sleeping on a plane for me is the hardest damn thing to do! Although I have never taken a night flight..........so, maybe that will help? I will be boozing it up though...........7 hours is a long time!!!
Yeah I have take both early and afternoone flights..I wish I could sleep on the plane considering the flights are at 6:20 departure..SO I usually leave house at 3am....eeek
Henry, you don't know what you're talking about, travel from (and to) Australia is limited, EXPENSIVE and Long Haul. $2800AU including taxes is about the cheapest we can get from here to Cancun via LA, only Qantas flys to LA from Australia although it does carry AA passengers (and I think possibly one other airlines passengers), the prices you probably saw were in $US and likely to not include taxes, add the taxes and convert to $AU. Jess isn't lying about the price it's expensive (to go anywhere from here), my flights are going to be $2937(AU). I've done searches on many different websites trying to find something cheaper, but if I do see something it's usually been advertised without taxes and once you throw that on top it becomes at least the same. The 14-15 hour flight (just to LA) plus jetlag, massive time difference and a different season really knocks you about and that time spent adjusting/recovering in LA or somewhere in the US is almost mandatory, I think most of us Aussie's making the trip are all stopping at least once. I'll arrive in LA earlier then I left the same day, I leave here at 12.30pm on Feb 28th and arrive at LA at 7.30am Feb 28th, if I went straight to Cancun on Qantas' flight carried by Mexicana I'd land about 4.30pm local time, although I've been flying for 21 hours I'm only 4 hours behind where I took off (technically). That kinda jetlag takes close to a week to shake, why would I waste that week in Cancun recovering just to get there a little sooner?? Oh and in regards to joining the mile high club to kill some time on the long flight, Qantas hostess' can be more then accommodating sometimes :lol: (There was one female hostess who hooked up with an actor in the airplane bathroom earlier this year - she lost her job)
Of course I know what I am talking about. Traveling is my biggest hobby. I may not know much about traveling from/to Australia but I do know a lot of finding good airfare and travel deals. I spent a lot of time on FlyerTalk. That's where a lot of expert flyers hang out and sometimes share deals. The super mistaken fares people found are just unbelieveable but those only come once a year. Most of the postings are just really good deals. The best I've ever found and contributed to FlyerTalk was NYC <-> Rome for $280AI via Air France. AI after the price is flyertalk terminology for all-in (ie surcharge and tax included). A base fare (without the surchage and tax) will be displayed as something like $1000++. I know what you meant that certain sites do the thing where they give you the base fare instead of AI price. Even Continental.com does that. It's really annoying. But the prices on orbitz.com, expedia.com, kayak.com, etc all have AI price. Cheapest I can find on cheaptickets.com is BNE<->CUN is US$2300.99AI($1955+$345.49tax) that that's only a little over AU$2500. Same flights at orbitz.com is $10 more expensive but if you book it with a hotel, you can use the SUNANDSKI150 promotion code and get $150 off. Yes, flights to/from the land down under is limited but it is possible to find good deals if you are really flexible and patient. A quick search on FlyerTalk got me this thread. Appearantly, earlier this year there was a deal between Austrialia and US in May. You could get SYD<->IAH(Houston, TX) for $1203AI($868++). I flew 35K miles so far this year on personal trips. I'm probably going to push 45K next year. I make okay money but people always think I make twice as much as I actually do when they see all the trips I take per year. That's because I never take a trip at the cost of what most people pay. I know what I am talking about when it comes to the cost of travel. If we make a list of what everyone is paying for their upcoming Cancun trips, I'm probably getting more bang for my bucks than most anyone here.
