Business Class Flights to Melbourne

Qantas flies Melbourne nonstop from Los Angeles on the 787-9 with its lie-flat Business Suite; United flies Polaris nonstop from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Those are the nonstops — Melbourne has no A380 First Class service from the US, so business is the top cabin on every direct flight. From everywhere else, the routings run via Sydney on Qantas, Delta or American (an hour on), via Auckland on Air New Zealand (three and a half hours on), or via Nadi on Fiji Airways with a stopover. The long way round — Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Emirates and Qatar Airways all fly Melbourne from their hubs — puts First or Qsuite on the longest legs for clients combining Asia.

As with Sydney, the westbound flights are overnight across the date line: leave Los Angeles in the late evening, land in Melbourne early in the morning two calendar days later. Tullamarine's Terminal 2 has the Qantas Business Lounge and Star Alliance lounges; the SkyBus reaches Southern Cross Station in 30 minutes. Melbourne is the base for the Great Ocean Road (three hours), the Yarra Valley (an hour), the Mornington Peninsula (90 minutes) and Phillip Island's penguins (two hours), and it is the gateway to Tasmania — Hobart is an hour's flight — and to Uluru (three hours).

Melbourne's calendar is event-driven. The Australian Open in the second half of January and the Formula 1 Grand Prix in March fill hotels and lift premium fares sharply; the Melbourne Cup carnival in the first week of November does the same. Christmas–New Year is the general Australian peak. March–May (autumn) and September–November (spring) are the sweet spot for weather and price outside the events, and June–August — cool, grey, the football season — is the cheapest time to fly, with business fares from Los Angeles closest to our $4,800 starting price.