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Long Flight to Australia


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Have been planning a cruise to Australia, but have always cancelled due to the long flight.

 

Can any one comment on the flight.

 

I think a stop over in Las Angelos, would be okay, and then after that I think it is still a 11 hour flight.

 

Tried to find one from Hawaii, but I think there is no direct flight to Australia from Hawaii.

 

If I am going to do Australia, I think, I have to do it before I get older.

 

Comments would be appreciated.

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Since we just returned last night from a HAL NZ/AUS cruise I can certainly sympathize with your problem. I would say go ahead and do it. The flight is not really that bad and the reward is well worth any long flight. We were asleep most of the flight to Auckland and coming back the flight attendants on Qantas were so great and the flight was so pleasant we didn't really want to sleep but made ourselves. The people and the countries of New Zealand and Australia are well worth any discomfort you might encounter, don't let a few hours of flying stop you from seeing this wonderful lands!

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Highly recommend a stopover in Hawaii to break the long journey.

 

There are direct flights to Australia from Hawaii - Jetstar and Hawaiian Air.

 

You would need to check which airlines provide stopovers in Hawaii from the mainland.

 

I believe Delta will be commencing flights to Australia shortly.

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Like you, we wanted to make this trip before we get older. We are fortunate enough to have LOTS of frequent flier miles because my husband travels overseas so are using them to fly business class, which is much more comfortable and makes very long trips quite pleasant. Here's an idea for you. Sign up for an airline credit card that gives points and use it for everything. When you have enough points for an upgrade to business class, book your coach ticket and upgrade with your points. We put absolutely everything we can on our credit card because of the points... ever our kids college tuition.

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Since we just returned last night from a HAL NZ/AUS cruise I can certainly sympathize with your problem. I would say go ahead and do it. The flight is not really that bad and the reward is well worth any long flight. We were asleep most of the flight to Auckland and coming back the flight attendants on Qantas were so great and the flight was so pleasant we didn't really want to sleep but made ourselves. The people and the countries of New Zealand and Australia are well worth any discomfort you might encounter, don't let a few hours of flying stop you from seeing this wonderful lands!

 

Living in Australia has many advantages, one of the small annoyances can be that we are a long way from most places.

 

We have to travel 22 hours to reach London, fourteen hours to LA, does it ever stop us, NO. We are frequent travellers and on leaving our home for a long flight always say to each other what wonderful adventures are ahead of us on this trip. If you go with the mind that we are so lucky that we are able to do these wonderful holidays I know you will enjoy yourself. Of course you will be tired after the flight, just give yourself enough time to recover and you will be ready for all that awaits you.

 

Hope you will start planning, just know you will have a wonderful time here and look forward to your posting telling us of your decision.:)

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Living in Australia has many advantages, one of the small annoyances can be that we are a long way from most places.

 

We have to travel 22 hours to reach London, fourteen hours to LA, does it ever stop us, NO. We are frequent travellers and on leaving our home for a long flight always say to each other what wonderful adventures are ahead of us on this trip. If you go with the mind that we are so lucky that we are able to do these wonderful holidays I know you will enjoy yourself. Of course you will be tired after the flight, just give yourself enough time to recover and you will be ready for all that awaits you.

 

Hope you will start planning, just know you will have a wonderful time here and look forward to your posting telling us of your decision.:)

 

I had to laugh at your comments. I hadn't thought about it before, but I guess a lot of Australians, used to long distance travel, have that attitude.

 

In December, we flew Milan - Singapore (14 hours), then Singapore - Brisbane (8 hours) on Singapore Airlines, which has an excellent entertainment programme. I was disappointed that the second leg was so short I didn't have time to enjoy more movies/music. :)

 

Good advice to allow enough time to recover, if you suffer jetlag.

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Thank you for all your suggestions.

 

Will check Jetstar and Hawaiian Air from Hawaii. We were checking other airlines, but could not find any that fly from Hawaii.

 

You could also try Air Pacific, which flies from Hawaii to Australia via Fiji, and to the West Coast USA.

