Hello all. I'm flying from New York City to Bangkok at the end of July. I expect to stay in Thailand for 2 weeks then fly to Kauai for a week then back to New York. What is the best way to book these transpacific flights? Thanks in advance.

I suspect that creating an itinerary that includes Hawaii on the way back from Thailand is going to be very expensive and will most likely require the assistance of a travel agency, since it's not the "usual" itinerary.

Try contacting the Travel advertisers in the Sunday Travel Section of the newspaper for some quotes. Also, try

www.novatravel.com

to see if they have anything to offer you. Finding a travel agency that specializes in Asia will probably bring you the best results, so maybe go into Chinatown and ask around there. Find an English version of a Chinese newspaper and look for discount fares in it. With a little diligence you should be able to find something in your budget.

we live in boston and usually fly to bkk on northwest....three times we have stopped off in hawaii on the way home...they usually allow this as a free stop...the only negetive is that you have to spend about 7 hours in narita in japan between planes....we have taken this time to go out into narita town....the schedule may have changed, but check it out...

That's good to know about Northwest, I didn't know any of the airlines stopped there! I hate the long layovers, but you sound as if you've found a way to make the best of a bad situation.

This is also an option with United.

Do you have an airline you usually use? It's worthwhile to concentrate your frequent flier miles in a single program. That increases the chances that you'll make very frequent flier status, as well as getting you enough miles to upgrade transpacific flights.

If you have a preferred airline, call them directly. I often find their prices are better than places like expedia and travelocity. If you opt for a consolidator, rmember that you may not be eligible for frequent flier miles and that you may not be eligible to get pre-assigned seats.

When we traveled we flew United from JFK via NRT (Japan) to BKK and return and all for $827 incl. taxes.

Since United flies from NYC, also to Hawaii (from the West Coast) and to/fr BKK - check with them and see how they can route you.

it may me better too cut it into one way segments unless you have the option of using free stopove as RHK mentioned... NYC has verry cheep flight using united, EVA, and china airlines On way back maybe use a US carier.

off course they stop in HNL so getting too Kauai is another matter.

if ya want too maximuze miles you may have too use Hawaiian airlines. and these guya are partnered with CO. NW, and AA..

check out www.amarterliving.com for help in find FF mile partners and deals

You could also use a RTW flying with NW/KLM to Amsterdam, continuing KLM into BKK and then use NW via Narita to Hawaii and back to the States.

I'm busy scampering around the internet putting your suggestions to work. Thanks to all.

www.smarterliving.com. I missed the "s" on last poset and it wasn't for savings

a good place too reaserch RTW fares is threw www.airtreks.com

by quickly using the trip planner feature it seems that going threw Paris would be your cheepest gateway.