i'm looking for real-world experiences about flying from the east coast/usa to sydney or melbourne or brisbane/australia.

it is a very long flight and there is no affordable non-stop so i'm wondering about connecting flights and various travel delays.

thanks in advance.

be well.

rob

Yep, with two or three stops, from Atlanta to Sydney. It was a long time ago, '86, and it was the worst flight I have ever taken, as far as being completely exhausted when I got there. On the way back, I stopped over in Hawaii for a couple of days, and that helped a lot. I would say stay over for a night or two either in CA or HI, but don't go straight through if you can help it. It was seriously awful.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

Starting in late October United will offer a non stop, 787 service from LAX-Melbourne. I have worked on the Dreamliner and it is much more comfortable than some other wide bodies.

I have not done it, but I have co-workers who have taken the aerial trek. Sleeping pills and walking around a bit to avoid blood clotting are a good idea. From NE Ohio they fly through LAX. Non stop ? I don't think there IS an aircraft that will make the flight non stop from NYC. LAX, yes.

take a look at Korean carriers, polar flight to Inchon, then connecting to Melbourne ....

'91and '93. Flew from Miami to LA then had a five hour layover. Then non-stop to Sydney that took 14+ hours. That leg was about 24 hours total and I was ending up in Adelaide so it was about 27 hours total in transit. The next time I went to Alice Springs and that was about 30 hours total. There is only a runway-no taxi ways-at Alice Springs. The aircraft taxis down the runway the turns around at the end. Business class so I had a comfortable flight but man, it was just long. The second time I came back coach and those flights are packed. There were chickens stuffed into the overhead compartments with people strapped to the wings... That was back when they they still allowed smoking and as soon as the announcement to unbuckle your seat belts came on the cigs were lit and there was a cloud of smoke for the next 14 hours.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2014 03:21PM by DP.

Last year flew from CLT to Australia, but stopped in NZ for 2 weeks. We flew CLT to LAX and had a couple of hours layover, then boarded air NZ for 9pm takeoff. They served dinner at around 10/10:30 and then we took one ambient each, and slept for about 6 hours. Woke up, and they served breakfast and then another 1.5 hours we were landing in Auckland about 7am local time. Not a bad 13 hour flight and much better than we anticipated, even in economy. The flight to Melbourne was about 3 hours from Auckland, etc. We later hit Adelaide and Sydney. It's all worth it. Do it, if you can. Next time we'll think about the west coast of Australia.

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Asheville, NC Area

We flew SFO to SYD non-stop about 5 years ago. It was a long 15-6h flight.

Thankfully we were able to get premium economy for only $200 more than economy. Those seats were the same as business in that flight.

But we are pretty used to 12-16h legs going to India pretty frequently. Movies, food, and frequent walks in the cabin make it bearable.

The longest non-stop flight in the world is Qantas' Sydney to Dallas.

Yes; I didn't find it particularly unpleasant. My flight from Chicago was late to LAX, so I missed the midday departure on which I'd booked an aisle seat. So I was stuck in the middle of the middle on a wide-body. Three movies, some meals and snacks, a few trips to the lav, and we were there. Biggest issue was the authorities at SYD not liking the fact that I saw no reason to discard a bagel I'd bought at O'Hare just in case of delay somewhere.

The eastbound return was at least an hour shorter, as I recall.

I've done it many times. From the east coast it's a long slog. Depending upon layover times on the west coast it can take 23 hours. You might consider a stopover in San Francisco or Vancouver, depending on your carrier.
My first trip was in 1985 from New York. We flew to LA, then San Francisco. Then took a flight from SF to Hawaii for refueling. Then on to Fiji for more fuel. From Fiji on to Sydney. What a flight!
It goes a lot smoother now. Non-stop from the west coast direct to Sydney.

Best flight ever was on Cathay Pacific. We had business class from Vancouver and got bumped up to first class. Man, that's living - as long as it's on someone else's dime.

Long trek, I went LAX to Melbourne. Not too bad as you can get up and move around

Bring your iPad and noise canceling headphones or earbuds.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/2014 07:50AM by sekker.