Arriving SYD & Departing AKL

We are cruising on Celebrity- Sydney to Auckland in December 2015 and live in Minnesota. We have never flown this route or this far before so I am wondering if anyone has any tips for reserving flights. Even though our dates aren't available yet to reserve flights, I have been toying with different dates to try to see whats out there and it seems outbound Auckland flights only depart at 8 am. Is this correct?

We will be flying Delta or a Delta partner since we have the Am Ex Delta skymiles card and will be using miles to pay for part of a flight.

Any info would be helpful as reserving these flights seems very daunting. Reserving our flight for a RT VCE itinerary didn't seem this confusing.

Thank you!

First off...DL does not service AKL. The only partner airlines that do are Virgin Australia, China Southern and Korean.

Your best bet would be on VX, with a bit of backtrack involved. You would fly from AKL to either SYD or BNE, then onward to LAX. In a similar fashion, your flight to SYD could be either non-stop from LAX or through BNE.

A couple of thoughts: 1) If you are planning on award seats, there is MUCH better availability if you go through BNE. Everyone wants the LAX-SYD non-stops, either on VX or DL. 2) If you are planing to use your SkyPesos for the miles and dollars option - DONT. It is a terrible waste of miles, since you get a much lower "exchange rate" than just using them for award tickets. Why do you think they offered it.....it's a way to get the miles off the books at far less than what you can otherwise redeem them for. 3) Having flown both, I prefer the VX product a bit more. Yes, the DL 777 pods are nice in biz, but VX has it otherwise beat.

In booking, call up and talk with an agent. Ask for them to check the routings through BNE, as many will just think of SYD (since DL themselves doesn't go through BNE). And yes, it will add another 6+ hours to your AKL-LAX trip, but is necessary since SkyTeam only flies west from AKL (to Australia, Guangzhou or Seoul).

We booked our flight on Delta.

We leave non-stop on Delta, and as FlyerTalker has stated, we leave Auckland on Delta partner, Virgin Australia. At the time we booked, there were some later flights, but they had 12-26 hour layovers, so we choose to stay an extra day and leave at 0800. I just looked and I only see 0800 or 0645 flights.

Keep checking, look on other booking sites and if you see something that fits your needs, call Delta. (If that's the airline you choose to use)

You could fly from Auckland to Sydney, plan in some extra time in either place, and have simple RT tickets.

First off...DL does not service AKL. The only partner airlines that do are Virgin Australia, China Southern and Korean.

 

Your best bet would be on VX, with a bit of backtrack involved. You would fly from AKL to either SYD or BNE, then onward to LAX. In a similar fashion, your flight to SYD could be either non-stop from LAX or through BNE.

 

A couple of thoughts: 1) If you are planning on award seats, there is MUCH better availability if you go through BNE. Everyone wants the LAX-SYD non-stops, either on VX or DL. 2) If you are planing to use your SkyPesos for the miles and dollars option - DONT. It is a terrible waste of miles, since you get a much lower "exchange rate" than just using them for award tickets. Why do you think they offered it.....it's a way to get the miles off the books at far less than what you can otherwise redeem them for. 3) Having flown both, I prefer the VX product a bit more. Yes, the DL 777 pods are nice in biz, but VX has it otherwise beat.

 

In booking, call up and talk with an agent. Ask for them to check the routings through BNE, as many will just think of SYD (since DL themselves doesn't go through BNE). And yes, it will add another 6+ hours to your AKL-LAX trip, but is necessary since SkyTeam only flies west from AKL (to Australia, Guangzhou or Seoul).

All excellent points! Thank you...i have lot to think about.

Your best bet would be on VX, with a bit of backtrack involved. ...

 

A couple of thoughts: 1) If you are planning on award seats, there is MUCH better availability if you go through BNE. Everyone wants the LAX-SYD non-stops, either on VX or DL. ...

VX is a different airline and AFAIK operates only within North America.

;)

You are ABSOLUTELY correct. And this was after flying Virgin Australia within the last month.

Somehow, I got to swapping VX and VA in my old brain.

Thanks for the correction. As always.