Buzzy--Bee

A lot of people are asking about flying to Australia via the USA, so I thought I'd add our experiences. If anyone can help me add these to the Wiki it would be great as I'm inexperienced at that.

We flew to Melbourne via the US. We flew on a Qantas discovery plus ticket and bought Mexico/US flights on the web.

The flights and luggage allowances went like this -

London - Miami with BA (Qantas codeshare) - 2 x 23kg each.
Miami - Cancun with AA - 2 x 23kg each
Cancun - Los Angeles with Mexicana - 2 x 32kg each
Los Angeles - Honolulu with AA (Qantas codeshare) - 2 x 23kg each
Honolulu - Melbourne with Jetstar (Qantas codeshare) - 2 x 32kg each.

We added a double pram to all these allowances with no extra charge.

Note that you can combine family allowances so that individual cases can weigh more than 23 kg however note -

- no case can ever weigh more then 32kg
- If any case weighs over 23kg AA will surcharge you US$25 per case per flight, however we found you can avoid this by checking in kerbside which costs US$2 per case (US domestic only).

Also note that on internal US flights your hand luggage alone can weigh up to 18kg (yes thats almost as much as your entire allowance via the East!) and it never gets weighed or checked for weight. This does mean that if there are 4 of you you have a baggage allowance of well over 200kg!

There are also logistics in actually transporting this amount of luggage, especially if some of the travellers are small children who can't carry cases and may indeed need carrying themselves. We managed to get 8 cases and 2 hand luggage bags onto 2 trolleys (2 further hand luggage bags as backpacks), which I was just able to push by myself (Mrs Buzzy was pushing the pram) although we found that if you look like you're struggling people will offer to help. In the US we hired porters. The logistics went like this -

Heathrow - there are porter facilities but I wouldn't pay £16 for them. I used 2 trolleys and was assisted part of the way by a helpful fellow traveller.
Miami - porters readily available, tip what you like, I gave him US$16 which I later found out was a bit too much.
Cancun - porters available, US$2-5 tip normal.
Los Angeles - porters available, US$5-10 tip normal.
Los Angeles (outgoing) - as we were flying domestically we could check in kerbside which meant no porters necessary, cost US$2 per bag.
Honolulu - porters available but I didnt use them as its a smaller airport and the distance from the baggage carousel to the car rental bus stop was short.
Honolulu (outgoing) - porters available, US$5-10 tip OK.
Melbourne - no porters at all. I did the 2 trolley thing and was helped believe it or not by customs employees all the way to the hotel courtesy bus.

Flight times and experiences

BA Heathrow to Miami 9 hours - absolutely fine. No complaints at all.
AA Miami to Cancun 1.5 hours - ditto.
Mexicana Cancun - Los Angeles 4.5 hours - stewardesses were miserable and unfriendly. One was tapped on the arm by another passenger and said to her "Don't ever touch me, OK!" Otherwise no problems.
AA Los Angeles - Honolulu 5.5 hours - stewardesses were older women who didn't seem to be enjoying their jobs and it showed. But no real complaints.
Jetstar Honolulu - Melbourne 12 hours. This is the best airline we have ever flown with. Last time Mrs Buzzy wrote to them to praise them and I'll happily do this again. Nothing was too much trouble and the staff were smiling and enthusiastic. EDIT FEBRUARY 2008 - It seems that Jetstar no longer fly this route direct and it now goes via Sydney.

The Qantas dicovery+ was booked through Travelmood (www.travelmood.com), the flights Miami-Cancun-Los Angeles were booked through www.aa.com.

Please ask if you need any further info. I hope this helps someone.

Buzzy

ozdreamer

Hi Buzzy

Excellent timing - I'm just starting to look into the flights and where to do a stop off.
I have two boys (10 & 13) who would love to spend a holiday in America before we head for Melbourne. I was unsure of the logistics but after reading your thread I've decided if you can do it with two very small girls I can certainly do it with my two.
Will have a look at www.travelmood.com.

Thanks
Amanda

stevensfamily

Buzzy,

Is your ticket a return? Can Discovery + can be one way only?

Cheryl

Buzzy--Bee

Yes. Discovery plus can be one way and you can also split it like we did. ie you make your own way between 2 of the stops. This gives you extra stops in effect. Talk to Travelmood.

Buzzy

Kapri

Have already got a quote from Travelmood.
Hopefully we'll be going via L.A and Hawaii to break up the two winters

Buzzy--Bee

If you go to Hawaii you will probably fly through LA anyway Kathy.

And don't worry about 2 winters. The acclimatised ones may be moaning but its like April/May in the UK in midwinter here.

Buzzy

Buzzy--Bee

Bump in response to questions being asked in other threads.

Buzzy

dinky2

Great advice and thanks for bumping as we hadn't seen it.

jojosan

Can you do the same one-way going in the opposite direction, e.g. Adelaide to Heathrow?

killamarsh

Just curious what sort of price people have paid to go via the US. Wondering if backhanded bargain ie you may get more allowance but it would work out cheaper just to pay for it to be shipped.

Buzzy--Bee

OK, our routing was complicated and therefore expensive. Air New Zealand do a one-way via LA and AKL for about 380 pounds. You can add a stopover in a pacific island for about another 100 pounds.

Try www.travelmood.com

Buzzy

Buzzy--Bee

Bump in response to questions being asked in other threads.

Buzzy