Air New Zealand Air Points - Circle Pacific - cost / classes?

Hi all

My fiance and I are looking at flying from HKG to AKL then to HNL and back to HKG next year (we live in HKG). The whole trip is looking to be around 3-4 weeks and we're planning on doing it in April.

At the moment we're booked to fly into AKL on 5 April and return to HKG around 21 April (both ways in PE). Now we have some friends getting married in HNL in late April, so it's the perfect excuse to head through HNL on the way back and have our honeymoon there.

A few questions:

- Would HKG - AKL - HNL - (NRT transit) - HKG qualify for the 22,000 mile ticket? I can't get my head around the mileage...

- There's not a lot of info about prices of the Circle Pacific fare on the net (well, I can't find much). From experience, is it good value? We were keen on sticking with PE (it is our honeymoon but we can't really justify Business Class fares), but I understand that AKL-HNL does not do PE, and neither would the partner airline (ANA?) which would do the HNL - (NRT) - HKG leg, so we would only get one out of 3/4 legs on PE. Can we book a Circle Pacific ticket with some legs in different classes than others?

We were originally going to spend about HK$20,000 total (NZ$4000) on PE tickets return to AKL, but if we can score a decent priced Biz fare through the Circle Pacific fare on Biz, we could be convinced to spend a bit extra.

Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions- sorry if this question is a bit jumbled. Let me know if you need more info?

Thanks!
nkhk

p.s. if there's a fare / pass that might be better than CP, please let me know!

The Star Circle Pacific option is a good one, because for around 50% over the price of a Premium Economy ticket you can go Business Class.

Your mileage is fine, I'm just not sure whether you have to touch the West Coast on the fare. So you might be looking at HKG-AKL-HNL-(YVR/SFO/LAX)-HKG.

Thanks for the quick response. Have spoken to someone about it and apparently we need to make one more stop (not USA, has to be another Asian or Pacific stop). Not overly keen on staying in Japan, as we need to be back in HKG by the 29th (and be in HNL for the wedding on the 27th).

WIll look into it further and will come back with prices for your info,

Thanks again!
NKHK

HNL is a permitted "North Circle" or "South Circle' stopover - you need a north and a south Pacific crossing to be allowed to use Circle Pacific fares..

I would think that valid routings would include:

HKG-AKL-LAX-HNL-HKG
(North stop is HNL, south stop is AKL - but you'd need at least 1 night in LAX. This gives you a proper bed on AKL-LAX, which is much better than AKL-HNL. In fact, you'd have two bed sectors on the trip.)

HKG-AKL-HNL-NRT-HKG
(HNL and AKL are both south stops here, with NRT as the north stop).

The fare requires 3 stops plus a northern and southern Pacific crossing.

Cool - thanks for that! The problem is we'd rather go from Akl to HNL then straight to HKG, and do any initial stops between the HKG and AKL leg (i.e. HKG - stop somewhere - AKL - HNL - NRT transit - HKG) - mostly due to work commitments shortly after the HNL wedding on the 27th. A flight to LAX for one night probably won't go down to well the future-but-still-not-quite mrs nkhk :)

It's all a bit confusing to me at the moment, I think I just need to sit down this evening and scour the forums and the internet to see what my valid options are. Given that Asia is in our backyard, a stop in Aussie would be ideal for us en route to AKL, so HKG - SYD/MEL - AKL - HNL - NRT transit - HKG. However, I think we'd need to take Thai from HKG to BKK (or SG from HKG to SG) to hook up with an Aus stop en route to NZ.

Oh the permutations...

To avoid heading all the way out to LAX to get from HNL to HKG, it looks like the best (but still not ideal) route is as follows:

HKG - BKK (one night) - AKL - HNL - Transit in NRT - HKG.

Is there anyway I can swap the BKK for either Sydney or Melbourne? You can earn Airbucks on Virgin - can they fly part of a *A route? Ideal scenario is something like HKG - SYD/MEL - AKL - HNL - NRT Transit - HKG. unfortunately no one does the HKG - SYD/MEL in *A. Would HKG - SG (transit) - SYD/MEL be eilgible for the 22,000 mile fare?

Any suggestions? Sorry if I appear a bit dim, I'm not very good at this mileage and route planning thing.


Oh - FYI the cost estimate was:
HKG$18980 Econ + tax
HKG $32000 Biz + tax.

Adding extra stops is easy: it's your reluctance to have a north Pacific one too which could cause you some problems.

Allowed routes include:

HKG (TG) - BKK - SYD (TG) - AKL (NZ) - HNL (NZ) - NRT (NH) - HKG (NH)

You don't have to stop in BKK it's just a way of getting a Star plane to SYD. You could equally well use SQ via SIN.

Awesome - thanks for the advice! Looks like we can fly either Thai or SG through to Syd, then AKL, then hit HNl (where we'll be for a week) and then head home via NRT transit.

I think I need a lie down... am working out similar itinerary on OW but stumbling at HNL - HKG, so it looks like *A would be the goer.

I don't even want to contemplate working out how many airdollars I'll get...

If Airpoints are an incentive remember that:

1) You could fly HKG-BKK-SIN-SYD to earn extra points.
2) If you're nearing Gold Elite, you need 1000 Airpoints dollars on NZ metal, so consider flying HKG-AKL and AKL-LAX on Air NZ for maximum earning potential.
3) Seriously consider flying on from HNL to LAX before flying to NRT and HKG, because HNL-LAX on a Circle Pacific fare is booked and ticketed as First Class, and earns lots of points.

2) If you're nearing Gold Elite, you need 1000 Airpoints dollars on NZ metal

Geez not another enhancement? Nope, website still says 900 airbucks (or 800 aussie airbucks if living in Australia and Norfolk Island) to qualify GE first time (as part of 1500 total status airbucks), and 90% of this level to requalify.