Australia (LAX-SYD): Qantas premium economy seats on sale

If you can’t wait for the first Virgin V Australia flight in December to go Down Under, you’ll be happy to note that Qantas has put its premium economy seats on sale for this winter. If you’re not a regular business or premium economy flier, you might not think the sale is all that hot since you could get two round-trip international economy seats for the same price.

Deal or no deal? Premium economy seats from Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) start at $4,098 before taxes. I’ve never flown this class so I did some testing on Qantas.com to see if there was any value in this. I found round-trip flights (Nov. 16-23) for $4,232 including taxes and fees. The following month (Dec. 16-30), the price came to $5,133. And into the new year (Jan. 11-18), the price was also $5,133. If you depart on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday, the price went up to $4,039 outgoing, pre-tax.

Caveat: Winter often has the most expensive flights to Australia. If you’re looking to save money, consider traveling in the early fall.

The difference? For starters, you get a bigger seat and 50% more recline than the economy seats. The premium seat also has a fold-out leg rest

When: For travel from Los Angeles to Sydney starting Nov. 14, and Los Angeles to Melbourne beginning Dec. 19.

Contact: Qantas, (800) 227-4500

— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel Deal Blogger

[Photo: Greg Wood AFP/Getty Images]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 at 2:18 pm by Jen Leo and is filed under Business Travel, News, Tips & Advice, Pacific & Australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.