Bundy Bear
Established Member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2004
- Posts
- 4,103
It had been 7 years since I was last in the US so I was keen to see how things had changed or not changed now that Trump was in charge.
I was traveling with a friend who had never been to the US before and their only requirement was to spend up to a week in each location, so that ruled out and mileage running.
In the end chose 6 nights in San Francisco and 7 nights in New York,
Flights to and from the US were on Qantas economy, I used a voucher although I had to phone as you can't make open jaw returns, online. I was flying into San Francisco but flying out from Dallas. I had purchased the cheapest economy to get to the US but purchased a more flexible ticket from the US to improve my upgrade chances.
Brisbane to Sydney was the usual Qantas snack service offering,
If you are looking to do a refund do the refund online here: My TRS Claim
The Qantas international business lounge in Sydney was decent, not too crowded, the First lounge is obviously better but not worth the extra money and time to chase the status when your flights are self funded, I chose flights with a 2hr 30 minute window in Sydney which gave us less than an hourin in the lounge as we spent almost 30 minutes in the TRS queue for the GST refund, I wouldn't choose less than 2 hours when connecting in Sydney unless there was no other choice. I did walk past the Qantas First Class Lounge and got to say hello to Nestor.
The flight to San Francisco was almost full, there were only 3 spare seats none next to us. I had chosen aislie and window with the middle spare which remained open until the 24 hour mark when check in opened and that meant someone took the middle seat. We kept our seats and were lucky on the Sydney San Francisco flight there was a young woman who sat between us who slept for 8 hours and didn't take up much space, some people like their windows and others prefer the aislie. Sydney to San Francisco was lunch then a snack about 6 hours in and then breakfast 2 hours from landing which I think was rather good. Also only found this by accident that there is a small self serve area which had some food but also had eye masks and toothbrushs/toothpaste available.
I was traveling with a friend who had never been to the US before and their only requirement was to spend up to a week in each location, so that ruled out and mileage running.
In the end chose 6 nights in San Francisco and 7 nights in New York,
Flights to and from the US were on Qantas economy, I used a voucher although I had to phone as you can't make open jaw returns, online. I was flying into San Francisco but flying out from Dallas. I had purchased the cheapest economy to get to the US but purchased a more flexible ticket from the US to improve my upgrade chances.
Brisbane to Sydney was the usual Qantas snack service offering,
If you are looking to do a refund do the refund online here: My TRS Claim
The Qantas international business lounge in Sydney was decent, not too crowded, the First lounge is obviously better but not worth the extra money and time to chase the status when your flights are self funded, I chose flights with a 2hr 30 minute window in Sydney which gave us less than an hourin in the lounge as we spent almost 30 minutes in the TRS queue for the GST refund, I wouldn't choose less than 2 hours when connecting in Sydney unless there was no other choice. I did walk past the Qantas First Class Lounge and got to say hello to Nestor.
The flight to San Francisco was almost full, there were only 3 spare seats none next to us. I had chosen aislie and window with the middle spare which remained open until the 24 hour mark when check in opened and that meant someone took the middle seat. We kept our seats and were lucky on the Sydney San Francisco flight there was a young woman who sat between us who slept for 8 hours and didn't take up much space, some people like their windows and others prefer the aislie. Sydney to San Francisco was lunch then a snack about 6 hours in and then breakfast 2 hours from landing which I think was rather good. Also only found this by accident that there is a small self serve area which had some food but also had eye masks and toothbrushs/toothpaste available.
). We also bought the 3 day NY pass for US199 ( 