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We have done the LA/Sydney and vice versa trip on Princess three times, we love the long cruises. DH is still working full time but we plan our holidays accordingly.

 

That might be another alternative for you if you can spare the time. If you look on the Princess site you will see these listed. Generally sail from Australia March/April and from LA to Australia in September. Just a thought but it does mean just one longish flight. It may not work out but a consideration if you could possibly manage it.

 

Best wishes :)

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I think you will find that the most major airlines fly Sy /Hnl ,but it is a stopover on the way to LA.(Sometimes they call into Fiji as well which makes it even longer.)

We have flown to Hnl and return many times,but have sometimes been held up as the plane was late leaving LA. The main problem is that the time they arrive in Hnl is not a very sociable hour, usually around midnight.

We therefore try to fly straight through or take a stopover for at least a couple of days .

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I had to laugh at your comments. I hadn't thought about it before, but I guess a lot of Australians, used to long distance travel, have that attitude.

 

In December, we flew Milan - Singapore (14 hours), then Singapore - Brisbane (8 hours) on Singapore Airlines, which has an excellent entertainment programme. I was disappointed that the second leg was so short I didn't have time to enjoy more movies/music. :)

 

Good advice to allow enough time to recover, if you suffer jetlag.

 

 

I had a dear friend many years ago who always said to me that in 24 to 30 hours you can be any where in the world. It made my husband and I stop and think. How exciting is that thought, I'm certainly not terribly keen on long flights, (Singapore Airlines certainly helps though) but the planning and eventual arrival at our destination always fills us with a buzz. Been married for forty years and I hope that we have many more trips ahead of us. Next cruise is to the US in a few weeks and can't wait.

 

Best wishes :)

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What are posters thoughts on long flights?

(To stay on topic, I am assuming you are flying to join/return, from a cruise.)

Weve done both and have found that sometimes the straight through flight is more relaxing than taking a stopover.

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What are posters thoughts on long flights?

(To stay on topic, I am assuming you are flying to join/return, from a cruise.)

Weve done both and have found that sometimes the straight through flight is more relaxing than taking a stopover.

 

Our last cruise Nov/Dec 08, we flew to and fro Milan direct from Brisbane, via Singapore, with Singapore Airlines. Flying with that airline, together with the facilities at Changi Airport, make flying economy class still a pleasure.

 

We find flying business class, or business/economy combination, with the use of business lounges, it is fine to fly straight through.

 

In the past, stopovers for us have been a highlight of our travels - Auckland, Fiji, Cook Islands, Tahiti, Hawaii, LA - across the Pacific; Singapore, Thailand, Brunei - to UK/Europe. All at no extra cost!

 

Usually we include a stopover of at least a few days, which we prefer, however, we now exclude anywhere with overzealous security.

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I had a dear friend many years ago who always said to me that in 24 to 30 hours you can be any where in the world. It made my husband and I stop and think. How exciting is that thought, I'm certainly not terribly keen on long flights, (Singapore Airlines certainly helps though) but the planning and eventual arrival at our destination always fills us with a buzz. Been married for forty years and I hope that we have many more trips ahead of us. Next cruise is to the US in a few weeks and can't wait.

 

Best wishes :)

 

Your long trip on the Princess in a few weeks sounds wonderful. We prefer long trips also, with lots of sea days, so repositioning cruises suit us.

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What are posters thoughts on long flights?

(To stay on topic, I am assuming you are flying to join/return, from a cruise.)

Weve done both and have found that sometimes the straight through flight is more relaxing than taking a stopover.

 

 

If we are coming home from the US or Canada we fly straight home,find this the hardest trip.

 

From Europe or the UK we always have a stopover of at least two nights, also find that choosing an airline that schedules evening arrivals into Melbourne works for us. Arrive home, shower and into bed.:)

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On our Alaskan cruise it took 30 hours from the time we got off the ship to Sydney airport. Tired? Hell yes. Worth it? Hell yes again.

 

I never let flight time dictate where I'm going on holidays. I don't even think about it. I decide where I want to go and start planning. Moist of the time I don't even know how long the flight is (I travel a lot). I just know the time it leaves and gets there.

