I'll be departing from the East Coast of Canada (think small 4 short connection airport here) and heading to Australia (airports don't really matter) in just over a week for a short business trip there ,and then onto other places in Asia, and I'm wondering what would be my best and quickest option to get there.

My compagny is relatively small and cannot afford First Class or Business so this will have to be all in Economy class on the lowest fare that is available. I guess that means I can forget about upgrading to E+ on those airlines where it's available?

Anyways, I'm wondering which airline can make my trans-con + TPAC journey less "painfull". AC 33 (on a 777) starting in YYZ would seem like the quickest way to get to my destination as I can fly directly to YYZ and catch the flight from there, therefore avoiding the need of a long layover on the west coast in case of IRROPS (i really cannot get to Australia late). Is it a good flight?

I want to avoid convoluted Asian routes as my flight time will be long enough as it is already so let's forget about Asian carriers. What would be my best bet for the TPAC portion of the trip if Air Canada is too expensive (I'm still looking into pricing at this point).

I know AA and QF fly this route but there are no One World connections from my home airport so that pretty much disqualifies them as I would have to interline to use them and I'm not convince that would be worth the hassle (and I'm *A Silver and Sky Team Elite).

That would leave UA and Air NZ (on a 772) via AKL. How would they compare in Y to AC? Good food, AVOD, power, etc..? Anybody else I'm forgetting that would be good and get me there without too much detour (and ideally earn me miles, I'm with CO and AC)?

Thx a bunch!

Max