glor

Anyone who went Australia can share your flight experience?
This is my first travel by flight. So do you have any suggestion to take which flight is better??

JY1024

Welcome to FlyerTalk, glor.

Can you give us a little more background on your situation? Without knowing where you are flying from or if you have any time/date/budget constraints, it's hard for the community to provide meaningful advice.

Hope you enjoy your first flight! ^

We'll move this over to the Oceania forum for discussion of Australian flights. Thanks. /JY1024, TravelBuzz co-moderator

mike2200

What airport are you flying from, what class for seating?

t325

Where are you flying from? Are we talking about the 3 hour flight from New Zealand, or the 17 hour flight from Dallas, or somewhere in between? That makes a huge difference in the experience.

debracey

I'll make a couple of assumptions here:

1. You're flying from the US to Australia
2. You're leaving from either LAX or SFO
3. You're flying coach

A bit of background, I flew to Australia 8 times (all in coach, minus one return leg to LAX when I upgraded myself) for my last job.

The flights to Australia are long -- and the food in coach isn't great (at least not on DL or UA). Definitely eat beforehand if you can. Bring snacks onboard, the flight attendants come by throughout the flight, but probably not as often as you might like. Dinner is served shortly after takeoff, but by that time it will be very late (around midnight PT). Around halfway through you'll get a small snack service, and then shortly before arrival you'll get a full breakfast.

DL and UA both fly 777s now, so you'll have IFE and in seat power, but you may want to bring your own entertainment. Don't count on the IFE working. One flight I had on DL, the IFE broke on the inbound to SYD, and we took off with nothing (not even reading lights) for a very, very boring ride back to LAX.

I would eat beforehand, skip their dinner service, take the mid-flight snack, and skip the breakfast. By the time breakfast is served (roughly 12 hours into the flight), the food has been sitting in the warmers for 14 hours or more. Not exactly appetizing. By skipping breakfast you can avoid the semi-long lavatory queues that form post-breakfast. If you can wait, there's restrooms just inside the customs area before you pickup your bags.

When to sleep: Stay awake as long as you can, you can expect to get around 6 hours of sleep -- and you want that to be as far into the flight as possible. If you fall asleep shortly after dinner, you'll wake up with 7 or so hours to go, when it's around midnight in SYD. That's not great considering you'll have a full day ahead of you when you arrive in SYD. Once you arrive in SYD, you'll want to stay awake for the easiest time zone transition. If you can make it until 7-8 PM, you'll be all set for the next day.

When you arrive in SYD -- leave all food of any kind behind. Australia has strict customs regulations. Use the SmartGate if you are a US Citizen on a US passport. If the lines aren't long -- which is really a toss up and depends on who else arrives around the same time -- you can be out on the street in a few minutes time. If you arrive behind an A380 or two, prepare to spend over an hour waiting to clear customs. For reference, if you sneak in before 6:45 AM or so, you should be OK. Things get rough around 7 AM. The Australian's are smart and efficient, but a lot of the people entering the country don't seem to follow the queuing signs. Pay attention and you'll be fine. Do not accidentally line up in the express exit line. The regular line is on the far right side of the room after you pick up your bags.

The return flight to the US is significantly more difficult than the flight to Australia. The flight out of SYD leaves late morning / early afternoon, so sleeping is very difficult. You will arrive in LAX throughly zombified. Not fun.

I hope that is helpful! One final tip: Be kind to both the FAs on the flight, and the immigration/customs staff on your arrival. In all likelihood they're having even less fun than you are. A smile and thank you go a long way. Or to borrow a common Australian phrase: "G'Day mate, how ya goin'?"

-- Dan

Mwenenzi

SYD is not the only international airport in Australia. Something that many in the Coward St head office of Air Sydney (sometimes known as Qantas) are unaware of.

secondsoprano

Good summary by debracey.

I agree re the sleep patterns, although don't stress out too much. It is a long, long, long way, and if you get a couple of hours sleep here and three or four hours there, you'll cope.

I wouldn't be so blase about skipping the meals either. You don't have to eat everything, but why skip it altogether? If it's your first flight, why not experience everything? Sure, airline food is fairly awful, but have we all become so jaded that we have forgotten the novelty of trying everything once?

glor

Hi Everyone, thank you for the reply.
I'm planning travel to Australia on next year. Have not sure the date due I'm still looking for some cheaper flight ticket.
Oh ! I will be flying from Malaysia.
And this is the first time I take flight oversea. So I don't know which airline I should take first.

Travelll

Normally I take AirAsia airline. You can get cheaper flight ticket sometimes to save more.

nux

There are many options. I suggest you do some research yourself first, using an online flight search tool such as Google Flights, Expedia, Skyscanner, Kayak which will provide airlines and prices.

You will probably see a pattern with some airlines usually much cheaper than others, non-stop options being more expensive, flights that leave at less ideal times being cheaper than more ideal times. You will also get an understanding of the ticket prices, and you will need to determine what you are willing to pay.

Once you have done some research, please come back to ask some more specific questions asking for opinions between two airlines for example.

Or, visit a travel agent.

lifetravel

I suggest to take AirAsia if you prefer cheaper flight ticket.
Check the website. Normally flight+hotel is cheaper than seperate one.

glor

May I know when is the promotion period?
It's hard to keep searching and checking.

glor

As I known, there's most popular air line in Malaysia is MAS and AirAsia. But I'm here also looking for better suggestion.
I'm not planning to find travel agent since my last time travel is quite unhappy and upsetting me because of travel agent unprofessional arrangement.

zigzagg900

I'll assume you'll be flying to/from Sydney. If you prefer window, I'd choose the right side of the plane (facing the cockpit). Take-off is most likely to the north and you'll get a spectacular view of Sydney. After that, though, it's all ocean. On UA 777-200, there are handicap accessible lavatories in Y. They're about 50% larger which isn't saying much but at least you can move more easily.

nux

The OP is travelling from Malaysia.