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OSB, the Qantas site seems to have had some recent redesign, but if you go to the first page on their site, qantas.com.au, look up in the upper right hand corner. If you see "Australia", click it and you should get a pulldown that will let you switch to the United States site.

I've seen worse prices, but I've also seen better. Qantas has been running some impressive sales recently to Australia. We got LAX to Melbourne for around $520 for the adults (round trip, but we're not using the return) and are looking at $149 (one way) from St. Louis to LAX.

I seem to remember that NZ was showing with some very good numbers at the time too. This was early June though for a December departure. But still, I think it might bear watching for a bit. They do often run sales and Air New Zealand will often compete on those sales. ANZ is also a very nice airline and is in the Star Alliance with United and US Air.

I think there was even some talk that Delta was going to start a route to Australia, but being Sky Team, I don't think they have any partners in the region that would get you on to NZ on the one ticket.

I suspect it's that Qantas doesn't fly direct from AKL to ZQN. They fly LAX to AKL, but then AKL to Sydney. And they also fly from Sydney, or Melbourne, or Brisbane to various cities in NZ to serve their Australian customers wanting to fly there on holidays or business. But I'm almost positive they don't fly from the US direct to ZQN and also don't fly within NZ so no connection through AKL to ZQN, at least on Qantas.

I think it's that they don't consider Australia to be a "hub". Say, you wanted to go to Hong Kong. They fly to and from Hong Kong and they fly to and from the US, so theoretically you should be able to book it together but you can't. But I think Qantas was built around the idea they're getting people to and from Australia and so it's not possible to book flights *through* Australia on their website. Auckland is the only exception as it's the only place they ever stop along the way coming from the US. I would the best option (if not a sudden great price on Air New Zealand) would be to book a r/t to AKL, then look for a cheap-as-possible domestic NZ flight separately between AKL-ZQN.

Then it just comes which airline has the best price on getting you to AKL. Both ANZ and Q are excellent airlines, IMO. Inside New Zealand, there is ANZ (which still then may be cheaper as part of your trans-pacific flight if you choose ANZ but could just be used for the domestic if you choose Qantas). Or, there's also Virgin Blue, at, http://www.virginblue.com.au , flying budget flights. It seems like flights to ZQN are either limited or they're not entered yet for February, but I was seeing AKL to Christchurch each way for $39 NZD ($28 USD) plus a checked bag fee.

On the other question. I don't know SFO well, but dislike the international terminal, called the Tom Bradley terminal, at LAX immensely. Outside security, it's mostly ticket counters and it's chaotic most of the time. Past security, it's like a unfinished warehouse with barely any services. Seriously, like one small magazine/bottled water seller at each end and that's it. No bars or restaurants or anything. I've been through there many times, and always hate the stay, but it's usually cheapest and has the best onward route selection for us, to go through LAX.