New York is often considered an expensive destination, but getting there from Australia doesn’t have to be!
If you’re eyeing a trip to the Big Apple but you’re on a budget, here are some tips to get there as cheaply as possible…
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Fly Jetstar to Honolulu, then onwards on another ticket
In general, the absolute cheapest way to get from Australia to New York – without using frequent flyer points – would be to break up your trip with a stop in Hawaii.
Jetstar often has cheap airfares available from Sydney and Melbourne to Honolulu in the US state of Hawaii. There are currently fares starting from $316. But during a sale, you might even be able to fly Jetstar to Hawaii for under $300.
On a different ticket, you could then book a cheap flight from Honolulu to New York with a US airline like United, American or Alaska Airlines for around $300 one-way. Most of these flights will stop somewhere on the west coast of the United States.
Note that these prices don’t include checked baggage, so you’d need to add around $100-150 more (for the two tickets) if you have a checked bag. However, if you have Qantas Frequent Flyer status, you can get a free checked bag when flying on American or Alaska Airlines (which are both Oneworld members). And you can get a free checked bag on United Airlines with Velocity Frequent Flyer or Star Alliance status.
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This isn’t the quickest way to get to New York, due to the multiple stops. As you’ll be on separate tickets from Australia to Honolulu, and from Honolulu to New York, we’d also recommend allowing plenty of time in Honolulu in case of any delays to your inbound Jetstar flight.
The advantage of this, though, is that you can effectively get a free stopover in Hawaii. You could choose to stay half a day, or even break up the trip and stay a few nights. Honolulu certainly isn’t the worst place to spend a bit of time!
Another key advantage of this option is that you won’t be penalised with higher pricing if you just want to fly one-way. Jetstar flights, as well as domestic flights within the United States, are generally priced as one-way tickets. So, booking a return flight using this method is basically just double the cost of a one-way trip.
This trick also works to get elsewhere in North America
The “Jetstar to Honolulu” trick also works if you want a cheap one-way flight to Los Angeles – or elsewhere in the USA, Canada or even Mexico. From Honolulu, you can fairly easily pick up a cheap ticket to Los Angeles for around $140-$200. Then, from Los Angeles, just book a ticket on a budget airline like Southwest, Frontier or JetBlue to your final destination.
Wait for a sale
Air New Zealand and Qantas offer flights from Australia to New York via Auckland, while the major US airlines offer connections via Los Angeles. These are clearly the most convenient and direct options, but they’re not usually the cheapest.
Nonetheless, you might be able to get a reasonable price with Qantas, Air New Zealand or one of the American carriers by waiting to book when there is a sale on. For example, Qantas was offering return flights from Sydney to New York during its most recent North America sale in September 2024 from $1,699 return.
As a slightly left-field option, Air Canada often has competitive sale fares from Sydney and Brisbane to New York via Vancouver. This routing is almost as quick as flying Qantas via Auckland, but Air Canada is often cheaper. You can earn Velocity points and status credits with Air Canada, and as an added bonus, you’ll be able to pre-clear US immigration and customs during your layover in Vancouver.
We’ve also seen cheap flights on Hawaiian Airlines from Sydney to New York for under $1,600 return, flying via Honolulu on a single through-ticket.
Cheap flights to New York via Asia
You might be able to find even cheaper flights from Australia to New York with Asian airlines such as Cathay Pacific, ANA, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, Asiana or Philippine Airlines.
The journey time via Asia is a few hours longer, but it’s not that much longer if you’re flying from Australia to the US east coast. In return for taking the slightly longer routing, you could save a chunk of money.
You can use Google Flights to look for the cheapest deals around your travel dates. The “Explore” mode on Google Flights is particularly helpful.
Use frequent flyer points for cheap flights to New York
If you have frequent flyer points to spare, redeeming points can be unbeatable value. This is also a good strategy if you just want a one-way ticket, because you won’t be penalised for not booking a round-trip ticket.
Redeeming Qantas points to New York
For example, you could fly Qantas from Sydney to New York and back in Economy for 110,400 Qantas points and pay just $434 in taxes & carrier charges. You could earn enough points to book this trip with just one or two Qantas credit card sign-up bonuses.
Redeeming Velocity points to New York
Using Velocity Frequent Flyer points to fly United Airlines, you’d pay slightly more points – but lower fees and taxes. As an example, it would cost 119,600 Velocity points and just $180 to fly United from Melbourne to Newark via Los Angeles.
Again, you could earn those points with just one or two Velocity credit card sign-up bonuses!
Redeeming Alaska Airlines miles to New York
If you have American Express Membership Rewards points, you could get an even better deal by converting your points into HawaiianMiles at a 2:1 rate, and then from HawaiianMiles into Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles at a 1:1 rate.
Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan program charges just 85,000 miles and USD145 (~AU$213) for a round-trip award ticket from Sydney to New York, flying American Airlines via Los Angeles.
