Questions and Answers

HELP! Trying to book my return flight from Australia next March to south Florida (preferrably RSW, but any SFL airport will do). For such a long flight, I do want to fly premium as much as the way home as possible and because I was not able to find any award options that work for my times, the three factors I am considering is price, quality of the premium product (so, essentially combine those two and say value) and arriving home as early as possible after a Saturday morning departure from Brisbane (I’ll actually be leaving from Cairns, but all the options are from BNE so taking a cheap short hop over at 5am to position). Unless I was willing to shell out close to $8k for a one way direct from BNE-LAX on either Qantas or Virgin, no other flights seem to get me to the US early enough for a connection home same day Saturday night unfortunately, so I’ve focused on what can get me home as early Sunday morning as possible and came up with three options I would be willing to shell out the cash for that I need help ranking based on others experience. Because there is a bit of a price difference between all 3, I guess end of the day I just want to know whether any of the non-price factors would bump either of the other two options ahead of the cheapest if price was not a concern in purchasing any of the below.

#1 – Philippine Airlines BNE-MNL-JFK for about $3k, arriving late Saturday night and connecting home first thing Sunday morning. +++Flights are on the brand new A321NEO and A350 which look to be a great improvement in hard product and it is the cheapest. — no alliance to earn miles on, very little out there on whether the soft product and connection in Manila has improved and requires an overnight stay in NYC.

#2 – Air New Zealand BNE-AKL-LAX or SFO, arriving late morning, then late night JetBlue redeye, getting home very early Sunday morning, with option to finally try Mint for all in a little over $4k, or just JetBlue economy for closer to the same price as Option 1. +++Earn *A miles, and I am strange and kind of like getting to fly the local airline of the country/ies I am visiting and this is the cheapest of the Qantas, ANZ, VA options. — long transcon economy flight if I want to match the same price as Option 1, ANZ herringbone usually least desirable of the seat options and requires an all day/early evening layover in LAX or SFO.

#3 – Singapore Air BNE-SIN-EWR, arriving early Sun morning and immediately connect home on a cheap economy flight for about $4700. +++Highly rated airline I’ve been wanting to try at some point, could choose flight times that allows me a full afternoon and evening to explore Singapore which is on my list of places to visit (rather than just a domestic layover that does not excite me) and I get to AvGeek out by getting to fly on the world’s longest flight. —most expensive unless I went the waitlist route for an award and transferred miles to Singapore and less than glowing reviews on the A350 seating, especially in bed mode, unless I can get a bulkhead when those seats open up at check in.

Thanks for your help everyone!