Star Alliance Pacific Circle Alternatives?

[LynnDB]

I am planning an 8 week trip for this summer for our family of 5. We would like to depart the continental US, go to Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. In order to purchase the Pacific Circle fare on the Star Alliance (Continental, Air New Zealand and others) website, we would have to also include Asia. Since we going to Asia in December, we prefer not to include it in this trip. Are there any other alliances, networks, etc. that we can try?

[sr81]

Well Asia is the other side of the Pacific. You don't have to stop in Asia, just keep moving through and then it is just a transfer.

Check out the Circle Pacific fare on the oneworld web site. It should clear up what you can do.

It is milage based so you may be able to have a few different routings but note the oneworld coverage in the Pacific is junk. NZ and Continental have much, much better coverage.

[koonyaflyer]

The Circle Pacific Fare can be quite a challenge. In the past you were able to simply transit through Asia, on either the same day, or even 12 hours overnight. However the airlines have become very strict on this and I know that last year using the QF Circle Pacific the stay in Asia had to be for at a minimum 24 hours. The TA even tried to get a waiver as it was an overnight 12 hour stop, but no luck. I am fairly sure that the Star Alliance fare has the same rule

[PineappleSkip]

Hi Lynn and welcome to AFF. Fancy meeting you here!!

I have been mulling over your options, in addition to the circle pacific fares already mentioned, one option would appear to be a fare from US to NZ or AU, with a tack on fare to FJ from NZ, or to NZ from AU. I looked up Air NZ's bargains and they were offering LAX to various AUS destinations for USD958, or HNL to AKL for exactly the same money.

Just wondering a couple of things

• were you looking for a good price, or convenience/short sectors?
• how keen were you on stopping in Hawaii - that part might be limiting your options for travel to AU/NZ/FJ. All of these are pretty close together, and easy to get to from LAX

Cheers skip

[jamesatfish]

The Circle Pacific Fare can be quite a challenge. In the past you were able to simply transit through Asia, on either the same day, or even 12 hours overnight. However the airlines have become very strict on this and I know that last year using the QF Circle Pacific the stay in Asia had to be for at a minimum 24 hours. The TA even tried to get a waiver as it was an overnight 12 hour stop, but no luck. I am fairly sure that the Star Alliance fare has the same rule

The stopover rule for the Circle Pacific fare at the moment appears to require 2 stopovers outside your country of origin, but there is no obligation for any of them to be in Asia.

I've booked an ACIR22 for later this month - CBR-SYD-LAX-IAD* DCA-JFK*-NRT-SYD-CBR - with a 4 hour transit in Tokyo as my only time in Asia.

[dajop]

Not sure what class the OP is planning to travel, but if it is Y (pricing starting at 4500 USD for LCIRC22) I am reasonably confident that you could construct an itinerary from a series of 1 way fares for far less than that, and without alliance restrictions. Perhaps the best option is get return to Hawaii and purchase individual sectors from there.

Oneworld product won't get you to Fiji, but the flipside it includes domestic flights within Australia (star product doesn't) and includes more than just the west coast in the US (star product really only allows departures from YVR, SEA, SFO & LAX). However, LAX-HNL-SYD-AKL-SYD-NRT-LAX only leaves 1400 miles spare anything else adds another 900 uSD (in Y) so not terribly good value, especially as an extra fare to Fiji is needed, as I said probably get individual sectors for less if in Y in J this might be different.

[PineappleSkip]

you could construct an itinerary from a series of 1 way fares for far less than that, and without alliance restrictions. Perhaps the best option is get return to Hawaii and purchase individual sectors from there.

Thats what I was thinking Dajop. If current offers exist at the time of travel - and LAX-SYD and HNL-AKL are both currently being offered for 958 return - that is likely to blow 4000+ out of the water for value.

We did BNE-NAN (flying FJ), NAN-AKL (on NZ) and AKL-BNE (on BI) around Xmas-New Year a couple years ago. All these sectors were short flights, about 3 hours, booked pretty cheaply on one way tickets. Good seats preselected on each and the sample pack of airlines was interesting. Although as soon as we heard BI bless the plane on we knew we weren't getting any inflight champagne!

I suspect you'd probably be able to do HNL-AKL-SYD-NAD-AKL-HNL for about $2500 or so plus add on whatever airfare is available DFW (or wherever) to HNL

Cheers skip

[dajop]

Thats what I was thinking Dajop. If current offers exist at the time of travel - and LAX-SYD and HNL-AKL are both currently being offered for 958 return - that is likely to blow 4000+ out of the water for value.

Just very randomly checked some one way fares:

LAX-HNL 313 USD (HA)
HNL-NAN 644 USD (FJ)
NAN-AKL 404 FJD (FJ)
AKL-SYD 230 NZD (NZ)
SYD-LAX 702 AUD (VA)

Total $1970 USD. A lot less than the $4.5K circle pacific.