I recently flew 15 hours from Los Angeles to Sydney only to turn around a day later and fly home. Blame complications at home plus an elusive first class award on Qantas for such a short trip Down Under. But I hope it makes for an interesting trip report…
1-Day Trip To Australia On Qantas
When Qantas released a glut of award space earlier this year, I was able to grab first class seats for my wife and me from Sydney to Los Angeles (115K AA miles each).
I had flown first class on Qantas before from Sydney to Dubai and Dubai to London, but it had been many years and it had also been many years since I had visited Australia, one of my favorite countries on this beautiful earth (though perhaps not so much during the pandemic…).
So my wife and I decided to make a holiday out of it. She had never been to Australia, has German friends who live in Perth, wanted to visit Papua New Guinea, and wanted to scale the Harbour Bridge in Sydney.
Let’s go!
Unfortunately, we had a little accident at home which messed things up and Heidi and I decided we would postpone our trip to next year (hopefully…).
Rather than lose the Qantas first space (realistically, who knows if we will ever be able to book it again from a partner account…it was a risk I was not going to take), I decided to condense the trip from two weeks to one day…
I still had to get to Australia and booked a one-way ticket on United Airlines in economy class, applying PlusPoints to upgrade to Premium Plus (premium economy) or Polaris (business class).
Unfortunately, my upgrade did not clear…not even to premium economy class.
So I canceled the United ticket and booked a last-minute Qantas ticket in premium economy for 55K American Airlines miles.
That flight turned out to be the most pleasant surprise of the trip.
I opted to spend the night at the Park Hyatt in Sydney, which remains a lovely hotel virtually unchanged from my last visit over seven years ago.
The following morning I rose early to fly back to LA, this time in Qantas First Class.
Here are the segments for this brief trip report:
- Qantas A380 Premium Economy Los Angeles – Sydney
- 24 Hours In Sydney
- Great Coffee In Sydney
- Park Hyatt Sydney
- Qantas First Class Lounge Sydney (SYD)
- Qantas A380 First Class Sydney – Los Angeles
Thanks for reading!
SYD-LAX in premium economy? Brave man, haha. Looking forward to this trip report!
Brave??? I know what you mean, but there were probably 350+ braver souls sitting in plain economy on his flight.
Bravo! Great trip to read about. I don’t like the idea of the NZ trip that is just flights,
“Unfortunately, my upgrade did not clear…not even to premium economy class.”
This may be a YMMV thing but only once have I had an upgrade to PE clear. 99% of the time It’s an upgrade directly to Polaris or nothing at all. UA oversells PE and on some flights buy a significant number if there are a lot of Polaris seats open. I assume this is because they can generate greater revenue overselling PE and then upgrading some of those to Polaris. And as a result leaving the lowly 1K with their hard earned Plus Points high and dry.
sounds like a dumb trip. Just to experience Qantas First? That’s not something to “brag about.” If you’re gonna fly that far…
…just passed the 1 month mark on a bi-coastal Aus trip — heavy driving – just tallied my gas receipts for the past month – about $850 USD! Lots of parks, natural scenery, and camping – some hotels. Keeping big city time to a minimum. Stayed at the Park Hyatt Canberra recently and Hyatt Perth earlier. Also some nights @ holiday park cabins….something quite unique to Australia….at least in the options offered.
Only staying at US chain 5* hotels is very limiting/myopic. 20 years ago…I did the hostel thing….so know that angle as well.
….Tasmania next.
And environmentally inconsiderate. Not a badge of honor for sure.
L9l. Right. You know this is a TRAVEL blog right?
Buy I’m sure you’re right about the environment. No way they’d have flown those flights without him on there. Robert
Tasmania is awesome. When I’m retired, Ill do exactly what you are doing. In the meantime, if I have 4 days off and can squeeze 36 hours in HBA, I’m gonna do it. Don’t judge us for these quick trips. It’s all I can do for the next few years. The Tasman hotel was unbelievable. Have the lamb at Peppina. Its an excellent AMEX FHR value if you got the card.
Yes, I did the 1 night Tasman FHR thing. The very next 5 nights I was I camping at $0-$8 campgrounds.
Plenty of credit leftover after a dinner at Peppina! Used most of that the next day at the small lounge for lunch. The buffet bfast was very nice. Great atmosphere at Peppina. Eating lamb makes you a SHEEPle….just like eating CHICKEN….about being COWardly….
better to be a COWard then a CHICKEN or a SHEEPle. Haven’t eaten lamb or chicken in 10+ years.
One thing I didn’t like about the Water View King Room I had (Great view!) was that the windows don’t open at all. Forced ventilation from the overhead vent…
Complete disregard to the environmental impact. Another pointless, self-serving trip.
Boy you would hate my travel history. I go on turns after work just for fun. Plane is going with or without me. Don’t see how my 200lbs of extra fuel burn and pretzel consumption really is melting the icecaps much faster.
Gotta love these environment/climate change scolds. Just like 17th Century Puritans. Our way or the gallows.
Much like Christian Nationalism in the US, no?
Just stop. Not the place.
I’m very excited for this trip report!
Where is the rest of it?
So glad you seized the opportunity even though it was a very short stay. Look forward to reading you report!
I just did Tasmania for a day and a half from DFW. It didn’t go totally as planned.
Nov 29
DFW LAS AA 1880
LAS LAX AA 739
LAX SYD AA73 (Biz)
Dec 1
SYD HBA JQ 721
Dec 2
HBA CBR JQ724 (Diverted due to thunderstorms at SYD – Spent the night on the floor. AA 72 plan scuttled)
Dec 3
CBR-MEL QF 1511
MEL-DFW QF 21 – Skycouch – 3 seats to myself in Y – Made a nest and slept like a baby.
I LOVED Tasmania and definitely headed back.
Sounds a bit conspiracy theory-esque. Australia was unbelievably safe during the pandemic and our response was efficient and extremely popular and saved many souls. There was so much crap info coming out of US gutter journalism which this guy obviously digested.
I don’t believe in lockdowns, period. But I certainly concede that your response was successful and popular and I am happy to be able to return to your country.
can’t compare apples to pears. re: C19
Australia has a much higher UV-B year round…the virus killer.
Less very dark skinned folks? Dark skinned folks need more equivalent UV.
Check ODYSEE/RUMBLE — Covid Vaccines: Saviour or Death