainly due to wx or airport mx issues, which at SFO, in the case of wx, often means one runway must be used for both landings and departures, which really beats things up. We were experiencing gate holds of 10-30 minutes before queue the day we left for KIX; the day before they were 30-90 minutes. We were an hour late into KIX as a result.

BTW, regarding budget digs in an around SYD/MEL, there are campgrounds and tent cabins that can be rented; also, Pricelining hotels can usually be pretty cost efficient. The Marriott can usually be had for 70/nt. Wish I had known about your trip a couple nights ago; we spent about 4 hours talking to some government tourism promoters from Oz in the lounge at the Osaka Hilton. They were in Japan rustling up tourism interest for the Cairns area. I learned a lot.

Pat