American Airlines brings forward Sydney-Los Angeles flights

Qantas’ Stateside partner is fast-tracking its return to Sydney, with flights back from November.

By Chris Chamberlin, September 7 2020

American Airlines brings forward Sydney-Los Angeles flights

Qantas partner American Airlines will be back in Australian skies from November, relaunching non-stop flights between Sydney and Los Angeles.

The carrier previously planned to pause its Sydney route until mid-2021, but with Qantas keeping its own international fleet grounded until at least next year, the Flying Kangaroo will sell seats on American Airlines’ flights to those exempt from the Australian Government’s ongoing travel ban.

From November 12, AA will fly passengers from Sydney to LAX four times each week aboard its flagship Boeing 777-300ER, fitted with first class, business class, premium economy, Main Cabin Extra and economy class (Main Cabin).

At the very front, AA’s first class seats adopt an open design, transitioning between dining and sleep modes as expected.

For passengers seated by the windows, these seats also swivel to face outwards, creating an inflight working suite with views to rival your corner office.

Seats in the centre pair instead swivel to face each other, although a privacy divider can be raised in between if flying solo.

ET review: AA Boeing 777 first class, Sydney-Los Angeles

In business class, you’ll instead find a familiar seat waiting for you, based on the same ‘Cirrus’ business class seat widely adopted by airlines like Cathay Pacific:

ET review: AA Boeing 777 business class, Los Angeles-Sydney

Here’s the flight schedule as of November 12 (November 10 departing Los Angeles):

Route	Flight number	Departure time	Arrival time	Days served
Sydney-Los Angeles	AA72 (QF309)	11:15am	6:10am	Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays
Los Angeles-Sydney	AA73 (QF310)	10:40pm	9am (+2 days)	Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Sundays

On the other days of the week, American Airlines will operate cargo-only flights into and out of Sydney – giving the airline a daily service to Australia, as it had prior to COVID-19.

As Qantas is codesharing on AA’s Sydney flights and the two airlines maintain a Joint Venture agreement on the route, it’s expected that Qantas passengers affected by the airline’s own flight cancellations may be given the option to rebook their travel with American, under QF flight numbers.

Come November, American Airlines will be the third major US carrier to continue serving Australia, with United Airlines running regular flights between Sydney and San Francisco, and Virgin Australia partner Delta similarly flying between Sydney and Los Angeles.

Also read: International travel ban set to continue to December 2020

Chris Chamberlin

Chris Chamberlin is the Associate Editor of Executive Traveller, and lives by the motto that a journey of a thousand miles begins not just with a single step, but also a strong latte, a theatre ticket, and later in the day, a good gin and tonic.

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