heads up if your going to Australia

[Hawaiidan]

Was what I was referring.... supposed to be 5:40.... lax to Kona and actualy did it is aroung 4:55 most times

 

Also flew LAX to PPT, supposed to be 8 hours.... did it in 6:57 in April

Best time KOA to LAX 4:36....

Using rule of thumb and a scientific wild A guess... I figure around 6

 

(I could no longer take the commute when they chopped first the 767 and 777, then all but eliminated the 757 and were running 737-700/800 like South Worst does.... no more Hawaii trips thank God and you don't ever want to consider Hawaiian)

[qldtraveller]

Just a quick note.

Hope Cairns domestic terminal open for people from midnight to 4:00am as you may be looking for a park bench.

Cairns is not a busy airport at the best of times and at 23:50 suspect very little is open for service.

Good luck with it.

 

 

As far as the train.....I really am not in a hurry...I don't care if it goes 30 mph and rocks like a cradle ! I still get to see more landscape than flying. Plus for the $230 fare I save 1 a rental car gas, a hotel night and3 meals.

 

Thanks for the suggestion for Air NZ $1600 economy Plus....and I appreciate the comment that OZ airlines are nothing special.

 

I have a fare however carved out with United... Palm Spring-Los Angeles-Honolulu-Guam- Cairns , arriving 2350Thursday.. catch a OZ flight for Brisbane at 0600 so no danger on connections.

Return Flight: Monday 0045 , Cairns-Guam-Inchon-Los Angeles Palm springs. All in First/Business class seats!... Fare:$ 11.50 usd ..... rt and 140,000 points

 

The main reason for my post was to offer a creative way to fly to Australia and save 210,000 miles !!! Because, to fly to Sydney its 175,000 to 195,000 points EACH WAY ! This route is some 60% cheaper And in addition it gives some 3 hours lay over times , which is good on a flight that long 3 hours in Honolulu and I get 2 bags up to 70 lbs.

I travel at about 40 lbs and 1 case and a 8 lb rucksack I have found that if I need something, well they have stores where I am heading.

 

The airlines have a heavy demand for Australia and very few flights in order to keep demand and fares high. ( they did this to Hawaii too... where they used to fly 747's from LA or SF and now its in little 737's... Reduce seats, raise fare !!!)

 

Mind you I maintain a 700-800,000 mile account and my wife 300,000, so points/miles are not a problem In fact spending 255,000 to fly to Saipan, Palau and Iwo Jima in march)

 

So thanks all you OZ folks...fair dinkum

[pinotlover]

I started out trying to use UA miles for the trip and didn't make it. I was able to book the flight to Sydney, but could never get any return flights on miles, period. UA's one way ticket price was more than the round trip ticket. I ended up paying them to put the miles back into my bank and booked with Quantas while they still had their fare sale going.

[Hawaiidan]

In 30 years of flying UAL both domestic, I have never, ever not been able to get a free seat with UAL, Sometimes saver sometimes regular but never ever no seat.

Are you sure you weren't referring to first class only?

You are right, that international one ways are the equal of a round trip

I just dont want to lay out $7 to $10K

 

Now as far as the terminal being open in CNS.... the plane gets in at midnight and I can get a 10 am flight... a quick cab to a cheap motel and that's 9 hours of rest.

On the other hand...I used to fly to Kuala Lumpur regularly and through Singapore with a 9 hour layover .

Now its impossible to get a room in the Singapore transit hotel unless your God books you 50 years in advance...

. My solution was across from the hotel, on the roof is a golf course and a day spa with chase lounge s.

I changed into sweat suit, grabbed one and camped on first tee..., then in the morning used the showers in the spa which were open even though the spa did not open till later............ So yes I can survive in many places...I don't need a four season suite..

[qldtraveller]

Re : Cairns point taken and I apologise as I thought you had an early flight out of Cairns.

The reason I raised this about open and services Brisbane Intnl. Airport has literally no services check in side after Mid night and airside has nothing open after 2:00am(last flight out) until customs and immigration re-open at 5:00 - 5:30am.

Yes you check in at 4:00 am for your Intnl flight at 6:00am but have sit around awaiting for the officials to be ready. That is Brisbane so you can imagine Cairns.

As an aside we recently were held in Auckland for 25 minutes as we would arrive at the destination to early and the bus transporting the immigration and customs to our airport would not be there in time.

Even Sydney has a curfew between 10:30pm and 5:30am for no landings except in emergencies.

Welcome to the world of Australian airports.

[Hawaiidan]

My arrival flight is at 2325 CNS and 2 weeks later Departing at 0045

Got it all sorted out... even the train fare/hotels