I’ve run a number of schedules and scenarios on expedia.com and some airline websites. I even found a flight for… I am not kidding… $27,443! Does anyone buy those?
This is what I am trying to do:
Best possible option: Detroit to London, London to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore (or any Asian connection) on to Perth. Departing: Perth to Sydney, domestic trip from Sydney up to Barrier Reef area for diving and then home to Detroit via Sydney for a complete circumnavigation of the earth with Ironman Western Australia in between.
Second option: Detroit to Sydney, maybe via London on British Airways, stopover in London for short day for shopping and restaurant, on through Asia to Perth and back to Detroit when its all over. We’ll jump up the coast for diving on the West Coast of Australia.
In my experience Tom you can’t do this kind of booking on line - find a travel agent that focuses on Aussie travel and tell them what you are looking for.
You could go the other way…across to NY, then to London, on to Singapore or Hong Kong, and then down to Perth. A much more tedious route, but possibly cheaper?
I don’t know if Deepak goes to IMWA but I recommend his company if he does. It doesn’t seem so taking a quick look at his website. http://www.premiumplus-sports.com/
Search IMWA travel on this forum. There was an Aussie who offered to put any Yank going to IMWA in touch with a local travel agent - it seemed that prices from AU based agents were less than those from US based ones.
My wife went there a few weeks ago to the Gold Coast Marathon and she was re-routed from LAX via New Zealand to Sydney and then on to Brisbane. Be aware that there are no agents in the evenings for quantas in the terminals if you have any issues and calling them will do no good. It has to be done in person per new TSA garbage (Will let drunks on a plane but not toothpaste). She used a lady out of LA I believe whom has good connections there for flights, places to stay, and auto. She got my wife spectacular places to stay at everyone of her locations that she went. I am talking like 1000sqft flats for hotel prices. She also took care of all the transfers and taxes was my wife said was real nice. My wife was there for 2wks and did this trip for something like $4G I believe flight included. I will get her name and forward it to you in the am. My did some diving on the reef also. One place she went that she said was really nice was Steve Erwin’s Zoo there and really enjoyed. I know, a zoo is a zoo. But again, she said it was really nice.