Budget Travel - Circle pacific air passes

Does anybody know anything about circle pacific passes, if they are really worthwhile and a good deal. or any suggestions on wich airlines to go through, I am planning a six month trip starting and ending in LA and i will be going to Austrailia, New Zealand, Cook islands, Fiji, and Western Samoa

**Let me know if anyone has any good tips or advice on air travel or just good ways to save money in this part of the globe**
Thanks
Mike

Welcome to FT!

You're probably going on the Star Alliance Forum, though, as a heads up, cross posting is something that the authorities that be frown upon! :eek:

Instead of a Circle Pacific Pass you may wish to look at a point to point to either SYD or AKL and then from there buy an Air New Zealand pass... it might work out cheaper.

The various Circle Pacific products are useful if you are planning to travel to AUS/NZ as well as SE Asia and perhaps Japan. I don't think that you will get good value from a Circle Pacific ticket with your itinerary.

I would agree with MapleLeaf that a better alternative would be a point to point ticket from USA to AUS or NZ. Both VirginBlue and Air Pacific offer budget airfares from Australia and New Zealand to the various Pacific islands that you want to visit.

Welcome to FT! You may want to post in the Australia and South Pacific forum instead of Star Alliance. They can probably tell you there if you should be in Star Alliance or One World Forums. Also, IIRC some of the air passes require the transpac flight to be on a specific carrier. You may also want to check out both alliance websites as well as individual carrier websites for the different air passes. If you can find a travel agent that specializes on this part of the world they should be familiar with these programs. http://www.airtreks.com/index.html This site has some helpful information and if you call them they have IME friendly agents willing to help. I have not actually purchased services with them though.