Cheap fares to the USA

[JohnK]

It appears that the airlines regard Australia/Asia as one of the last "cash cows" around the world and charge accordingly. If traffic declines significantly over the next six months I think we may see some fare reductions though.

I really don't understand why Australia is the scapegoat on every front as we only have a population of just over 20,000,000 with low tourism and you think that there would be some deals to entice some traffic in/out of the area.

And it is not as if there is no competition in/out of Australia from Asia as there are at least 10 full service carriers operating one route or another.

 

[bambbbam2]

Hey fellas thanks for all the helpful tips!

My first US trip, in two weeks I time I am travelling per-syd-sfo-sea-stl-msy-dfw-mco-mia-las-sfo-syd-adl-per

* San Fran tours (Alcatraz etc)
* Seattle (Boeing factory)
* New Orleans (Mississippi paddle steamer tour, cemetry tour, French Quarter jazz & dinner)
*Orlando
* LA (Universal studios, knott's berry far, disneyland)

and lots of other great stuff to look forward to!

 

[Alanslegal]

* New Orleans (Mississippi paddle steamer tour, cemetry tour, French Quarter jazz & dinner)

Enjoy your trip, looking forward to your time in NOLA as I need some hints/pointers on what to do there for a visit there in May.

 

[Warks]

Just discovered we're on the A380 to LAX (QF11). Should be an experience, especially for the first time flyers (the kids). I'll be able to talk about "in MYYYY day" when I flew over on a Continental DC10. "IFE? Loooxury!" "Edible food? We had to get by for 14 and half hours on a packet of peanuts!"
It will be like my parents talking about travel in unpressurised DC3s!:mrgreen:



Tickets paid for now the Gold MC has arrived. An earlier booking I secured for $100 that I was supposed to pay for by midnight Sunday (changed flights subsequently) is still there in "My bookings". Maybe they give a day's grace. Will see.
Got the notice of refund of my holding deposit for the tickets I DID book before I got confirmation of the booked seats!

 

[Mal]

United is now offering ~$1100 return fares from SYD-JFK for later this year...

I sense another Qantas sale to New York coming up!

 

[Cabbage]

United is now offering ~$1100 return fares from SYD-JFK for later this year...

I sense another Qantas sale to New York coming up!

AA appeared to have followed suit with some excellent fares to the U.S. from all mainland capitals, up until December (via Tokyo I believe).

ie:
Best Fare from Sydney
Travel period: Apr 1 - May 30, Sep 1 - Dec 9, 2009
Los Angeles from AUD 899 return
Las Vegas from AUD 1,049 return
New York from AUD 1,049 return
San Francisco from AUD 1,049 return
Dallas from AUD 1,149 return

Early Bird Special from Sydney
Departures: Sep 1 - Dec 9, 2009
Los Angeles from AUD 699 return
Chicago from AUD 999 return
Dallas from AUD 999 return
New York from AUD 999 return

Fares exclude taxes and fees


www.aa.com/aa/intl/au/index.jsp

 

[serfty]

... Fares exclude taxes and fees

www.aa.com/aa/intl/au/index.jsp
...

Looked good until I saw that!

Note that Oz Federal legislation will come into force in the next few months that makes sure such price quotes with a * or disclaimer will no longer cut the mustard.

The approximate Nett price will need to be most prominent!

 

[fortymilliondaggers]

Yeah it's not really competitive at those prices excluding taxes the way things are is it.

 

[futaris]

QANTAS Business and Premium Economy Deals

Travel in style to destinations around the world with these great deals in Business and Premium Economy available now! Destinations include Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, New York and many more.

Available for departures:

In Business to:
- all destinations for this offer - from 6 May to 30 June 2009.

In Premium Economy to:
- Buenos Aires: from 1 June to 31 October 2009
- San Francisco: from 4 July to 31 October 2009
- all other destinations for this offer: from 28 April to 31 October 2009.

Qantas deals are also available for travel to other destinations, different travel periods apply. For these and other great offers visit qantas.com.

Hurry! Deals end midnight (AEST) Friday 1 May 2009 for travel in Business, and Wednesday 6 May 2009 for travel in Premium Economy.

If you are a Qantas Frequent Flyer, this great offer also applies to Qantas Any Seat Awards.^

e.g:

BNE-LAX $3106 Premium Economy
BNE-LAX $7758 Business

 

[cjl3195]

Only 2 months to go before Delta starts up the Sydney run. Having used DL a lot in the 90s when living in US I still have not so great memories of their special version of cattle class down back of the planes. But the start up offers were too good to miss so have booked family for a one week trip over in July.

Question is - does anyone have any information on the expected inflight services that Delta will operate on the Pan Pacific routes? I assume they will have video on demand systems - but learnt the hard way in the past to never assume anything as far as DL are concerned.

Thoughts?

 

[trooper]

DL will AFAIK be operating their 77L (777-200LR) on that route..

According to seat guru (www.seatguru.com) Y seats have a pitch of "31-33" and a width of 18..

AVOD screens at all seats..... but also "power boxes are located under many of the seats in Y, which greatly restricts legroom"..

Unusually for that site they don't tell you WHICH seats have the boxes....which makes it harder to choose!!! Nor do they tell you which seat groups have the 33" pitch!

Those aircraft also operate routes like ICN-ATL so I'd suggest visiting the DL forum at www.flyertalk.com and asking "the experts"....:mrgreen:

 

[Alanslegal]

Hmmmm....with the current USA sale on through to 10 June 2009, reveals SYD-LAX $953 rtn, SYD-SFO $1053 rtn, SYD-JFK $1133 rtn. Travel between 2 July - 30 November 2009.

 

[futaris]

QANTAS is also cheap to South America, circa $1300...

 

[bnroz]

I heard a rumour, that once Delta hit the Oz-USA air, that we could possibly be looking at a massive price war again on this route, someone told me we could be looking at $750 return flights inc taxes, etc Syd-LAX....


anyone heard anything like this around the traps?

 

[stryker]

I heard a rumour, that once Delta hit the Oz-USA air, that we could possibly be looking at a massive price war again on this route, someone told me we could be looking at $750 return flights inc taxes, etc Syd-LAX....


anyone heard anything like this around the traps?

I wouldn't bet on it.

If you can get a sub-$1,000 fare now, I'd go for it.

 

[Alanslegal]

I heard a rumour, that once Delta hit the Oz-USA air, that we could possibly be looking at a massive price war again on this route, someone told me we could be looking at $750 return flights inc taxes, etc Syd-LAX....

A few weeks ago you could have booked on QF; SYD-LAX rtn for close to $750 all up, now that offer is gone, anything sub-$1000 is a good deal IMO.

 

[Saab34]

Anyone think VA/QF will put these 1000~ USA deals as far as Feb next year? Just wondering if others think perhaps or mabye the airlines might stick the travel period until November this year..?

 

[NM]

Anyone think VA/QF will put these 1000~ USA deals as far as Feb next year? Just wondering if others think perhaps or mabye the airlines might stick the travel period until November this year..?

I doubt we will see that from QF in the near future. After their recent sales they are now struggling to accommodate all the economy passengers and I think they may have been a little too aggressive in their sales approach. I think they will be hoping the demand will return sooner rather than later and will delay sales as long as possible.

That being said, February is traditionally a quiet time of the year for international travel so anything is possible.

 

[Saab34]

Prices has dropped a little lower lately

VA:
SYD/MEL/BNE-LAX: $882

Delta have some for $887 now also.

 

[Cyclogenesis]

And QF quietly matching @870 LAX-MEL-LAX (Jul-Nov)