Heightened sanitation
Daily cleaning, installation of cabin HEPA filters on flights from Melbourne to California
There are no direct flights for this route listed on KAYAK, the shortest multi-flight duration is 18h 00m
The cheapest ticket to California from Melbourne found in the last 72 hours was $702 one-way, and $1,172 round-trip. The most popular route is from Melbourne to Los Angeles, and the cheapest round-trip airline ticket found on this route in the last 72 hours was $702.
Entry restrictions
The United States has restricted the entry of all foreign nationals who have passed through or have been in China, Iran, Most European Countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City), the UK, Ireland, Brazil and South Africa in the past 14 days.
With the exception of certain travelers which includes certain family members of US citizens or permanent residents including; spouses, children (under the age of 21), parents (provided that his/her US citizen or permanent resident child is unmarried and under the age of 21), and siblings (provided that both the sibling and the US citizen or permanent resident are unmarried and under the age of 21);
There is also an exception for travelers with the following visas: A-1, A-2, C-1, C-1/D, C-2, C-3, CR-1, CR-2, D, E-1 (as an employee of TECRO or TECO or the employee's immediate family members), G-1, G-2, G-3, G-4, IR-1, IR-4, IH-4, NATO-1 through NATO-4, or NATO-6 visa;
Members of the US Armed Forces, spouses, and children of members of the US Armed Forces;
Travelers with invitation of the USA government for a purpose related to the containment/mitigation of the Coronavirus (COVID-19);
Travelers with documents issued by the US Department of Homeland Security, US Customs and Border Protection, or US Department of State indicating that the traveler is exempt from the restriction;
B1 crew crewmembers that are engaged in lightering, Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) activity, wind farm activity, private air/sea crew and other similar crewmember activities;
Students with an F-1 or M-1 visa and their F-2 and M-2 dependents, if they arrive from or have been in Ireland, the UK or Schengen Area in the past 14 days.
Entry requirements
All travelers, 2 years of age or older (including US citizens and transit passenger) must present a negative COVID-19 viral or antigen test result issued 72 hours prior to departure or have a proof of recovery from the virus within the last 90 days prior to boarding the plane.
Travelers must complete a disclosure and attestation form before departure.
Exemptions or waiver to the testing requirements may be granted by the CDC on an extremely limited basis when emergency travel (like an emergency medical evacuation) must occur to preserve someone’s life, health against a serious danger, or physical safety and testing cannot be completed before travel.
US citizens and permanent residents arriving from the UK must present a medical certificate with a negative COVID-19 PCR or antigen test result issued within 72 hours prior to departure.
Travelers arriving in New York State must complete the Traveler Health Form.
Travelers arriving in Massachusetts must complete the Massachusetts Health Form.
Quarantine requirements
Travelers are advised to get tested 3-5 days after travel and stay home and self-quarantine for 7 days after travel. Even if they test negative, they must still stay home and self-quarantine for the full 7 days. If the test is positive, isolate to protect others from getting infected.
Travelers who did not get tested, are advised to stay home and self-quarantine for 10 days after travel.
All other info
Travelers are subject to COVID-19 measures set by the state/territory of their final destination. For more information go to CDC website.
There are currently 1,107 active cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in US and 0 deaths as of Mar 7 2021
Please see our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Travel Restrictions page for more information on restrictions worldwide.
KAYAK is a travel search engine. That means we look across the web to find the best prices we can find for our users. With over 2 billion flight queries processed yearly, we are able to display a variety of prices and options on flights to California.
KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a flight to California is likely to change within 7 days, so travelers know whether to wait or book now.
Hacker Fares allow you to combine one-way tickets in order to save you money over a traditional round-trip ticket. You could then fly to California with an airline and back with another airline.
Sometimes travel dates aren't set in stone. If your preferred travel dates have some wiggle room, flexible dates will show you all the options when flying to California up to 3 days before/after your preferred dates. You can then pick the flights that suit you best.
