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Hi Al,
I work for Continental Airlines here in the USA and my wife and I have always wanted to visit Australia and we are thinking about going in September, 2002. I'm hoping you may be able to help with some questions.
Continental does not fly to Sydney, therefore we would have to rely on another carrier. Right now, we are considering flying to HNL on CO and then attempting to non-rev on a Quantas flight to Sydney. Our departure date will be around 9/23-9/25.
Should we make it to Sydney, we plan to spend 4-5 days there and then hope to fly SYD-CNS on QF and then eventually fly QF to Narita on around 10/4 in order to catch a flight home on Continental.
I was hoping you could give us an idea if this is a good time to non-rev on Quantas during this time or should we avoid it. It's always tougher to plan a trip when you can't access the flight loads and would appreciate any advice you can give. I will look forward to your reply. I can also be reached privately at terpjj@aol.com
Thank you.
Jeff
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Hi Jeff.
Firstly, it's Qantas, no U !! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]
Secondly, don't forget CO fly into CNS 2 or
3 times weekly, so you can use them out of there. I don't know if you have any ID agreements with AC, but they fly daily between HNL and SYD, with full traffic rights whereas QF only have 3 per week at the moment. September is school vacation time down here, so it may be busy on that route. A back up option would be FJ via NAN as well. As far as non-revving SYD-CNS with QF, I'd forget it. There are only a handful of non-stops each day, although plenty of connections through BNE. I would seriously consider, especially given the current ROE between you $ and ours at the moment, to getting a web special on either QF or DJ (VirginBlue). Apart from the obvious attraction of having a confirmed flight at a day/time that suits you, current prices for a one way SYD-CNS are approx $100-130 USD on either carrier. Since the demise of Ansett Australia, nonrevving on QF outside of the Golden Triangle is a very much hit and miss affair. Maybe you should even consider dropping the HNL option all together - it may be far easier for you to get to Japan on CO, then use CO (via Air Mike) through GUM into/out of CNS. That way, you'd need only to get a CNS-SYD-CNS return.
Give me a yell if you'd like more info and certainly holler closer to September so I can check loads on QF for you.
www.virginblue.com.au
www.qantas.com.au
Cheers.
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Al,
Thank you for your reply.
The reason we wanted to fly from HNL is that we planned to spend a couple of days there in order to break up the trip. You are correct about the AC flight and that is also an option for us.
Since are ultimate goal is to get to Sydney, going via NRT is definitely an option, depending on the QF flight from NRT-SYD.
Your advice on flying SYD-CNS was very helpful. The QF one way fare is very good.
As far as flying home from CNS, flying CO on Air Mic is probably our best bet as there is a flight on 10/4, when we hope to go home. We would buy a QF pass CNS-NRT as a back up plan as we always like to be prepared for anything when non-reving.
I appreciate your offer to check loads when it gets closer. Also, want to apologize for mispelling Qantas. : )
Thank you very much.
Jeff
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Jeff -
Have sent what the loadings curently look like for the flights you were interested in to your home address. If it doesn't get there, holler.
Cheers.
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