business class flights from Los Angeles to Melbourne and returning from Auckland

stu12345

What airlines are worth trying for business class service from L.A. to Melbourne on about Jan. 22,2015 and returning to L.A. from Auckland on about Feb. 15?

rogfam

I'm also on the Jan 22 tour and tried flying Business, but it didn't work out. Fares were very expensive for both Qantas and Air NZ, plus using miles was also out of reach. Amex Platinum has a buy one get one for only tax, but that was sky high. Found that booking coach directly with Air NZ, paying extra for bulk head seats, was a great deal less than using Qantas or booking through Tauck. Good luck!

Salmcg

We are booked on air New Zealand on the 18th. We booked premium economy. We also are on the jan. 22nd trip.

jdurkin

I've heard very good reports of the Air NZ premium economy. I have often flown home from SFO on Air NZ, but I've flown business more often than not as part of a round-the-world fare. That's a very economical fare structure using Star Alliance carriers, but it does make it hard to isolate the sector costs. The premium economy seats are directly behind business class. You should have very enjoyable flights.

Cheers,

Jan

RLMSLL

We flew Premium Economy from LAX to Auckland in January 2013 on Air New Zealand. The Premium Economy seats on Air New Zealand are much nicer than Premium Economy on US airlines. It is really like Business Class Light. There was a separate check-in line at LAX. The seating had plenty of leg room. The food was great, and the entertainment system was good. It was an overnight flight from LAX to Auckland, but the flight from Auckland to LAX is during the day which would be even better. I highly recommend this option!

BAP

Check out Quantas as well. They have similar premium economy flights to what has been described on Air New Zealand.

sidecar

We booked Business Class with Delta. Got a decent price and a very direct route from Florida through LAX. Found the flights on Orbitz. We are on the Feb.5 tour.

sherry_schare

stu12345 wrote:

What airlines are worth trying for business class service from L.A. to Melbourne on about Jan. 22,2015 and returning to L.A. from Auckland on about Feb. 15?

We took the Highlights of Australia tour last April and flew between SFO and Melbourne/Sydney. Our mileage (enough for business) was with American. Unfortunately we could not get free tickets on Qantas (through) LAX but a very very helpful AA agent spent an hour on the phone with us and finally got us free business class tickets outbound on Cathay Pacific and returning on Fiji Air.

The Cathay Pacific flight was SFO-HongKong, HongKong-Sydney and connected to a Quantas flight to Melbourne. I know that Jan (on this site) will comment on the ridiculous routing of this trip but the flights although long, were incredibly comfortable, the business lounges in the connecting airports were most accommodating, and in spite of traveling more that 24 hours door to door it was a totally enjoyable experience and we would do it again. The originating flight from SFO leaves at 11 PM and the seat/beds are truly comfortable so we were able to get a reasonable night's sleep. We arrived in Melbourne at 9PM, so after a long day and night of traveling we were ready for a night's rest in a real bed and woke up refreshed and ready to tour Melbourne on our own. We had arrived 2 days early, so the first day was a walkabout in "the city" (literally across the pedestrian bridge from your hotel) and the next day we had time for a half day(starting at 1PM) excursion to see the fairy penguins on Philip Island

Our return flights were direct flights from Sydney to SFO through Fiji (3 hour layover). These too were very comfortable. I believe that Fiji Air also has some flights outbound from the west coast and you might check them out. When we flew, Fiji was offering some very competitive prices on round trip tickets. I don't know whether they fly in/out of New Zealand.

In any case, you will love this trip.

chatkatinca.

We were able to book business class on Virgin Australia using Amex Miles via Delta Skymiles without a problem.

jdurkin

I have often flown from Melbourne to SFO via Singapore on SQ. That's even longer!!! But, like Cathay, it's a very plpeasant way to fly. I have flown straight through once, but never again. The time zone switcharoo is too extreme. Better to break your flight in Singapore. Coming home, I usually fly SFO to MEL via AKL on Air NZ. I have flown back on the SQ flight out of SFO … the reverse of the above flight. SQ is part of Star Alliance and they have always been much more generous in applying points. Qantas are notoriously mean with using points … to the level that I use my Qantas points on gift vouchers. It's pointless in trying to use them on Qantas flights. Pun intended.

Cheers,

Jan