We live in Ft. Lauderdale and planning to go to Australia around Xmas 2007. Which is the best and easiest way to get there ?
Via San Fran. or L.A. to Sydney with a day stop in either city, to relieve the long flights.
Or to London ,UK, with a day stop, to Sydney. Flights from London may be cheaper to Sydney, and flights from Ft.Laud. or Miami would certainly be cheapest in Dec. to London. It is also easier to fly West on the way back rather than flying East.
We intend to cruise from Sydney to New Zealsnd.

I don't know the "best" just what we did - we flew in January 2005 Jax to LA and spent a couple of nights(family there)on to Sydney and got off ship in Singapore and flew back to LA (another couple of nights in LA) and on to Jax - breaking the trip up is very helpful!! Flew United biz it was great flight - Joanna

We live in Australia and regularly visit family in England. We have travelled to Fort Lauderdale a few times to join a cruise. We are doing it again in April next year (TAP). From here to FLL there is no doubt that the shortest flying time, imoprtant to us, is from east coast of Australia to LAX or SFO then over to FLL. This is about 10 hours less flying time than via London! Unless you have a reason to visit London I would recommend going via LAX then direct to Sydney with Qantas or United. A night stop in LAX will refresh you for the long flight across the Pacific. Hope this helps.

I would fly via San Francisco rather than Los Angeles as it is a much easier airport to transit and if I had a stop-over, I prefer San Francisco. I've flown Sydney to New York via both and there is just no comparison in the time taken at each airport. The last couple of trips, I didn't have a stopover, preferring to get it over in one go, but it usually takes me a couple of days to get over the flight.

One thing you need to consider though and that is buying your flight tickets early. My son flies home each Christmas and finds he needs to book fairly early in the year as seats go quickly. He flies United as they are far cheaper than Qantas. I think he buys economy and upgrades with points - if possible, business class is the only way to go for such a long flight. I must admit Qantas have far superior seats in business class, but I can't fault United's service.

Just triva, but SFO is closer to Sydney than LAX.

...and as Lee said, SFO is SO much nicer than Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX. Plus they are closing most of their Star Alliance (possibly all) lounges until they open the combined Star Alliance lounge who knows when. Perhaps by then it might be open though.

There is a motion at the City Council to upgrade Tom Bradley to the Tune of $350,000,000. That means probably delays in 2007/2008.

If you fly United to Australia on the 777 you do not fly out of Tom Bradley.

Be sure to book early - Christmas is mid-summer in Australia & New Zealand and those folks are prolific travellers and flights will be full several months out.

Thanks for that clarification Kathy! I guess I was thinking that United also flew out of TBIT. I really HATE that terminal!

I remember when Tom Bradley was built, and he was the mayor. Kind of a cross between Huey Long and Richard Daly.

The airlines in LAX called it "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

Another thought would be to lay over a day or two on the coast, then fly to Tahiti or Fiji for a day or two, to break it up. United has had Circle Pacific fares in the past, where you could do stopovers. I'm not in international reservations now, but you can call and find out about that. They do have it in Business Class.

Frances

Kathy, glad to hear about the proposed upgrade at Tom Bradley. That terminal is an embarrassment! Makes us look like a third world country to those who have never been to our part of the world before.

You might want to check out Air tahiti Nui..if you take them you can include a stopover in tahiti..very inexpensive. Looking at them for my Australia /New zealand cruise..

We have made this trip several times. Additionally we were booked on this year's Sydney to LA cruise, but had to cancel because of illness in the family. We had booked an itinerary that we had flown before and liked. American has several nonstop flights FLL to LAX. Our preference is to continue that same day on a United flight to Sydney. We find that when you board the transoceanic flight it is time to go to sleep (EST) and we get a good rest across the Pacific. We use miles to upgrade both flights and enjoy the trip. Good luck. Perhaps we will see you on the cruise next year.

Last year when we took the Regent Australia/New Zealand cruise in November, we flew Qantas out of LA nonstop to Sydney. Used FF miles to fly business class and the service was outstanding--better than our recent experience on South African Air from here (Washington) to Johannesburg. We also few Qantas back from Auckland, and it was great.

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Eugene