Originally Posted by
sexykitten7
I stumbled across this wonderful find by @
ck3kk last October (actually on my birthday): LAX-SFO-HKG-GUM-TKK-PNI-KSA-MAJ-HNL-LAX for $450 which includes an eastbound island hopper (IH) on the return. Since it’s a
HKG fare, you cannot stop in GUM. In fact, the longest connection was 4 hours so I basically flew non-stop for 2.5 days (aka the Lucky method). Ticketed for 11MAY since it was the farthest out (e.g. warmest weather). I did the same for a $450 SAN-EUR fare last year. Although in retrospect, May was almost too warm for the South Pacific.
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Thank you sexykitten for your trip report! My trip is still a few months away, and I've already had a handful of schedule changes including two that pushed me from the IH to the GUM-HNL direct flight (we're booked on the eastbound hopper like yours) and required me to call UA to get put back onto the Hopper. Let's just say that I took the advice from this thread to help the agent get us back onto the Hopper and hopefully any subsequent changes won't boot us off of it again.
I'm also glad I booked before the template was updated to put the $500 surcharge on UA 132/UA133 because it looks like we won't see fares that cheap again unless UA revokes that surcharge (ha!) Looking at the fare rules, if UA changes the sched again I should be able to get my flights restored without it triggering a reprice that would add the fee as per current fare rules - historical fare rules would apply in my case, I hope?