Moving to Hawaii--how will this affect my ability to travel?

In about a year I'll be moving to Hilo, Hawaii. Will I be able to find flights to Asia or Oceania for cheaper than good mainland US prices? I'm hoping for anything: if it turns out Easter Island and Irkutsk are the budget destinations available from Hawaii, I'll gleefully don my parka. Thanks!

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<hr>Will I be able to find flights to Asia or Oceania for cheaper than good mainland US prices?<hr></blockquote>

Maybe to Tokyo and a few other cities in Asia but don't count on it. They're usually about the same as the US prices maybe more. Just to let you know the flights from the US west coast to E. Asia fly across the NORTH Pacific just south of Kodiak, AK and along the south side of the Aleutian islands up in Alaska as this is a shorter route unless they're deliberately scheduled to go into Honolulu to pick up and drop off people as going through Hawai'i is actually a longer route too. For S. Pacific could be a different tajectory from California which could miss Hawai'i altogether depending which is the shortest tajectory/route in relative to the earth's curveature.

Anyways, you can do kayak search and see what's out there. I don't know if Easter Island and Irkutsk are 'budget' destinations per se, orginiating from Hawai'i but you can look on kayak.com and judge for youself.

Actually from Hilo, nada, usually. Even from KOA there isn't usually much. But when you add HNL to the mix, yes, specials are available all over the pacific rim, or at least to the developed parts of it. So you can see that if you add in the pleasant local airfares (of around $85RT due to price wars and 2 new carriers), you can still get some very nice deals. BTW we're moving in the next year or so to Ocean View, about 70 miles from ITO and 45 or so from KOA.

You'll need to sign up for email specials from the US acrriers as well as Air Canada, JAL, Korean etc. Some of them you can set to only show specials from Hawaii. There has been some discussion of direct service HNL to IPC(Rapa Nui or Easter Island or Isla dePascua), but AFAIK nothing yet announced.

Ed

Jetstar, Qantas' budget brand, have flights to honululu from AUstralia. Join their mailing list to hear about flight specials first for the best prices.

If you love to travel cheap, living in Hawaii will SUCK! I am from here and it is soooooooo hard to find affordable tickets. Yes, sometimes to Japan there are some specials, but most often, the flights to Asia from the West Coast are cheaper, even though they stop here en route!!! ...the cheapest flights/packages you will find are to Las Vegas..."the 9th island" (go figure...) Sorry. AND, living on the Big Island, you'll have to pay extra to get to Honolulu International Airport first. At least the interisland fares are super cheap right now, you can fly $29.00 one way on the first and last flights out. But, when you get "rock fever" beware...you'll be paying to get away...

On the other hand, flights from ITO to anywhere (out of the chain) build up miles quickly! Check where various air carriers go from Hawaii and pick one with the most interesting destinations. Stick with them for most of your flying needs and you'll end up with free flights to exotic locations. Hawaiian will get you to Australia, Samoa, and Tahiti. United/Aloha will get you to New Zealand among other places. Btw, prices from HNL-New Zealand tend to be higher than LA-New Zealand, but the flight times are a lot saner and more pleasant.

Northwest also offer flights from Honolulu to Tokyo where you can connect to other flights to other parts of east Asia like Hong Kong or Singapore.