Go for it. Life is too short to worry about spending a couple too many hours in a plane.

If you wait until you are older you may not make it.

My friend always said "I'm going to Paris for my 50th. At 48 she got cancer. She was dead before she reached 50. That is NOT going to be me.

 

If I've got the money I'm going.

Off to Italy, Paris, Spain in April /May.

The flights will be long. How long? Who cares.

I might stop in Tokyo for 2 days to break it up though (well that's my excuse) and that's another destination crossed off my ever growing list.

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On our Alaskan cruise it took 30 hours from the time we got off the ship to Sydney airport. Tired? Hell yes. Worth it? Hell yes again.

 

I never let flight time dictate where I'm going on holidays. I don't even think about it. I decide where I want to go and start planning. Moist of the time I don't even know how long the flight is (I travel a lot). I just know the time it leaves and gets there.

Go for it. Life is too short to worry about spending a couple too many hours in a plane.

If you wait until you are older you may not make it.

My friend always said "I'm going to Paris for my 50th. At 48 she got cancer. She was dead before she reached 50. That is NOT going to be me.

 

If I've got the money I'm going.

Off to Italy, Paris, Spain in April /May.

The flights will be long. How long? Who cares.

I might stop in Tokyo for 2 days to break it up though (well that's my excuse) and that's another destination crossed off my ever growing list.

 

You have a great attiitude to life. As you say you just never know what lies ahead.

 

Hope your holidays plans come to fruition and that you have a memorable trip.

 

Best wishes to you:)

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I'm a NZer, but live in London at the moment. The one thing to avoid, that makes the trip better, is transiting through LAX. Also, I would never willingly pick an American based airline - there is no comparison in service, food, entertainment etc.

 

Air NZ flies direct to Auckland via San Francisco and Vancouver now, so if I was flying from the states or Canada I would look at flying out of one of these airports rather than LAX.

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What are posters thoughts on long flights?

(To stay on topic, I am assuming you are flying to join/return, from a cruise.)

Unless there is a reason to stop, I would always try to go straight through as fast as possible.

 

But sometimes there are other things that get in the way. Two years running we have done slightly odd routings to get to/from cruises. In 2007, we were in Cape Town immediately before a cruise from Miami, and had to fly Cape Town-London-Miami because the cruise was a package that included flights. For the same reason, last year we ended a cruise in Miami and then immediately flew Miami-London-Bangkok-Sydney, which was definitely the long way round.

 

It helps that flying between the UK and Australia holds no fears for me. Basically, it's two sleeps to Sydney. I do it two or three times a year, and you do get used to it.

Here's an idea for you. Sign up for an airline credit card that gives points and use it for everything. When you have enough points for an upgrade to business class, book your coach ticket and upgrade with your points.
The only note of caution is that it can be difficult to get frequent flyer award seats between the US and Australia. So while it's a good strategy, I wouldn't recommend relying on this as a sure way of getting to Australia. You'd need a backup plan if you found that you couldn't get award seats for the dates you want.
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I'm a NZer, but live in London at the moment. The one thing to avoid, that makes the trip better, is transiting through LAX.
Indeed. And so much so that Air New Zealand has had to create an alternative route from Auckland to London via Hong Kong, because it was losing so many passengers to other airlines - they would not take Air New Zealand's long-running Auckland-LAX-London flight any more, purely because of the hassle of transiting LAX. And this was despite the concession which has been made at LAX to Air New Zealand, where those flights are the only ones allowed to use the "sin bin" arrangement.
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Regarding the question about flying straight through or to stop in Hawaii, I definitely think flying straight through is the way to go. We have been fortunate enough to visit the US several times, and unless you are stopping for a few days, I'd just go direct.

 

My biggest gripe is timing; sometimes just after I fall asleep, they wake you up again for another meal because then you land shortly afterwards. With the longer flights, they feed you, then you have all the time you need to watch a movie and also have a decent sleep!

