Early in 2008 we saw some advertisements from QANTAS that offered a round-trip airfare from Los Angeles to Sydney for $1099, with up to three flights within Australia included in the deal. This sounded very attractive to us. On closer scrutiny, we discovered this fare was only good during certain months (such as Not July), and the flights within Australia would have to be confined to the southeastern part of the country (not north of Brisbane or west of Adelaide) to avoid an additional fee. Still, this included places like Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne (all of which we had visited and enjoyed before), and even the large island of Tasmania to the south of the mainland, so it still seemed pretty good.
But then we thought about our schedule, which would allow for two weeks or maybe a little more, and felt we would be spending too much of it in airports if we went with this deal. Also, we’d visited and enjoyed New Zealand in 2004 and thought it would be pleasant to drop in on the Kiwis again if we were going to be in that part of the world. So Nella got on the Internet and started poking around for alternatives. What she eventually found was a deal from American Airlines that would take us from L.A. to Auckland, from Auckland to Brisbane, and from Sydney back to L.A. for roughly the same price as the QANTAS deal. There was an obvious missing link here, as Brisbane and Sydney are separated by 400 miles or so, but Nella found Virgin Blue, a domestic airline that would bridge this gap fairly cheaply. One other thing we discovered was that the international flights were actually operated by QANTAS, meaning we wouldn’t be dealing with American at all, except to make and pay for the reservations. This was an important thing to take note of, as it completely changed the ticket counter (and even the terminal building) which we would be using for check-in. We polled our kids on the trip and got a thumbs-up from Connie but a thumbs-down from Philip (employment commitments), so we decided to go for it with a party of three.
Having made this commitment, we did some research and pieced together a tentative itinerary of things to see and do. Armed with this information, Nella began searching the Internet for places to stay, a process that was to take several weeks (finding the right combination of location, quality of accommodations and cost can be a painstaking operation). Accumulated credit card points were helpful, being good for discounts at certain hotels. Car rental would also be required, with cars to be picked up in Auckland and in Brisbane (public transport/foot power to be used in Sydney), and this was also set up on-line.
In the meantime, Bob looked into some of the technicalities. Everyone's passports were checked to make sure they were up to date. Australia was found to require visas for entry, which could be purchased in advance on-line (www.eta.immi.gov.au). New Zealand at one time charged a departure fee (arrival in the country was free, but it cost you money to leave), but this had apparently been discontinued. Both countries’ languages were examined and found to be a form of English, so no crash courses were required. Each country has its own currency, each called dollars and cents - at the start of the trip, the New Zealand dollar was worth about 76 American cents, and the Australian dollar about 97 cents. We decided not to procure any of this currency in the U.S., as this gets you a horrible exchange rate, but instead decided to find ATMs as soon as we landed at the Auckland and Brisbane airports (airport exchange rates aren't so great either, but they're better than what you'll find in the U.S.). Since baggage allowances can vary from airline to airline, we consulted the QANTAS and Virgin Blue web sites, and found the Virgin Blue allowance to be much lower than the international QANTAS allowance. We resolved to pack in anticipation of the Virgin Blue allowance, to avoid the scourge of excess baggage fees.
As the trip grew closer, a few final details were attended to. Being security-minded, credit and ATM card companies will often stop honoring their cards if they find them to be used somewhere radically removed from the home address of their owners. As we were planning on performing virtually all of our transactions with aid of plastic, we made sure to inform these companies of our itinerary. We also made sure we had international phone numbers for these companies, in case of loss or in case someone disabled the cards mistakenly. One other thing we checked while talking to these companies was the size of their "conversion fees". A conversion fee is what a company charges for converting foreign-currency transactions to dollars. Most credit card companies charge 2-3% for each transaction, which can add up.
Finally, cameras were checked and found to be functional (lucky you). Packing checklists which had been compiled under non-last-minute circumstances were used carefully when assembling our luggage. Transportation to and from LAX was arranged with Philip, and on a warm August afternoon we were duly delivered to the Tom Bradley terminal.
Traffic Approaching LAX Med Lrg |
Arrival/Departure Signs Med Lrg |
QANTAS Airbus A330 Med Lrg |
Nella and Connie Waiting at Airport Med Lrg |
Bob on Airplane Med Lrg |
Turn Off Your Furby Med Lrg |