Recommended airline for going from Australia to US?
Replies: 33 - Last Post: Jan 21, 2013 4:04 PM Last Post By: Kym_n_James
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15
As far as the Luggage check thru, when you land in the USA on a International Inbound flight, you clear Immigration/Customs, then go to the baggage claim for your flight, retrieve the luggage, walk a short distance to the ReCheck Luggage, and go to the Airline you are flying and recheck it, they scan the tag that has the final destination on it of a codeshare/alliance, when you check in in Aussie airport, then you will go to Security, and to your flights gate.I like the Ipad for my entertainment, the US Airlines down have as many modern new planes with the seat back entertainment as the Asia/AU carriers, I flew last month from Chicago>Zurich>Istanbul on a new Swiss Air that was great, must had 100 movies, 100 games, 100 music channels, on the way back, the Lufthansa via Munich was great too, had those new seats that the bottom seat cushion slide forward/back 3 inches...ahhh
What about going via Shanghia/Hong Kong? You might be able to fly direct from those cities to Detroit...for sure Chicago.
BTW- you get 72 hours vis free in Bejing China and 24 hours in Shanghai, maybe 48 hours for your passport, break up trip...
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The matrix software site is a great one Note the details though on flights when looking as many of the codeshares are cheaper but still on a good airline. For example syd to lax might say American, but it flies with its oneworld partner which is Qantas. Delta is partnered with virgn so you might pay a delta price but get a virgin aircraft.Currently best airline to fly coast to coast is virgin america..... Make sure you check out Southwest airline flights... Nearly all airlines in US now charge for luggage......SWA does not.....
Dont know if you play the mileage game, but using some alliances could get you a free ticket by the time you get back to Oz.
18
If you fly so often to Europe, wouldn't you have status with some alliance by now? And a bunch of miles to burn? Where are you flying from? Isn't Qantas an option? Or Virgin Australia? Both have personal TVs.As others have mentioned, I would not be too concerned about being bumped without warning. While the airlines of the US are not very good, reviews you read online tend to be quite extreme... Bad stuff happens to every airline.
However, by doing separate bookings as suggested by some posters in this thread, the likelihood of something bad happening goes up significantly! You may save some money, but beware that you're putting yourself at risk!
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Don't forget that people are much more likely to post negative reviews about a bad experience with an airline, than to post about an uneventful trip where nothing ut of the ordinary happened.when you land in the USA on a International Inbound flight, you clear Immigration/Customs, then go to the baggage claim for your flight, retrieve the luggage, walk a short distance to the ReCheck Luggage, and go to the Airline you are flying and recheck it, they scan the tag that has the final destination on it of a codeshare/alliance
At the International Terminal at LAX, there is a conveyor belt as you exit customs. You just put your bags on that.
One thing to note, if by some chance you find yourself flying on Southwest, that airline does not do interline baggage transfer, so you'd need to allow time ot collect your bags and recheck them at the airline check-in desk.
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It would have to be considerably cheaper for me to consider #14's suggestion. If you miss your Southwest flight because Qantas is late you are stuck. Southwest owes you nothing and you have to buy an expensive replacement ticket. If it is a through ticket and Qantas is late they will get you on the next flight with seats at no charge. If that is the next morning the will put you up in a hotel.21
yes, southwest does not have baggage alliance with other airlines, so you would need to check luggage to LAX, then collect it, go to SW check in, and check baggage there.Also, one good thing about SW, is the Full Fare is not 10 times the fare you purchased 2 months earlier, its usually double to triple, depending on they type fare, a fully refundable Business fare on SW would solve that, as you can change it a million times for up to 1 year, or get a refund.
But, I would try to align your flight connection in LAX for a 3 hour layover and with a codeshare partner airline with the initial flight from AU.
22
Have you checked out Hawaiian Air? Flys now to Australia.....and on to many cities on the mainland US23
Rovaniemi wrote:
And just a question out of curiosity: why on earth do people book and pay for flights and then not show up? Do they really have that much money to throw away?
And just a question out of curiosity: why on earth do people book and pay for flights and then not show up? Do they really have that much money to throw away?
In some cases a round-trip fare is cheaper than a one-way ticket, so people book the round-trip ticket and throw the return leg away. It's technically illegal to do this, but unless a person does it frequently on the same airline, they're not likely to be caught.
In other cases, something's come up that prevents the person from taking the flight. If they have trip insurance that covers the ticket cost, they may not bother to notify the airline in advance that they're not going to be on the flight.
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First thing that came to my mind was the same thing as #18. You "often" fly to Europe? That's several thousand miles round trip from Oz, a few trips a year and you would have reached status level on any airlines' FF program. And except for Emirates, that'll give you status on whichever of the 3 big alliances that carrier is on, which will have a large US legacy carrier as a partner. And that will get you upgraded to J class if you want to redeem some of those miles. Which is usually pretty good on any airline flying transpacific. But anyone who "often" flies would know this, so what you're really asking for is: will anyone commiserate with me as I whine about wanting to pay for the cheapest fare but except first class service?26
I've been looking at flights from Perth, Aus in to San Francisco and out of Washington DC or New York, during September. Emirates serves both of these airports with only one stopover in Dubai each way. The prices on bestflights.com.au were about $2k per pax.27
Emirates is a very plush airline, but aren't you traveling in the wrong direction? It seems like that would extend flying time by 10+ hours. Granted, if you want to wander around Dubai for a few days, it could be a fun adventure.28
Dubai -- San Francisco is one very very long flight... around 16 hours. I took it two years ago. It's a good airline, but still a long time to be stuck in an airplane... One fun thing about that flight is it doesn't fly east nor west -- but north, then south :)29
I am travelling from Perth though (west coast Aus). If I was to fly into San Fran from the other direction (the west) then I would need to fly via the Australian east coast first. Which is fine on the way TO the USA, but when I am leaving from New York/Washington the flight BACK to Perth would be long because I'd have to fly through LAX or SFO and then the Australian east coast again and then would be 2 stopovers. The flying time on this return leg would be similar to the flying time on the Perth/Dubai/SFO trip. Does that make sense?
