Perth is located a little more than 11,600 miles (18,700 km) from New York City.  While that distance may seem daunting to most travelers, it really isn’t that bad.  The most challenging element of the journey may begin before you even leave your home – booking the best route for you! 

Fortunately, we are seasoned experts at this & we are here to help you every step of the way.  International flights in December & January are now available to book, so we recommend you start to keep an eye on your preferred route.  That doesn’t mean that you need to book now, however. 

There are some travel aphorisms out there like “airfare is cheapest on a Tuesday” or “the best day to book is 54 days out from your first date of travel,” but these myths have been debunked. 

In today’s digital age, the best option is to stay vigilant and make sure to use all of the tools at your disposal (e.g. airline miles, credit card points, Google flight alerts, etc.).  Pete is a little weirdo about some of the points and miles stuff, and he is constantly on the lookout for deals to Australia.  Therefore, if you would like to sign up to get email alerts from him whenever he sees a good deal, you can do so below:

What dates should we travel?

Really, this is up to you, your personal schedule, and where you’d like to visit while you are “down undah”.  Everyone is juggling different work/school/family schedules, and it is our hope that you will be able to use this as an opportunity to see some more of Australia during your visit.  The one date we want you to anchor your trip around is the date of the party, December 31, 2024, which is a Tuesday evening.  The party will be in Perth.  Everything else is up to you.  We do expect to loosely organize various day time excursions in the days just before & after the date of the party.  Exact details are TBD, but we will be notifying you of them ASAP.  These events will take place in the Perth area & will be casual – e.g., a beach day or maybe a day out at the cricket.

We also encourage people to visit the other wonderful parts of Australia, such as Sydney and/or Melbourne, the Gold Coast, Central Australia (Uluru), etc.  We are here to be a resource to you as you plan & shape your trip.  

Ok, without further ado, here is a very brief primer on HOW to get to Perth, Australia, the most remote capital city in the world.

A quick note (ok, so one further ado): I am going to tailor most of this write up to travelers from North America & more precisely the east coast USA/New York City.  In certain instances, I will call out options for our friends from Europe, but this will definitely have an American perspective because that is where most people will be coming from.

Is there a direct flight?

Short answer: no.  If you are traveling from North America, you will need to make a connection somewhere.  Some of the routes require one layover, some require two.  There is no intrinsic benefit to a route with 2 layovers vs. one so long as your layover isn’t unnecessarily long (pro tip: always check the “total duration” of any itinerary before you book it).  If you have 2 stops, then you will have shorter flights; if you have one stop, then you have longer flights.  It’s a trade-off, and I don’t feel that one is better than the other, although you might.  Everyone is different.

What are the most “direct” ways to get to Perth from New York?

I like to joke that I had to go halfway around the world to find a woman who was willing to marry me, and in a way, it’s sort of true.  From New York, you have itineraries that go in a general westbound direction & a general eastbound direction, and either can be about the same cost and total travel time.  You are going to encounter a lot of variability on price depending on the dates of your travel, which is why it is good to be open to the different options.  If pricing gets really wonky, then that’s when you may want to look at breaking up the trip into different segments.  More on that later.

You didn’t answer my question: what are the most “direct” ways to get to Perth from New York?

I have broken the more “direct” itineraries down into 3 categories from JFK: westbound, eastbound & wild card:

“Westbound” Itinerary:

1. Fly NYC to DFW, LAX, SFO

2. Fly from the above to one of the 3 major cities on the east coast of Australia: Brisbane (BNE), Sydney (SYD) or Melbourne (MEL)

3. Fly from the above to Perth (PER)

“Eastbound” Itinerary:

(Generally this will be on one of the Asian carriers, but Qantas now offers a few notable exceptions, which I have detailed separately in the next section):

1. Fly JFK to a major airline hub:

1. Singapore (SIN) for Singapore airlines

2. Hong Kong (HKG) for Cathay Pacific

3. Dubai (DXB) for Emirates

4. Doha (DOH) for Qatar Airways

5. Auckland (AKL) for Air New Zealand

2. Fly from the above to Perth (PER)

Wild Card: “New” Qantas Options: 

Qantas, the major airline of Australia, now offers some flight options that may be worth looking into depending on your travel goals.  The flights from Europe may not be the most direct options, but they are fairly new & definitely were not options back when I lived in Australia.

