Hi,

My name is Matt and I am 15. I have posted here a few times but want some advice. I am planning on doing a 1 month Summer program in Australia next summer. I live in Mississippi right now. I am skymilies member and United miles member. I preferably would like to fly a Star Alliance or Sky Team Member. My plan is to use a free delta ticket Mississippi-LAX. Then pay for a ticket LAX-SYD.
Now my question is will July be an exspensive time to buy tickets? I know its to early now but I like to plan stuff in advance so I got stuff to look forward to. I am really open to flying via Asia to get to Aussie or flying through new zealand or just direct to Aussie. My one problem I have with flying United is no PTV. For 14 hours I sorta need stuff to keep me somwhat occupied. So what do you think my options will be. Any chance Virgin could be flying USA-Australia by then?
I would love to fly Qantas but they seem like they are a lot more then everyone else. So whats going to be best. I think flying through asia would be cool just to expearience an Asian Airline and going through the airport there. I dont mind extra time since I love to fly and it will just be me.

Thanks
Matt

Matt -

If you want Star Alliance, IMO the best coach seat on the planet is Singapore airlines. You have PTV with pause feature. I ran out of flight before I ran out of stuff to watch. You can get to SIN cheap in UA, then take Singapore to Australia. If you buy your tickets off the Singapore website and originate from SIN, the fares will be less. Once inside Australia, use either Qantas CityFlyer or Virgin Blue, but book early.

Rb911

K
Thanks. Is summer usually an exspensive time for australia. Would I want to buy seperate tickets, one to singapore and then to sydney. Sounds exspensive.
Matt

Singapore really does sound cool and I acutally will earn Delta Miles since Delta has a milage parternership with Singapore. My parents since think its crazy for me to add 10 hours on to my flight when I could go non stop from LAX. I dont mind as I said before. Since I am coming from the East Coast is there a better way going through europe? I just want to do what will be most comfortable and least exspensive. I have been finding under 1000 on United. Thats my goal. Under $1000
Matt

Don't forget that the seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere, so if by "next summer" you mean July 2005 that would be mid-winter in Australia. Dress accordingly (depending on where you are, it could be from snow to semi-tropical -- it is a big country). Presumably you aren't staying in a hotel, in which case the seasonal price variation doesn't matter. Food, transportation and even tourist attractions cost the same year round, it is only hotels that can double in price during the peak season. Perhaps you can look at http://www.frommers.com and get some background info. As for flying there, you'll find that United offers consolidator tickets cheaper than anyone else (but they may not earn FF miles, it depends on the fare but the cheapest fares don't).

Yea I know it will be winter there, so thanks for the heads up. I am going be in sydney or melbourne for 3 weeks and then up into Tropical North Queensland for 1 week probably. I am looking forward to it. My first time going to Aussie and I have never been that far. I am also not responsible for domestic transportation since I am going through this student package thing. I really want to not fly United if its Possible because I want a little more in terms of In Flight Amenities. So you think it will be possible to fly another airline for good deal? I have seen Air New Zealand pop up a few times and they dont have PTV but I heard they are pretty good and they werent to exspensive. Qantas is really what I want or I will go through Asia. Your help is so appreciated. Even though I am planning early I am excited!

Matt

you might look at package deals...i know that qantas has had some that are quite reasonable, so maybe ua would have some also if you need a hotel for part of your stay...have fun.

I have a Star Alliance award ticket booked for later this year with ORD-LAX-CHC-SYD-SFO-ORD. The LAX-CHC and CHC-SYD segments are on Air New Zealand; everything else is on United. I'll be in New Zealand for two weeks and Australia for two and a half.

Should space magically become available, I'll happily pony up the extra 30,000 miles to sit in Business class, but right now I'm stuck back in Economy. Neither United nor AirNZ have PTV's in coach (although AirNZ does have plans to install them, I believe -- you might want to check out the implementation schedule) but I really don't care. Sure, they would be nice to have, but for me getting to my destination in the shortest amount of time possible is what really matters. I'm traveling nearly halfway around the world so I can go on vacation, not so I can stare mindlessly at the seatback in front of me. The westbound trans-Pacific flights usually take off late at night anyway, which means most people are asleep very soon into the journey, especially those connecting from the eastern United States who already ate dinner and/or are on running on different time zones.

I know this runs contrary to the FlyerTalk mindset, but remember that the numerous 747's crossing the Pacific between the United States and Australia each day have hundreds of seats in coach and those people all survive the trip. People do it all the time, and I'll be doing it myself unless something radically changes. Personally, I think going through Asia just for a PTV is absurd; it's another matter entirely if you plan to spend time there, but to waste all that time just to have a television is flawed logic to me.

Also, if you're going to buy the trans-Pacific ticket, remember that buying a United ticket and flying on a United plane will not only get you very close to Premier status (25,000 miles flown per year) but will also earn you at least four 500-mile upgrades that can be used for future domestic flights.

In conclusion: It is my opinion that you should take every opportunity to maximize the benefits (be they miles, progress toward status, in-flight entertainment, or what have you) of a journey, but not at the expense of time spent at your ultimate destination. Ten years from now you'll remember all the cool stuff you saw and did in Australia, not the movie playing on the screen buried in the seatback in front of you.

Yea,
Asia would be out of the way and I will be as you said on eastern time zone so I will be really tired anyways. I just think it would be nice to have PTV but I will survive. I more then likely will fly United anyways. Just wanted to see what you guys thought. Air New Zealand could be a possibility also.
Blort you last part your message is good. I will remember Australia most importantly and not the seat back TV. LOL I am probably going to fly United. Thanks for all the replies
Matt

It will also be nice earning plenty of miles!

First up. If you are flying from eastern US then going via europe and asia may be cheaper (although longer time) than going transpac to asia and then down to australia.

Since others have mentioned SQ - they fly JFK-Singapore (via Frankfurt) and can then easily connect down to Australia.

The direct route - Qantas, United or Air NZ (via Auckland) are the shortest and quickest ways. Air NZ is rolling out PTVs and AVOD in all seats in the 747s from about May 2005 but for travel in July 2005 there wont be any guarantee you will get the new fitout or the current one (no PTV except in business and first).

Just to clarify - you are travelling next US summer (ie around June 2005)? That is not peak season. (msett would have been thinking of australian summer - Dec to Feb is peak season).

Both Qantas and Air NZ have packages and specials from US from time to time. Typically cheapest from LAX (or SFO) with add-on to other cities using code-share partners AA and UA/US respectively.

Travel within Australia is pretty much limited to Qantas (and LCC subsidiary Jetstar) and Virgin Blue. Air NZ does not have any domestic australia routes but does serve MEL/SYD/PER/BNE/CNS all direct from AKL (and usually connecting well with the US flights).

For more info I'd suggest the Australia and South Pacific forum, or the Qantas forum.

Hey Kiwi Flyer,
Saw your post to my reply on Air New Zealand forum. Flying via europe asia seems like it would be really long. The lady at air new zealand reservations said there is good chance lax-akl will have been refitted by then but I dont how much they really know about that. Prices seem high to australia for next summer now, when do you think they will go down?
Matt

Dont know as I dont buy ex-US. However keep an eye out in NZ and QF forum (and airnz website) for specials as there are some good rates from time to time. Your chances of a reasonable fare travelling in July are much better than if you were travelling in Dec-Feb period.