Scores according to KAYAK customer reviews
Pros: "The tv size, charging station, foot hammock"
Cons: "No delay,"
Cons: "0"
Pros: "I liked that nothing was a hassle to get to, the staff were amazing and the pilot was well-skilled."
Cons: "My only con was the fact that there were many people around me coughing. That's not your fault though, I understand. But still, it was nasty."
Pros: "Crew were very accommodating to the needs to the passengers."
Cons: "Limit the recline on seats to less of an angle in economy."
Pros: "Easy great flight. Good entertainment comfortable seats."
Pros: "The crew were friendly and very helpful. Good choice of movies, tv shows, podcasts and music."
Cons: "When the person in front put his seat back there was no room at all for me. He had it back for the whole 12 hour flight except when the staff asked him to put it up for service."
Pros: "Same as previous answer!"
Pros: "It's a pleasant experience"
Pros: "This flight had significantly less turbulence than my flight to Melbourne"
Cons: "The headphone jack to watch movies was broken so I wasn’t able to watch anything over the 14 hour flight. This was especially frustrating because I had to pay for my seat selection and I assumed all of your seats would be in working order."
Pros: "The crew were really good, kept us informed about the delays and what was happening, and they all remained upbeat and chatty"
Pros: "Everything was great"
Cons: "Slightly more legroom"
Pros: "Movies"
Cons: "Breakfast"
Cons: "Not being able to web check in causes stress pre-flight."
Pros: "Great flight on the 787 Dreamliner and the crew were fantastic. I wish I could say the same thing for Baggage services. I have a business meeting tomorrow morning and presently they can't even reconcile their own Baggage Receipt number! I expect more when travelling (and paying) for business class."
Cons: "Lack of food for dinner..they ran out."
Pros: "Crew member Trevor was funny and the perfect host. Good selection of movies."
Cons: "Seats are super uncomfortable and there is no privacy ... worst Business class facilities I’ve ever experienced. Seriously substandard might as well fly economy or better still use a different airline."
Cons: "Our bags were put on the wrong belt and we didn't receive them for over an hour."
Pros: "Great service on the flight."
Cons: "The boarding process with qantas at JFK is chaotic. No one is policed on their seat numbers, status or fare class. this creates a chaotic process for boarding and securing overhead luggage space for higher fare paying customers Very bad lounge at JFK if used to first lounges like Cathay and JAL"
Pros: "The plane itself was nice and comfortable for me. The business class seat fully laid down, and there were lots of entertainment options. The flight was quick! 15hr flight from Melbourne to LAX only took 13 hours!"
Cons: "Several of the food items were either cold or overdone. I asked hostess what the deal was (because their food service is usually great) and she explained that in this new plane (Boeing 787) they removed a lot of the working areas for the crew. They have less space to work in order to be able to prepare food and drinks compared to Qantas's other planes (Airbus A380). This is also a brand new plane for this crew (literally the first flight for some for some of them), and they didn't know where some of the things on the plane were. I imagine after they've used the plane for a while and learn where everything is, they'll get better. I'll find out on the return flight back to Melbourne."
Pros: "I watched heaps of movies and programs."
Cons: "Great gluten free options! Thank you!"
Cons: "Terrible procedures in Sidney and Los-Angeles with uncertainty, broken schedule , chaos and wasting passengers' time."
Pros: "The crew is always nice and approachable. The entertainment is usually high but this time around there weren't many good choices."
Cons: "The food is AWFUL, and has been getting worse as the years go on. Absolutely terrible taste, stomach-churning smells and gross consistency. During boarding I was profiled by one of your gate agents and "selected for further screening" ... not fun. No explanations, just surly, inattentive agents performing further checks on items that had already been twice-checked at security. Awful service."
Cons: "Bathrooms were disgusting, plane was dirty"
Pros: "Overall a great plane- we were on the 380 going to lax and then we switched to a really old plane. There was a delay of 3 hours from lax which was very annoying."
