Please help: Singapore to Tahiti to Hawaii to Singapore
Dec 10th, 2014, 01:59 AM
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Please help: Singapore to Tahiti to Hawaii to Singapore
Hi! I need help from airfare/airline experts.
My husband and I currently live in Singapore. We have plans to go to Hawaii and Tahiti in 2015. Originally, we planned them as separate trips. Now I'm wondering if it makes more sense to combine the two because there are flights between Hawaii and Tahiti.
I have checked different airlines and came up with the following routing that is, I think, most efficient with schedules that sort of work for us:
August 19: SIN-PPT via AKL on Air New Zealand
August 29: PPT-HNL on Hawaii Airlines
September 4: HNL-SIN via Manila via Philippine Airlines
I haven't priced them out yet, but I assume buying all one-way tickets would be very expensive. Would there be a way to take advantage of a RTW ticket? Or if any of you can come up with a money-saving routing, I'd love to hear it!
Thank you in advance!!
My husband and I currently live in Singapore. We have plans to go to Hawaii and Tahiti in 2015. Originally, we planned them as separate trips. Now I'm wondering if it makes more sense to combine the two because there are flights between Hawaii and Tahiti.
I have checked different airlines and came up with the following routing that is, I think, most efficient with schedules that sort of work for us:
August 19: SIN-PPT via AKL on Air New Zealand
August 29: PPT-HNL on Hawaii Airlines
September 4: HNL-SIN via Manila via Philippine Airlines
I haven't priced them out yet, but I assume buying all one-way tickets would be very expensive. Would there be a way to take advantage of a RTW ticket? Or if any of you can come up with a money-saving routing, I'd love to hear it!
Thank you in advance!!
Dec 10th, 2014, 05:03 AM
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You ordinarily need to make more than 2 stops to make a RTW ticket viable, but definitely price it. Airfares are sometimes ridiculous, so it may still save.
One-way fares are no longer necessary more expensive than round-trip fares. So it just depends on the route and the airline. But if you are leaving and returning to Singapore on the same airline, you can also book an open-jaw ticket and deal with Tahiti to Hawaii on a different airline or ticket. Or sometimes you can have a ticket with multiple stops (but this is usually more expensive).
This is a complex route, and I'd call a travel agent who may be able to help.
One-way fares are no longer necessary more expensive than round-trip fares. So it just depends on the route and the airline. But if you are leaving and returning to Singapore on the same airline, you can also book an open-jaw ticket and deal with Tahiti to Hawaii on a different airline or ticket. Or sometimes you can have a ticket with multiple stops (but this is usually more expensive).
This is a complex route, and I'd call a travel agent who may be able to help.
Dec 10th, 2014, 05:48 AM
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That's a tricky one. Hawaiian operates the only flight between Tahiti and Hawaii, and that flight operates only 1 day/week at the time that you're planning to travel. If that flight operated daily, I'd have suggested that you get two round-trips -- one between SIN-PPT, and the second PPT-HNL.
You might get the best price by having an open-jaw return ticket SIN-PPT/HNL-SIN on Air NZ, and then a one-way ticket from PPT to HNL. But that's just a guess, and your best course of action might well be to get a SIN-based travel agent involved.
A RTW ticket almost certainly won't help, as Hawaiian isn't a member of one of the 3 big alliances, and you would need to have stopovers on the North America mainland and Europe (among other requirements). If you in fact wanted to stop on the N.A. mainland but didn't want to include Europe, there's something called a Circle Pacific ticket which is similar to a RTW -- but I believe that you'd still have the problem of getting between PPT and HNL.
You might get the best price by having an open-jaw return ticket SIN-PPT/HNL-SIN on Air NZ, and then a one-way ticket from PPT to HNL. But that's just a guess, and your best course of action might well be to get a SIN-based travel agent involved.
A RTW ticket almost certainly won't help, as Hawaiian isn't a member of one of the 3 big alliances, and you would need to have stopovers on the North America mainland and Europe (among other requirements). If you in fact wanted to stop on the N.A. mainland but didn't want to include Europe, there's something called a Circle Pacific ticket which is similar to a RTW -- but I believe that you'd still have the problem of getting between PPT and HNL.
Dec 10th, 2014, 07:03 AM
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Let me suggest that you may be better advised to make this two trips rather than one. I've spent time in both Hawaii and Tahiti, and I wouldn't go to both of them on the same trip. The similarities and difference between the two destinations are such that IMO, going to both on the same trip will detract from both experiences. As individual trips, they will be easier to book as well.
Dec 10th, 2014, 06:46 PM
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Thanks everyone!
Doug & Don - I was interested in your idea about a SIN-PPT and HNL-SIN open-jaw ticket on Air NZ, so I went back to look at my map and Air NZ routing. The HNL-SIN journey goes via AKL, which would mean extra distance and time because I'll have to go way south to go north again. I didn't really think a RTW ticket would work but was hoping that maybe Hawaii would count as the "America" segment.
Kathie - My husband agrees with you and actually said so before I even started looking at this crazy routing. I want to combine the two because it saves vacation time. The Tahiti dates are fixed because we're doing a cruise. The Hawaii trip is to see family and see if we'd like it as a home base down the road. But not having been to either, I think you're right that we may be shortchanging both if we combine them.
I may still price out the one-way segments to see how much it'd add up, but it looks like I'll have to suck it up and use the days and do the trips separately. Tahiti is so tricky because there are not many options to take us from SIN to PPT. And on the available airlines, there are usually one or two flights maximum per week, which don't necessarily match the cruise.
I'm waiting for JAL to release its schedule for August 2015 and maybe we can fly via NRT.
Doug & Don - I was interested in your idea about a SIN-PPT and HNL-SIN open-jaw ticket on Air NZ, so I went back to look at my map and Air NZ routing. The HNL-SIN journey goes via AKL, which would mean extra distance and time because I'll have to go way south to go north again. I didn't really think a RTW ticket would work but was hoping that maybe Hawaii would count as the "America" segment.
Kathie - My husband agrees with you and actually said so before I even started looking at this crazy routing. I want to combine the two because it saves vacation time. The Tahiti dates are fixed because we're doing a cruise. The Hawaii trip is to see family and see if we'd like it as a home base down the road. But not having been to either, I think you're right that we may be shortchanging both if we combine them.
I may still price out the one-way segments to see how much it'd add up, but it looks like I'll have to suck it up and use the days and do the trips separately. Tahiti is so tricky because there are not many options to take us from SIN to PPT. And on the available airlines, there are usually one or two flights maximum per week, which don't necessarily match the cruise.
I'm waiting for JAL to release its schedule for August 2015 and maybe we can fly via NRT.
