Speaking about this region makes me feel inspired. At
same time, speaking about finding cheap flights to go there is
completely another world, and probably if somebody asked me to find a
cheap flight to the South Pacific, I would make them pay for that. That
is due to the amount of hours I have spent doing research on the
options to go there, only to realize that it really does not exist this
deal we are all looking for.
On the other hand, it exists
thousands of possibilities where you can get an astronomic fee to get
there, when you could have reached the zone for a lot less. So, the
first thing to set is: how much should you be paying to get there?
Let's be sincere. If you travel from Europe, everything that goes up
from 1500 euros the round trip... let it be, this will not be your
flight, I promise. From Asia and from America, you could probably find
some deals for around 700 euros, that should be a price to look at. And
from Africa, there are really thousands of options, but seriously i
wouldn't take anything for more than 1500 euros also.
The second
step is to look at how many flights will you need to take. One golden
rule applies nearly always. The higher the number of times you change
from plane, the higher the cost involved, so try to keep it simple.
After this, one thing has to be considered. Believe me or not, but I
can promise to you that low cost has not arrived to this part of the
world. It simply does not exist. Trying to be a bit more positive, I am
going to mention a couple of things that can be useful. Always use the
search engines for arilines to find names that cover the route you
want, but never book through them. Instead, go to the mentioned
airline, and scan it to the very end until you find this low fare. I
promise it will always be cheaper.
In the end, the possibility to
get cheap flights to the zone turns around two airlines. One of them is
Zoom Airlines, and the other Oasis Hong Kong. The first one is possibly
the first low cost airline that crosses the Atlantic that has ever
existed. It means it allows you to go from London to New York for just
350 euros (about 450 dollars) the round trip, and it specially connects
all European destinations with Canada, and we are looking specially at
the flights to Vancouver, that is placed on the eastern coast of North
America. From there, you could find good options to travel to the South
Pacific, but do not expect any great deal. It is simply the best you
can find. Also Alitalia has normally the cheapest flights to reach
America.
If you are US resident, of course this would not make
sense. Your first step will be to reach Los Angeles or San Francisco
with a low cost carrier, and from there take the best option.
When
looking at the other side, an airline that appeared just 1 year ago,
Oasis Hong Kong, is bringing low fares to the route between Europe and
Asia. From London to Hong Kong you can find it for 500 euros (725
dollars) which is pretty good compared to the competition. At the day
of writing this article, this option is something that will probably
close you in front of some airlines that will make you pay a lot to get
to Australia or New Zealand from there. But, this is about to change,
as Oasis Hong Kong is already developing to get specially a new route
from Hong Kong to Sydney and Canberra, which will be a real hit to
competition, specially to Cathay Pacific, as they will make the cost of
this trip for the half of what this last ones actually offer. We will
see.
Let me now tell you about the possibilities within South
Pacific, studying specially Australia and New Zealand, top touristic
destinations. Still there is no way to cross the sea between them for a
reasonable price. A European trip of the same distance with Ryanair
would be more than 10 times less the price those guys charge to cross.
Still no solution to this problem. The good news is that within the
countries themselves, it does exist some low cost companies that can
make the national trips affordable. For instance, the Auckland -
Christchurch can be made for 40 euros, about 80 kiwi dollars, or 60 US
dollars. Still it is a terrible amount compared to the distance, but I
will not complain.
Finally, a last deal found at the time of
writing. The airline Qantas has very good options to travel from Europe
to the area. Check their prices at their web-site, specially the Hot
Deals section, and you will find some good discounts, reaching the 1300
euros barrier. They are also one of the favorites between America and
South Pacific.