LuvTravellin

Hello, thanks in advance for any help...

I would like to travel to the US in May, probably SYD - MSY and then an internal flight up to JFK and back home to SYD.

Currently the price with Qantas (without the internal flight) is $2336.00. Yes, in Economy unfortunately. Is this a low price or on the high side? Is a sale likely to happen soon for the USA?

Thanks.

Dave Noble

For SYD-MSY-JFK-SYD, the US carriers have better fares than Qantas. For the trip including the MSY-JFK leg, I found the following using random dates in may

DL $2248
AA $2315
UA $2324

The fare that Qantas is offering seems like a normal fare

LuvTravellin

Thanks. Just wondering if anyone knew whether Qantas (my preferred airline) would have a sale coming up. I was in NYC in December and there were some good deals a few months before then....but I had already purchased my ticket so missed out.

grov

Cathay SYD-JFK is around $1800 in May...

Dave Noble

Once adding a return to MSY in, I doubt it would be much cheaper plus have drawback of separate tickets

Dave Noble

AA will be a codeshare on Qantas from SYD-DFW/LAX , so same aeroplanes as if you booked through Qantas

RichardMEL

If it were me, and I really wanted to try and save more $$$, I would forget looking at SYD-MSY, but look for a sale on SYD-LAX or SYD-DFW and then construct either an airpass on AA to go LAX/DFW-MSY-JFK-MSY-LAX/DFW) or just get a separate ticket. IIRC MSY is fair big for Southwest, so if loyalty/FF in't an issue, you could probably do part of that on WN if you are really price sensitive.

though really, the end result might be you pay about the same either way if you break it up or not. Even if you could get, for example, a QF $1600 sale to LAX or $1900 to DFW, you then factor in your return tix to MSY you'd still pay a couple of hundred, and have all the hassles of those extra connections. SYD-JFK may work since NYC is a stop you want, but you'd want to be pricing that one out and deciding if it is worth it hassle wise - and if even going via NYC suits the plans for the trip.

QF seem to have an international sale every couple of months - they're just finishing up a premium class companion sale, so I wouldn't be surprised to see specials to LAX/DFW or even NYC pop up in the next few weeks that could include May travel. May is a high shoulder IIRC just prior to summer, so fares will always be slightly higher (by a few $100) but you may well get a good deal. I would look mostly at LAX, as you have more options out of SYD likely to offer cheaper seats there than even to DFW or NY. Though it still probably would not be enough difference, if you could find seats, to do it and save real $$ over the $2300 odd.

Of course, getting separate tickets like that can be tricky if you can't engineer a stop at your "long haul" point of entry to US (eg: say QF SYD-DFW or SYD-LAX r/t) because you can never be sure that things will run smoothly connection wise, and that's a real benefit to having a single ticket to, at least, MSY which it seems is your major destination. Still, a day or so to break up the journey either way might be nice, specially if you stop at LAX it would break up the long flying just a bit.

For the record I recently completed an set of flying that was mixed in this way - I flew UA to LAX (sched arrive 09:50) then had a connection on AA at 2:30pm (that was all fine) and on the return I had seperate tickets on UA from IAH back to LAX, and then on to SYD and MEL. Much shorter connectoion time, but same airline I figured would be much easier to deal with any issues than multiple airlines. Everything was more or less ontime, so no issue in the end. Just something to be aware of.

Just my 3 cents.

grov

Agree with RichardMEL. Have just completed a J booking to travel to PER-Canada and used a combination of sale tickets plus car hire to achieve a potential 50% price reduction from the quoted fares. It's definitely worth exploring all combinations and considering flying to adjacent locations, then using low-cost options to complete the trip.

LuvTravellin

Thanks so much for all the opinions.

I've considered the SYD/LAX or DFW and return option then get a separate ticket for MSY/JFK etc but I find I build long connection times into the equation to be on the safe side and its a drag hanging around the airport.

I can get a US$160 JetBlue flight from MSY to JFK which I think is a good deal.

I think I'll wait a few weeks and see if Qantas has a deal coming up and if not go with my first plan. AU$2337 plus US$160 is not too bad.

Dave Noble

If going for the $2337+$160 , why not just book on the AA flight numbers and can get the whole trip for $2315 on the same flights

LuvTravellin

Sorry, what do you mean by this? If I go to the AA site I can't get anything for my dates and route for less than $2623. Or do you mean something else?