Flight Itinerary

I gave one travel agent (OWT) a call and made a tentative reservation. I also phoned a local travel agency off-base (HIT) but they quoted a fare of about US$1,700. I was hoping HIT would find a better fare for me since they did indeed do that last year, but I'm hoping they will soon before I bite the bullet and confirm with the American OWT. (In all honestly, I'd rather support HIT because OWT can sound pretty snobby, like a lot of American agents.)

I still need to give my friend a ring before I can confirm any flights, though. Unfortunately, the time I need to fly is during the peak season (December-January) so it's going to be something short of Divine providence to get a reasonable fare since they're fluctuating in all sorts of directions.

So far, according to OWT, it seems that the most inexpensive way to head to the southern hemisphere is with China Air and Air New Zealand. I'll be departing from Okinawa, Japan; transiting through Taipei, Taiwan and Sydney, Australia; and arriving in Auckland, New Zealand.

Departure:
December 26, 2006
China Air (round trip, approx. $800)

• OKA - TAI (1.5 hour)
• TAI - SYD (9.5 hours)

December 27
Air New Zealand (round trip, around $600)

• SYD - AKL (3.5 hours)

Return:
January 15, 2007
Air New Zealand

• AKL - SYD

China Air

• SYD - TAI
• Overnight stop-over, tentatively at the Miramar hotel (and as grand as that sounds, I might later opt and confirm in favour of the Holiday Inn, which is closer to the airport- yeah, I know. Why not indulge? Because of the reason that Holiday Inn is closer to the airport in case anything happens, and I'm not sure what the exact price is to stay overnight at either hotel since the agent wasn't being very sure about it. Plus, if anything does goes wrong, I might not care which hotel I'm staying at. We shall see, though).

January 16

• TAI - OKA
  

Total airtime: 14.5 hours per direction


HIT presented very similar flights, with the exception of the SYD-AKL leg, in which Qantas will be the hosting airline instead of Air NZ.

Of course, all fares are subject to change, but the itinerary will be very much the same with either agent.