Australia on Qantas

I was the lucky recipient of a conditional firm pass on Qantas to fly from LAX to SYD rt. I am assuming that this is space available and am wondering how mid October might be for travel. I am planning on flying out on Thursday October 18th and back on Saturday November 2nd. Anyone with experience non revving LAX-SYD? Is October a good time to non rev?

I am going to try and cram in as much as I can, 3 nights in SYD, then off to AKL for 2 nights. From there down to CHC for 4 nights, then back to AKL for 1 night. From there to MEL for 3 nights then back to SYD for 1 night and then back to LAX. I want to buy confirmed seats on all but what the passes cover and have found some good prices on Tiger and Jetstar and have miles to use for the SYD-AKL-MEL segments. Any recommendations on places to stay, things to do in these areas? Does this trip sound doable or am I trying to get too much in?

Any suggestions/information would be appreciated
Thanks

That's alot of moving around. I would pick one or two max. Do you want to get to know a city and its surroundings real good or do you want to get as many cities under your belt only to be limited to what you do there? So far, I counted 13 nights. Don't know how much vacation you have, but just being in those places, is two weeks. I didn't even count the flying time involved. You got a month off? You got time to play with or are you trying to get those days in and fly back to your job the next day? Week? Are you looking for budget stays, backpacker inn types? I would be of little use as to where to stay. Last time I was down under was in 1988. I drove from Sydney to Surfer's paradise. It's a neat haul. Took around 14 hours driving time. All along the Pacific Highway.

Thanks for your reply. I have about 3 weeks vacation saved for this trip and factoring in possibly getting bumped on the way there and/or back. We do like to sightsee and are flexible with our days we spend somewhere and like to get a good overview of each place noting where we would come back to in the future to spend more time. But you make a good point about factoring in the flying time. That I have not done but I know the longest flights are besides the over the water would be between Australia and AKL. BUT I have to also factor in the time spent getting to and from the airport as well as the time spent in the airport. We really want to go to Sydney and Melbourne but as fare as New Zealand maybe we can condense that to either the North or South Island. As far as lodging we can go budget to mid priced - luxury is out of our range.

I remember Austrlaia being super easy to get rooms. First place you bump into, at the airport, they have these booths that help you out, first thing they ask you is "What price range are you looking for", and they are very helpful, at least when I was there. It was actually the first time I had seen this kind of condensed help in getting hotel rooms. They didn't use computers, they had this big folder with pictures and locations and how to get there which bus, or cab you needed to take to get there. If anything, I'd do either Australia or New Zealand. It takes money to hang around, and lots of money on cabs and airport/city shuttles ect....it adds up. Why don't you just go there and play it by ear? Why stress over flights, where to stay, taking shuttles/cabs....Down under is very awesome, lots of neat interesting things to do. I would think you'd get more bang for the buck to rent a vehicle and hang out. The country side is like no other you have ever seen. But don't forget the driver's side is on the right side. Same with the roads.

Very good suggestion....will definitely consider it. That is usually what we do - when we last went overseas we went to Ireland and had only 1 hotel room booked in advance because my spouse wanted to stay at a particular place. Other than that we just hopped in a car and drove until we decided to stop and usually found a bnb with interesting hosts. It is just such a big trip to get to SYD and with the world being so large I don't know if we will get back there and I have always wanted to see New Zealand. But I am definitely keeping my options opened right now. Just in the planning stages. I was kind of thinking that maybe I was biting off more than I should chew with all the stops.

I suggest you check on tripadvisor.com for assistance with internal flights and itinerary.
I question the split AUS/NZ/AUS/AUS routing. Why not do all AUS and all NZ in two sections instead of 3? Is that due to Jetstar flights? Have you considered Hobart? You have 3 wks--what's your time frame/season? You're taking the right steps to work it all out, even tho you're still space avail on the long hauls. Keep working--you'll get it!

The reason I am planning on splitting it this way is because the flights. Trip Advisors is a great resource and I will be using that before I book any hotels.
Thanks for the suggestion.