Advice for flying from Sydney to LA for a short trip?

[dmasnick84]

Hi guys,

I'm new here, and I'm wondering if you have any advice to share on which airline to choose to fly from Sydney to LA. My girlfriend and I are keen to have a short break from our ad agency jobs to see how much of LA we can see in less than a week. The amount of info for booking flights online is pretty daunting, so I thought I'd start here - you seem a friendly bunch!

Are there any sweet return airfare deals going around at the moment, or do you have any horror stories of in-flight service from particular airlines? We're looking to spend as little as possible on the airfares (to leave more cash spare for shopping in LA..) - any advice appreciated.

Thanks!

- Dan

 

[trooper]

:mrgreen::mrgreen:

Hello again....

You have a couple of answers on FT.....

 

[harvyk]

It depends what your after, I think UA only has main screen entertainment in Y. Over 13 - 14 hours things like personal screens are really nice. I do believe QF \ VA \ Delta all have personal screens.

I personally like to fly QF, and if you can get on the A380 do it, as it's IFE is better than the B747.

I'd be guessing your flying in Y (eccon) if your after the cheapest, so keep in mind that VA \ UA have limits on the amount of free alcohol they'll give you in Y. (I think it's one glass of wine \ beer with your main meal before they start charging) whilst delta \ QF are unlimited (still in accordance with responsible service of course)

It's a long flight, but not too bad as you'll spend a good proportion of it sleeping...

 

[Dee Thom]

If you can afford $1900 each, VA will put you in Y+ (economy plus) check Flight Centre web site. A great way to travel to LAX, with virtually all the goodies of J class ( business class)
Cheers Dee

 

[Alanslegal]

Air New Zealand currently have fares SYD to LAX return for $912 all inclusive. Go to their website for more info. Briefly;-

DESTINATION: Los Angeles or San Francisco
SALE ENDS: 18 Jul 09
TRAVEL PERIOD: 11 Jul - 25 Nov 09

 

[dmasnick84]

Thanks a lot for the advice guys. That Air NZ fare is looking pretty good.
$0 is even better than $912 though - I just came across a VA competition to recruit three friends to fly from Sydney to Los Angeles for three days; to set the Twitter record, the competition winners are required to send one tweet every minute during their time in LA. 4,320 tweets!

The competition website is at 4320la.com, and entrants' tweets feed through to the @4320LA account. My girlfriend and I are brainstorming some clever entries - we really want to win this!

 

[stryker]

I'd be guessing your flying in Y (eccon) if your after the cheapest, so keep in mind that VA \ UA have limits on the amount of free alcohol they'll give you in Y. (I think it's one glass of wine \ beer with your main meal before they start charging) whilst delta \ QF are unlimited (still in accordance with responsible service of course)

It's a long flight, but not too bad as you'll spend a good proportion of it sleeping...

UA certainly does have a limit on free drinks. It is 0 (zero). All alcoholic drinks are USD 6 in economy. And the in-flight entertainment is quite poor. But if they have the cheapest fares, I'd go UA.