I'll be in the US for work, my family to join in LA then travel Qantas to JFK then London - back to Melbourne.

I'll be in the US for work, my family to join in LA then travel Qantas to JFK then London - back to Melbourne. How the hell do I book this as I'm not leaving from Oz?

@jp1969 please confirm the following;

Your itinerary: LAX/JFK/LHR/MEL

Your family's itinerary: MEL/LAX/JFK/LHR/MEL

Your itinerary: LAX/JFK/LHR/MEL

Your family's itinerary: MEL/LAX/JFK/LHR/MEL

That is coirrect.

My original flight to HNL (that gets me into US to begin with) won't be with Qantas.

OK sounds like a OneWorld Round the World fare would be the best bet. Therefore:

1) MEL/LAX: Qantas

2) LAX/JFK: American

3) JFK/LHR: American or British Airways

4) LHR/MEL: British Airway or Qantas.

Now that option may NOT be the most cost effective.

If you wanted better value, then fly leg #4 in the reverse i.e. LHR/LAX/MEL with AA. The LAX/MEL sector will be a Qantas operated aircraft but sold by AA as a codeshare. Purchase your tickets from aa.com (via their Australian site so that you can be charged in AUD - note aa.com cannot process Australian issued credit card transactions from anything other than the aa.com AU site).

One suggestion was a round the world from LAX ending in LAX and just get off in MEL...expensive!

@jp1969

You beat me to it! LOL

Try the AA option. You'll be surprised by the value. If you're collecting miles that's also a good way to go.

Also make seperate bookings for yourself and your family. Your portion will work out to be more expensive as you're not doing a "return" ticket. But that would allow you to fly with your family.

Once you've been ticketed, call aa.com at 07 33296060 (its a QLD number but the call centre is in Fiji) and get them to link the two PNR (record locater in AA jargon) together. If you're OW Elite they should also be able to get you specific seat location even on the Qantas legs. Don't bother calling Qantas for this one as the booking is with AA and Qantas will not want to know you.

Qantas doesn't have rights to fly people domestically between LAX and JFK. Therefore, you cannot book QF107 for travel between Los Angeles and New York.

However, you may be able to tag QF108 JFK to LAX onto your Qantas booking for your return flight to Australia. You may want to ring Qantas to see if this is possible.

Ignore that last part... I see you're flying onto London.

Thanks so much, fantastic help, appreciate it.