American Airlines have some of the cheapest fares to the US…
Return fares including Taxes…
Weekday offer from Sydney!
Departures between Feb 23 and April 16, 2009
SYDNEY to JFK NEW YORK $1100.44 (website shows pre-tax price of $750)
SYDNEY to LOS ANGELES $900.76 (website shows pre-tax price of $550)
Flights are via Tokyo Narita and are not avaliable on the Qantas codeshare flights.
Can I just confirm that you will be flying QANTAS as American Airlines has a code share agreement with QANTAS. It's been a while since I've flown. Maybe AA are allowed to enter AUS airspace now (I have no clue). Someone fill me in??
American Airlines have been flying into Australia and out for years.
they have never flown to Australia. They fly to Toyko, not Oz
Not true - American Airlines did fly here in the 80s using DC10's
American Airlines does not fly into Australia in their own right (although since they are an US-based airline, they can due to the Open Skies agreement between Australia and the USA)
You must fly with Qantas (QF22) or Japan Airlines (JL771) to Tokyo and connect to an American Airline (AA) flight - there is no codesharing on the SYD-NRT leg.
I believe how this works is that you fly qantas codeshare to Narita then you pickup AA to US.
This way they "pay" Qantas their codeshare price for the Aust Japan leg, then they can take the hit on the Japan US leg from their own flight's revenue.
Given that US/Japan flights will be underutilised with the R word hitting both countries its probably a smart business decision. Plus they can compete with their traditional competitors United and Delta.
Nice find However watch the layover - its 10 hours at Narita which really doesn't give you much time to do anything but wait at the airport. It's 4 hours on return - Depends on whether you like the wait to save the $100 bucks. If you could stop over in Japan for a day or so it might be worth looking into. Their fare "rules" state 1 free stopover permitted in tyo. But may have to make phone booking to set this up as couldn't see how to do it via the web. Total Flying Time is 20 hours vs 14-15 hours direct. But will get more FF miles.
e g $AUD 900.44
Flight 1 Monday, March 09, 2009
Departure: 22:05 Sydney, Australia - Kingsford Smith, terminal 1
Arrival: 06:10 +1 day(s) Tokyo, Japan - Narita, terminal 2
Airline: Qantas Airways QF21
Change of plane required. Time between flights = 9:55
Flight 2 Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Departure: 16:05 Tokyo, Japan - Narita, terminal 2
Arrival: 09:45 Los Angeles, USA - Los Angeles International, terminal 4
Airline: American Airlines AA170
Flight 1 Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Departure: 12:00 Los Angeles, USA - Los Angeles International, terminal 4
Arrival: 15:50 +1 day(s) Tokyo, Japan - Narita, terminal 2
Airline: American Airlines AA169
Change of plane required. Time between flights = 4:10
Flight 2 Thursday, March 26, 2009
Departure: 20:00 Tokyo, Japan - Narita, terminal 2
Arrival: 07:55 +1 day(s) Sydney, Australia - Kingsford Smith, terminal 1
Airline: Qantas Airways QF22
Wow, if you enough time available…
You could actually spend some times in Japan as well! Great deal!
If you are a Qantas frequent flyer member, you will actually get less points by taking this option. There are no codeshare flights involved (codeshare is where you fly with a flight number that is different to that of the operating carrier), flights to Tokyo are on a QF flight number and flights to the US from Japan are on an AA flight number. For a Qantas frequent flyer, flights on AA flight numbers earn only 50% points (unless you buy full economy airfares which this airfare definitely is not).
$1100 to NYC?! That is soooo good…
So would it be possible to stay in Japan for an extended period of time before flying to the US? I'm talking 1 - 3 weeks.
I followed the link and clicked on their offer but all I get is > $4k fares..??
Is this a limited tickets offer..?
It's still there. Click the "Special offers" button on the left then choose the Weekday deals to get it, if you don't see it straight away.
Note that travel has to be fully completed by April 16, not just departures as per the OP.
I "found" the cheaper fares that came out $900.44 (cheaper than OP) as outbound and inbound have different prices (maybe due to taxes???).
I kept on getting errors every time it tried to book the flight.
There was a number to call.
In the end, too much hassle to book a US trip on a "whim."
Probably for the best anyway as what is saved in airfare, is spent on the bad exchange rate.
Great price.
Wish I'd known about it earlier as I'd need to go before 20th of March so I can get 4 weeks of USA trip.