Cons: "The delay was horrifying. Staff were friendly enough but they really should have offered more snacks and water"
Cons: "Great service , very caring and clean . Looked after me as I had to use a wheelchair . Thank you :)"
Pros: "everything"
Cons: "nothing"
Cons: "Bags won't arrive for another 24 hours; which means we now have no clothes. Grrr."
Cons: "I was right by the toilets"
Pros: "Great selection of movies, i liked that the economy cabin at the back of the top floor of the a380 was more personal than a larger economy cabin. Crew were happy to serve me drinks throughout the flight after the halfway point when i started drinking"
Cons: "I would love love love to see airlines recycling the majority of the waste generated during flight..."
Pros: "2.5 hour flight - nothing too difficult they transferred our bags ok - nothing lost paid $C175 for my third bag - because we booked under QF code share. Wont do that again."
Cons: "ok flight"
Pros: "Need new planes"
Cons: "Qantas didn't help at all with my missed domestic connection between LAX and ATL. Nothing."
Pros: "Loved the hot chocolate and chocolate."
Cons: "No choices available for dinner and other snacks not very good."
Pros: "They went above and beyond"
Cons: "All was great"
Pros: "Everything"
Cons: "Nothing"
Cons: "Having to pay for food in American Airlines codeshare flight."
Cons: "All round excellent"
Cons: "Nothing. Probably the best airline flown"
Pros: "Everything."
Cons: "can not think of any."
Cons: "Only one channel of audio was playing--made listening to Tubular Bells just plain WRONG..."
Pros: "Paying for extra leg room was the best investment. We felt like we were in business class (although haven't ever travelled it). The crew were sensational, obliging, friendly and accommodating."
Cons: "We had to collect our luggage in Los Angeles and then re-lodge it for the New York leg of our flights. It was a nuisance but Qantas staff did everything in their power to make it as smooth as possible."
Pros: "The special meals for my son and daughter were amazing!"
Pros: "The crew manager worked tirelessly to move rows of passengers to other seats because the entertainment system didn't work for a bank of passengers on the long haul flight."
Cons: "Our entertainment system didn't work and we had to split up to move seats."
Pros: "Great service as always!"
Pros: "Leg room plus space between window and aisle seat"
Pros: "New plane very comfortable."
Cons: "Delayed slightly"
Pros: "The inflight service was very friendly. Flight was good, smooth."
Cons: "Flight late arriving c. 30 mins. Could not get the entertainment working on a 5+ hour flight."
Pros: "Entertainment selection was good, that was about it."
Cons: "Service was so poor. Being in economy they treated you like you were more of a nuisance to them then a customer. Got one drink served to me, 3 hours in, on a 14 hour flight. Our first meal was 3 hours in, and was served 30 min after the people next to me. Trash and dishes were not picked up and when we asked attendant he asked us to bring them to the cabin ourselves! after sitting with them in front of us for an hour after dinner. Window screens left up during flight omitting sun glare making It hard to sleep. been making the LAX to Brisbane or Sydney flight to 8 years now, Qantas has progressively got worse while Virgin customer service remains as a high standard. Looks like sales on Qantas will no longer entice me, I'll be sticking with virgin"
Pros: "Great price Service was great Updated on everything from gate change to flight on timen"
Cons: "Didn't book through Kayak on my previous flights"
Airlines flying from Melbourne to California have enacted additional safety measures and adjusted policies to better accommodate travelers. Policies vary by airline.
Heightened sanitation
Daily cleaning, installation of cabin HEPA filters on flights from Melbourne to California
Mandatory masks
Masks required on board, masks provided on flights from Melbourne to California
Social distancing seating
Middle seats unavailable to book on flights from Melbourne to California
Pre-flight testing
Testing for antibodies, testing for symptoms for flights from Melbourne to California
Flexible cancellations
Waiving of change fees. Search flexible flights from Melbourne to California