Flying Down Under
 

I'm about to ticket a trip from EWR-NRT, followed by NRT-AKL, followed by SYD-NYC. It looks like Sky Team's service down under pretty much sucks. Quantas is looking like the best bet although I wont get any CO Elite miles. I think I've run out of ideas, so I thought maybe some of you guys have done this kind of routing before. The EWR-NRT is a no brainer... it's the Sydney/Auckland flights that are troublesome. I wish JAL or AirNZ was in on Skyteam...

You can try Korean Air (KE), as they serve BNE, SYD, AKL and CHC from ICN.

Yes, unfortunaly the only way to get there with full "Skyteam milage" earnings is via ICN with Korean! As Seoul is not really "on the way" it will easily add 12 hours to your trip.
But din't had CO service to Australia via Guam in the past?

I called Skyteam last week to find out about this type of trip, and they told me I would have to fly on Korean Air via Seoul.

I do believe CO still goes to Cairns but not Sydney (never have understood that but I'm sure it makes sense to some). It does seem to be a big hole in CO and Skyteam (Australia/NZ). Wouldn't it make sense for CO to go HNL-SYD or even NRT-SYD (even though I know those are both long flights). And what about NWA with their Asian hub? Couldn't they eventually add SYD (that is if they come out of bankruptcy)?

I remember overhearing a discussion a couple years back among CO pilots and FAs about new service to SYD - obviously that never happened.

I think the IAH/EWR-->HNL-->GUM-->Cairns route is a good choice if you want to earn full miles and have a nice tour. Also, Cairns is a beautiful place and I believe the closest big city to the Barrier Reef area. You can catch an intra-Australia flight down to SYD from there.

However, I think total trip time would be equal to or greater than going via ICN on Korean.

Now once we become the flag carrier of Star Alliance ;) ;) that should all change and we will have easier access to Aus/NZ.

CO discontinued HNL-SYD because they couldn't make any money on this route. Most high rev passengers want to bypass the stop in HNL and go nonstop LAX-SYD.

As far as NRT-SYD, I don't think CO has the Fifth Freedom rights to fly this route. NW does, and they tried it without success if I recall correctly.

There are plenty of airlines flying between AKL and SYD and so fares are reasonably cheap. I dont know if any of the following are CO partners

Air NZ
Qantas
Emirates
LAN
Aerolineas Argentinas
Freedom Air
Pacific Blue (aka Virgin Blue)

There are additional airlines on other routes (principally AKL-BNE).

If you're already flying EWR-NRT, NRT-ICN-AKL isn't a huge detour at all (600ish miles?). Catch a cheap flight AKL-SYD (there are a ton of airlines flying that route), then fly back SYD-ICN-JFK. It's only a detour for SYD-NYC, really. Or you can catch another cheap flight SYD-CNS, and fly CNS-GUM-HNL-EWR.

I just booked a flight IAH - Cairns to get to Oz with as many EQMs as possible. Here's the routing:

Departure:
Wednesday
9.35am depart IAH
1 hour ground stop in HNL

Thursday
5.30pm arrive Guam
1 hour in Guam, change planes
6.35pm depart Guam
11.05pm arrive Cairns

9547 miles / 150% EQM = 14,320 Elite miles
Travel Time: 22hr 30m

Return:

Monday
12.10am depart Cairns
4.35am arrive Guam
1 hour 25m in Guam, change planes
6.00am depart Guam
5.05pm arrive Honolulu
1 hour 25m in Honolulu, change planes
6.30pm depart Honolulu

Tuesday
7.05am arrive Houston

9,818 miles / 150% EQM = 14,727
Travel Time: 21 hours 55m

Business class $7,580

You have to make this reservation on the phone, can't do it online.

Where is ICN? I can't find that code...

ICN = Incheon (Seoul, South Korea)

ICN is Incheon International Airport, which is near Seoul, South Korea. As for your original question, KE is the only way to go if you want the FFs. FYI, the distance between NRT and ICN is around 3hrs (2hr 40mins).

Yes, except they pulled out of OZ/NZ only months after launching BF... and in those days, BF was *miles* ahead of any competition. And if you're not specifically traveling to LAX, surely HNL is a better transfer point (say, SYD/MEL/AKL-SEA, etc etc)

You can book this online but you have to careful about dates and time.

Since the flight leaves CNS at 12:10AM which is the next day you put your return date as Tuesday.