An email this week to " Ansett Direct" subscribers states that AN will be marketing seats from Brisbane to the US using Air New Zealand to Auckland and thence UA to LAX. The local State legislature has pressured AN ( or ANY airline ! ) to provide a direct service using their own aircraft from BNE to LAX but not with any success.
(My contacts in AN are saying that their two recently acquired 747-400s which may have been used on that route ,are to be used on the north Aia runs now that economies are picking up over there.)
AN is hoping to pick up UA's pax from areas north of Sydney and fly them from BNE to AKL to LAX using code share arrangements. This would mainly mean Darwin, Cairns, Towmsville ,the Great Barrier Reef area, Brisbane ,the Gold Coast and northern New South Wales.
I cannot find out if this means SFO originating pax will have to fly out of LAX if they are headed to northern Australia .
I would be very resistant to having to travel on an Ansett ticket on NZ and UA metal to get to these destinations. My experience with AN and NZ is they do not provide the Star Alliance seamless service UA 1Ks etc get on , say AC or LH. eg unreliable seating allocations, no priority given with delays or cancellations ets.
I sure hope that ,as someone flying 3 or 4 times a year to northern Australia that UAL won't rationalise their services (even if it means that infamous SYD inter airport transfer) and leave us in the hands of an airline that doesn't actually fly the route!