Wanting to book a RTW ex Tonga
Suggestions for a travel agent or options to book directly through the airline.
Has Tonga been hit by any recent increase in fares?

Only *A airline serving Tonga is Air NZ. From www.airnewzealand.com, their agent in Tonga is

I just emailed them for pricing, will post their reply here soon.

No reply yet. Has anyone actually bought a ticket on Tonga?

Hej Bj�rn!

I have booked and paid a ticket ex Tonga, but only with Oneworld. Organising a *A ticket would probably be a very similar process. I have basically done the following:
1) Planned my route to make sure that it met RTW ticket t&c
2) Called the Polynesian Airlines office in Nukualofa
3) Got their email address
4) Emailed the itinerary
5) Called to make sure that all flights were available and get the total price
6) Checked in www.checkmytrip.com to verify the booking
7) Faxed my credit card details with an authorisation of payment
8) Fly to pick up my ticket (you can probably get it mailed)
9) Fly back to Australia as first leg of my itinerary

I will do point 8) with an award flight and point 9) above next month.

Unfortunately, the OW RTW fares ex Tonga have increased around 50% since 15 June 05, so there is no longer an advantage to buy a OW ticket ex Tonga. I only just scraped in before that date to save AU$3000 for a DGLOB34. Next year I will fly *A for sure, unless they hike up their fees as well.

Lycka till!

PS. I've got 33,987 miles on my itinerary. 13 miles spare for DGLOB34!

Sounds good! Actually my name is Martin, the nick is my last name

I am still waiting for a reply. Im flying to my girlfriend in Melbourne in late August on a cheap SQ flight. Im thinking of adding a FRTWSTAR1 from Tonga if i can get the price i've seen on this forum (42k SEK).

Still no answer from the ticket office on Tonga. I will try to call them next week.

Hi Martin,
any recent news regarding your FRTWSTAR1 booking?

Cheers, Max!

Also does anyone know whether you can fly RTW via USA from Tonga but coming back to Australia first.. ie tonga - australia - usa - europe - asia - australia?


thanks

Simon

As long as its within maximum miles - yes. Your RTW would also need to end in Tonga.

BTW only *A flights to/from Tonga are on Air NZ. AKL-TBU, TBU-APW-LAX vv.

I would just like to mention that in order to get a tourist Visa on entry to Tonga you must have a valid ticket out of the country within the next 30 days.

I did not know that and got a bit nervous at the Tongan immigration. I had printed out my RTW booking from the internet, but I didn't know if that would be acceptable to the immigration officials.

Well, they didn't even ask for an outgoing ticket, so I still don't know what they would have done in my case. Talking to locals it seems that they are particularly looking for illegal immigrants from China, so having an Austalian passport may have kept me under their radar.

Anyway, next time I will make sure that my ticket is mailed to me before I go to another country to start a RTW trip.

Tonga was very nice and easy-going, Polynesian style. People were very friendly and I would like to come back for a relaxing holiday sometime. If you are looking for an action packed adventure time, Tonga is probably not your best option. But it is great for some time-off from a hectic life.

How did it work out with your ticket etc? Was the ticket price very different to the one you could have purchased at home?

It was certainly worthwhile for me. I managed to just scrape in and get a ticket at TOP 8730 + taxes which ended up being around AU$7000 including taxes and fuel surcharges. A DGLOB34 from Australia would have cost me over AU$10,000 including taxes so I saved more than $3,000 on the fare.

To be fair, the cost of the trip to Tonga should be included in the cost comparison, but I got an award flight to get there so it was very cheap for me. You can get low-season return economy ticket SYD-TBU for around AU$600 if you are lucky.

Oneworld has dramatically increased prices from Tonga since 15 June and it would not be much of an advantage to start your oneworld RTW from there now. The Star Alliance RTW fares seems to have gone up too. The best starting point for Australians from a cost point of view now is Sri Lanka or Thailand.

Actually, and more relevant to this *A forum, the best RTW deal for a comfortable First Class trip from Australia seems to be with LH, TG and UA. You can get it for less than AU$6,800 + taxes when originating from SYD.

That will be my next RTW trip. It is not a very flexible fare and only a limited number of stops are allowed, but it will suit me very well with the stops I require in North America and Europe. I just want to do this DGLOB34 trip first to keep my QF Platinum status before I do all my international travel with *A.

I'm very excited about my next RTW with LH. I've never flown international First Class before, so it will be a great new experience.