Flights - Best prices to the US

MaxTravels on 13/10/2013 - 12:19

I am in the early planning stages of a trip to the US Sept/October next year. i am monitoring the prices for flights and wondering if anyone could give me a idea of the lowest prices to expect.

i would prefer to fly from Brisbane (but could go to Sydney/Melbourne) and have a preference for a one world airline option as i am a gold FF.

i plan to travel to the west coast including NY and New Orleans, so the arrival port is flexible. having said that, i will be travelling with a child so i would prefer to break up the long flights to NY with stop overs, e.g. stop in LA/Dallas for a few days before travelling again.

i know cathay pacific fly to NY via hong kong and that might be an option for a stop over?

Travel

Comments

  • MITM on 13/10/2013 - 22:36

    Hi Max,
    have just returned from a USA Trip Sep/Oct planned early.
    Presume you have 28degrees card to pay for USA bookings etc.

    Buy your USA domestic flights independant from your AUS-USA flight.
    We did West Coast cities only - and bought our tix when Southwest Airlines had one of their regular monster sales. Our seats averaged $45/sector incl 2 bags. Later changes are easy online and fee free.

    We flew BNE-LAX with Virgin Australia in Sept. BUT our ticket was SYD-BNE-LAX.
    The SYD-BNE flight was early in the year (with a loooong "stopover" in BNE) which made the ENTIRE ticket price low season, even though we flew to LAX during high season.
    Use ifly.net.au to check prices/date combos/multi city etc. then take the print out to a travel agent to book it.
    (You'll need a separate 1 way ticket from BNE-SYD to catch the first leg of your SYD-BNE-LAX flight - you'll have plenty of months to get a Jetstar price matched Tiger Ticket when Tiger has a $10 seat sale. Jetstar pricematched less 10% = $9 each. We did GC-SYD then the SYD-BNE portion one Sunday(BNE-LAX was months later)
    Our return flight was LAX-BNE via MEL later changed to LAX-GC via SYD.

    Dont be afraid to look at airbnb.com as an accommodation option.

    BNE - LAX is 16 hours and is a looong flight for anybody - then you have to adjust your body clock which takes a few days - so chilling out in LA (or Vegas) is a good idea.
    New York is another 6 hour flight as you'd know.

    • Nynaeve on 14/10/2013 - 07:49

      I enjoyed your post but am wondering…how much did the flight cost?

      • MITM on 15/10/2013 - 00:46

        $1130 SYD-BNE-LAX return (via MEL). Saved about 30%
        PM donga100 for the inside scoop.

        Edit: I should have read earlier comments further down - The Oracle has spoken.

        Praise be to Donga

  • hstrzadala on 14/10/2013 - 08:43

    Qantas is having a sale to the USA which finishes tonight.

  • MaxTravels on 14/10/2013 - 10:40

    thanks hstrzadala, unfortunately the flights doesn't cover my travel dates.

    i guess my question really relates to prices. what is a good price for a return flight to the US?

    the reason is that there are sales on all the time, but is $1498 return BNE-LAX the best price i am likely to get, or should i hang out for a lower price? i am on all the mailing lists for most major airlines so i can monitor the prices, but when is the time to buy?

    i know that is a hard question to answer, but im just hoping for some advice :)

    • donga100 on 14/10/2013 - 11:24

      Last year the lowest I saw for direct flights was around $990 but if you can get under $1200 I think you are doing well.

  • MaxTravels on 14/10/2013 - 13:14

    that's exactly what i was looking for donga100 - thanks! i will ignore the $1500 fares and hand out for a lower one!

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