1. Qantas now offers nonstop flights from major European cities to Perth:

1. London Heathrow (LHR) to PER

2. Rome (FCO) to PER: note, this is seasonal, so it may not be available in December

3. Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) to PER

2. Qantas also now offers a “direct” flight to Sydney from JFK.  Note: this is a creative use of the term “direct”, as the flight (flight no. QF4) stops in Auckland on its way to Sydney.  The passengers deplane for 3 hours, then reboard the same aircraft and fly on to Sydney.

3. This isn’t “new”, but I’ll tack it onto this category.  A way to break up the trip is to stop in Hawaii on the way to Australia.  You could fly to Honolulu (HNL) and stay there a couple of days, then fly to Sydney from HNL.  There are a ton of flight options between HNL and SYD on various airlines.  Unfortunately, you can’t fly direct to Perth from HNL.

OK, now that we’ve talked through the more “straightforward” itineraries, I thought it would be helpful to provide a little table that shows that none of these itineraries are superior, at least not in terms of total time traveling in the air.  It’s all kinda “six in one hand, half dozen in the other”.  This table breaks down each leg of the aforementioned options & provides an approximate flight duration for that leg.  Please note that these numbers are approximations – actual flight time will vary on the day of travel – and they do not take into account the duration of the layovers, which can vary greatly.

I care to travel on one particular airline/ alliance for allegiance/status reasons.  Is that possible?

Totally!  The good news is that the 3 major US airlines (American Airlines, Delta & United) all operate flights between the west coast of the USA and the east coast of Australia.  Below is a quick summary of what airlines are probably the ones you would look at for each alliance, but it is by no means exhaustive.

American Airlines & Partners (Oneworld Alliance)

• AA operated flights:

• LAX to SYD

• DFW to BNE

• LAX, DFW to AKL

• LAX, DFW, PHX to HNL

• Qantas operated flights:

• LAX to SYD, BNE, MEL

• SFO to SYD

• DFW to SYD, MEL

• JFK to AKL (then on to SYD)

• Vancouver (YVR) to SYD

• HNL to SYD

• LHR to PER

• CDG to PER

• FCO to PER

• SYD, BNE, MEL to PER (and other domestic Australian flights of course)

• Cathay Pacific operated flights:

• JFK to HKG

• HKG to PER

• Qatar Airways operated flights:

• JFK to DOH

• DOH to PER

• Hawaiian Airlines operated flights

• JFK to HNL

• HNL to SYD

Delta Airlines & Partners (SkyTeam Alliance)

• Delta operated flights:

• LAX to SYD, BNE

United Airlines & Partners (Star Alliance)

• United operated flights:

• LAX to SYD, BNE, MEL, HNL

• SFO to SYD, BNE, MEL, HNL

• Air New Zealand

• JFK, ORD, LAX, SFO, IAH, YVR to AKL

• AKL to PER (as well as other major Aussie cities)

• Emirates Airways

• JFK to DXB

• DXB to PER

• Singapore Airlines

• JFK to SIN

• SIN to PER

• Virgin Australia operated flights:

• BNE, SYD, MEL to PER (Virgin Australia is the main alternative to QF for domestic flights in Australia)

I have a bunch of airline miles/credit card points.  Can I use them to book?

Ideally, yes.  You will want to take stock of how many miles/points you have & how much it costs to redeem them on your airline/itinerary of choice.  Unfortunately, these amounts are always changing, so generally it is best to book as soon as possible if you are using miles.  I’d recommend first thinking about your ideal itinerary and starting there.  I am very happy to help you brainstorm the potential options – just send me a text or email, and I will happily set up a time to talk through your particular situation.  I also recommend the website ExpertFlyer.com, as well as sites like ThePointsGuy (TPG) to research the options available at a given time.  This article on TPG is probably a pretty good place to start.

What about booking in First Class?  Is that even possible?

First Class might be difficult, but it is definitely achievable to finagle your way into Premium Economy or even Business Class without breaking the bank.  I have been able to successfully do this on American Airlines/Qantas several times, and recent changes to AA’s mile upgrade system may make it easier.  I am not sure how it works on other airlines, but on AA you can upgrade your class of service on reservations where you paid in cash.  They have recently updated this process, and now you can even use your AA miles to upgrade your class of service on QF-operated flights.  Previously it had to be AA metal.  Here is the page on AA’s website that outlines this process.  If you decide to go this route, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions & let me know how it goes!

Otherwise, the other way to get into business class is to use miles/points to book the tickets.  Every airline is different, but as mentioned before, I am happy to provide any assistance I can.