Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Travelling with the Pacific region

We are planning a new RTW trip and one interest is to travel around the pacific region, visiting 3-4 different islands / countries, while in the AU/NZ.

What are the best options to travel between the different islands, e.g. between Vanuatu, Fidji, Tahiti ? Are there any regional airlines that would offer a decent multi-hop fare? Any boat options?

We could start the pacific journey from e.g. Sydney or Auckland.

Ex Au you have alot more limited choice of flights as AKL is more of the hub for traveling to the pacific islands.

Inter island flights are very limited and most of the time you will have to travel via AKL.

Air Pacific, operating out of Nadi, Fiji, has a fair amount of flights in the region, but to fly between different islands you would most often need to fly via Nadi (there are a few multi-stop flights that you could take from Nadi -> Point A -> Point B and then back to Nadi)

If you are flying to the region on NZ, many fares ex-US or UK allow for a free stopover at an island en route. NZ has flights between LAX and AKL via RAR or APW and TBU (as well as nonstop).

TN and AF have flights to PPT.

Unfortunately flying between the islands is generally not trivial and require going via one of the area's hubs, NAN, AKL or HIR being the main ones.

Does any of the mentioned airlines offer any "Visit SWP" passes that would make travel less expensive than doing single return flights?

We are most likely to arrive to the region (SYD/AKL) as part of xONEx.

Yes. See *A South Pacific Airpass (http://www.staralliance.com/en/travellers/fare_products/south_pacific_airpass.html).

Does any of the mentioned airlines offer any "Visit SWP" passes that would make travel less expensive than doing single return flights?

We are most likely to arrive to the region (SYD/AKL) as part of xONEx.

Yes. See *A South Pacific Airpass (http://www.staralliance.com/en/travellers/fare_products/south_pacific_airpass.html).
The *A pass requires arrival into the region on an international flight. And from what I can tell buying SYD-AKL doesn't count as a valid paid flight to trigger access to the Airpass. That might put a damper on the option for the OP who will be on a OW RTW ticket.

Star Alliance South Pacific Airpass is sold only in conjunction with an international Round Trip, Star Alliance Round the World Fare or Circle Fare to/from/via the South West Pacific area operated by any Star Alliance member carrier, originating and terminating outside the South West Pacific area. Your international travel to the South West Pacific area may commence in the USA, Canada, Central & South America, Europe, Middle East, Africa or Asia. The South Pacific Airpass fares are available to residents outside the South West Pacific area. Residence has to be proven at time of ticketing and check-in. Individual sectors may only be visited once in each direction. Changing flights at a transfer, respectively connecting point requires an additional coupon. One Star Alliance South Pacific Airpass can be purchased per international Return, Round the World or Circle trip ticket to/from/via the South West Pacific area.
http://www.staralliance.com/en/travellers/fare_products/south_pacific_airpass_faq.html

You can still puzzle something nice together with some relatively cheap oneway flights.

Sydney to Nadi on Air Pacific. Then Nadi to Vanuatu on Air Pacific. Then Vanuatu to Noumea (Nouvelle Caledonie) on Air Caledonie. A few days on Ile des Pins (very nice). Then take Air Caledonie to Tahiti. Again a nice destination. From There you can take NZ or Air Tahiti Nui back to SYD.

But this is a big vacation in itself. If you skip Tahiti you can reverse the order and the trip become much cheaper (Sydney-Noumea-Vanuatu-Fiji-Sydney).

NZ still has one inter-island flight left, TBU-APW.

You can also look at the no-frills Pacific Blue (which is related to Oz domestic carrier Virgin Blue).

We took DJ on the short hop from BNE - VLI.

Plus, they also link with Polynesian Blue with goes to Apia from Oz if you want to go to Samoa (recommended).

These are all Virgin brands of one kind or other, with relatively no-frills pricing.

You can also look at the no-frills Pacific Blue (which is related to Oz domestic carrier Virgin Blue).

We took DJ on the short hop from BNE - VLI.

Plus, they also link with Polynesian Blue with goes to Apia from Oz if you want to go to Samoa (recommended).

These are all Virgin brands of one kind or other, with relatively no-frills pricing.

One problem with DJ if you have alot of bag's and the fight is full it may not make it on the same fight and you will have to wait a few days. Although its probably not to likely to happen.

###Please note for most WHY class travel that starts off in the pacific you get only 20kg of bags.

Thank you. I'm hoping to combine both less and better known islands but it feels like there are enough flight options to make it work. I still have to do the research on the destinations, though.

I need to check the *A pass requirement, somewhere it's said that you need to enter the country with a *A flight and somewhere it's the region. The country would be ok, the region isn't going to work due the OW RTW.

[QUOTE=cavemanzk;9992156]One problem with DJ if you have alot of bag's and the fight is full it may not make it on the same fight and you will have to wait a few days. Although its probably not to likely to happen.

QUOTE]


This can also happen with NZ. We flew LHRLAXTBU and some of our bags got left behind in LAX. It's really an LAX (or US customs) problem rather a NZ problem, but was frustrating anyhow!

Bags came 36 hours later on next LAXTBU flight.

Never had any problems with DJ, but you never know what will happen next time!

Had another occassion flying RARLAXLON with NZ, where my bag went to LGW and I went to LHR, and my bag arrived home by courier before I did.