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My husband and I also dreaded the flight from Boston to New Zealand/Australia, but finally decided not to wait until we were too old to enjoy the trip. We tried to use our frequent flier miles without any success, as we were booking only about 4 months in advance, so we ended up flying economy class on Qantas with very long layovers due to airline cutbacks. We were pleasantly surprised that it was not the hellish experience we were anticipating.

After an evening flight from Boston, we stayed overnight in Los Angeles prior to flying to Auckland the next evening. Although this dragged out the travel, it enabled us to leave our luggage at the hotel and get some exercise while doing some light touring of L.A. We preferred this to an 11 hour layover in L.A. on the day of the trans-Pacific flight. The flight was as pleasant as it could be, and since the plane was quiet and relatively dark through the night, we arrived in Auckland at 6 a.m.somewhat rested.

Our return flight from Sydney was also long and cumbersome, with a 12 hour layover in San Francisco before our 11:30 p.m. flight to Boston. Again the trans-Pacific part was comfortable although long, and we were able to sleep. It was easy to get from the airport in San Francisco to the city, so we avoided the boredom of sitting in the airport for long periods, even though we were pretty tired.

Our month-long trip to New Zealand and Australia was so wonderful that it more than made up for the cumbersome travel arrangements. I would do it again and would not hesitate to travel in the future because of the distance.

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We are booked on back-to-back cruises this September/October, and several posters on this thread have been very helpful with my air planning. We are flying LAX - HNL, cruising and ending up in Perth, flying to Sydney, and then home.

 

My DH was pretty unhappy also about the thought of a long flight, because he has bad memories of our last, very long flight home to LAX from Barcelona.

 

So, after much research and planning, here's what we are doing, and he's quite happy with the plans:

 

LAX-HNL to catch the ship: 5.5 hour flight

 

Perth - Sydney after the cruises; that's about a 6 hour flight

 

2 nights in Sydney

 

Sydney to Honolulu on Jetstar's business class for the long haul flight, which is a red-eye, so we figure we will be sleeping.

 

Overnight in Honolulu.

 

Flight back to LAX.

 

We are happy to spend the extra time getting home and seeing more of Sydney and Honolulu. We splurged on the long haul from Sydney, but all our other flights are economy. Total per person should be around $1,500.

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Sydney to Honolulu on Jetstar's business class for the long haul flight, which is a red-eye, so we figure we will be sleeping.

 

You said you've done your research so I hope you know, but Jet* is QANTAS's discount arm, and is a basic airline. Starclass is their premium class, but it's not comparable to traditional carriers' business class (but of course better than Jet* economy class where, for example, you don't get any meals/drinks on that flight, nor entertainment/videos, unless you buy them as extra).

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We purchased StarClass, and according to their web site, this is included, which is fine with us for the $938 Sydney-HNL haul:

 

Even more comfort

StarClass, Jetstar's premium cabin, is available on all international Jetstar services operated by the Airbus A330 and offers a total package experience for the traveller who wants more space, and more comfort, for a long trip. The StarClass cabin offers 38 leather seats, each with a 38-inch seat pitch giving you more room to move. All seats are equipped with in-seat power, allowing passengers to plug in a laptop or recharge personal music players.

 

In-flight service

As part of the StarClass personalised service, meals, beverages and a snack bar are included. StarClass passengers will have an unlimited beverage and snack bar, as well as all meals, included as part of the StarClass personalised service. For each meal, StarClass passengers will be able to select from three meal choices, one of which will be vegetarian. The number of meal services will differ depending on the length of your flight. Beverages will include water, juices, soft drinks, tea, coffee and a range of alcoholic drinks.

 

Passengers are also given an amenity kit, blanket and pillow as well as entertainment options which include audio channels and a personal video-on-demand unit featuring a range of new release movies, TV shows, music videos and kids' programmes.

 

 

At the airport

To add to the airport experience StarClass passengers have priority check-in and a checked baggage allowance of 30kg, in addition to their carry-on luggage allowance. After check-in, StarClass passengers have access to the Qantas Club Lounge in Australia and at destination ports where available while waiting for their priority boarding.

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