You can apparently now fly Sydney to L.A. return for under $1000. This is due to extra competition to Qantas from V Australia and Delta Airlines. Some flights are apparently available return for under $750 [Herald Sun] (although I couldn't find anything).

As long as I've been looking at them, flight costs to the US have usually hovered around $1700.

When flight costs to the USA dropped below $1000 in 2000 due to the Sydney Olympics, Dave and I jumped at the chance and spent a week in San Francisco.

That was 9 years ago now and the world, my world, is a different place.

I'd love to go back and show San Francisco to my wife. We'd visit places Dave and I missed, like the zoo, and the national parks. We'd spend time watching the seals on the pier. We'd probably walk all the way across the bridge. We'd definitely revisit Gordon Biersch Brewery.

But now we have a mortgage which we're trying to eradicate as soon as possible. We're also saving for a new car.

Maybe later.

Hopefully air travel is still possible in another decade.