Breaking up a trip to Australia with an extended stop in Hawaii is a popular way to ease the long journey. It's just over a third of the way there.
Sometimes it's also significantly cheaper to buy 2 separate roundtrip tickets: One from Vancouver to Hawaii, and one from Hawaii to Australia.
It can cost a lot less than a single roundtrip ticket to Australia.
In this blog post I'll go through a working example using some very cheap Hawaii-Australia fares that are available at the moment.
Here's An Example Involving Vancouver, Honolulu, and Sydney
1. Start by going to the following Multi-City search on Skyscanner:
Skyscanner Multi-City search: Vancouver, Honolulu, and Sydney
2. Click on the magnifying glass near the top left. You should see a search like this one:
Vancouver (YVR) to Honolulu (HNL)
Honolulu (HNL) to Sydney (SYD)
Sydney (SYD) to Honolulu (HNL)
Honolulu (HNL) to Vancouver (YVR)
- For the second leg, from Honolulu to Sydney, you can try changing it to one of these dates:
Feb 15, 29, 22, 24, 26
Mar 14, 18, 21, 25, 28, 30
- For the third leg, from Sydney to Honolulu, you can try changing it to one of these dates:
Feb 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 22
Mar 7, 14
- Now adjust the first and fourth dates, to give yourself more or less time in Honolulu.
Here's An Example Involving Vancouver, Honolulu, and Melbourne
1. Start by going to the following Multi-City search on Skyscanner:
Skyscanner Multi-City search: Vancouver, Honolulu, and Melbourne
2. Click on the magnifying glass near the top left. You should see a search like this one:
Vancouver (YVR) to Honolulu (HNL)
Honolulu (HNL) to Melbourne (MEL)
Melbourne (MEL) to Honolulu (HNL)
Honolulu (HNL) to Vancouver (YVR)
- For the second leg, from Honolulu to Melbourne, you can try changing it to one of these dates:
Feb 4, 7, 11, 14, 18, 21, 25, 28
Mar 3, 6, 10, 13, 17, 20, 24 -- cheapest
- For the third leg, from Melbourne to Honolulu, you can try changing it to one of these dates:
Feb 7, 14, 21, 28
Mar 3, 10, 17
- Now adjust the first and fourth dates, to give yourself more or less time in Honolulu.
How This Works
The example dates below are outdated, but this blog post may still be useful for learning how this works.
First we look for a roundtrip flight from Vancouver to Honolulu...
Flight 1: Vancouver to Honolulu, Hawaii
A Google Flights search shows flights in December and January from Vancouver to Honolulu, Hawaii on WestJet for $383 CAD roundtrip including taxes.
Flight 2: Honolulu to Sydney or Melbourne, Australia
This is the flight that's really the key. You'd probably want to book this flight before you booked the Vancouver-Honolulu flight.. It's a lot harder to find a cheap flight from Honolulu to Sydney and dates are usually limited.
Jetstar is always the #1 suspect when it comes to a cheap flight from Hawaii to Australia. Every now and then they offer up a gem.
Right now Jetstar has some cheap flights in January, February and March 2024 starting at $368 CAD roundtrip including taxes. (Note: When you go from Google Flights to the Jetstar website, the prices are in $USD.).
As a general rule you want your Hawaii-Australia flight to be around $600 CAD roundtrip or less to be worth doing this.
With Flight #1 we penciled in November 7 to November 26 as our potential dates for Vancouver to Honolulu and back.
So for Flight #2 from Honolulu to Sydney we could potentially book November 9 to November 23.
This gives us a few nights in Honolulu on the way there, and a few on the way back.
You can also occasionally find cheap flights from Honolulu to Melbourne, Australia in the $300 or $400s CAD roundtrip. (Apr 2 to Apr 16 is currently $410 CAD roundtrip)
Caveats & The Math
- Jetstar only includes 7 kg (15 lbs) of carry-on luggage with their base price and no meals. If you want a more realistic price with 30 lbs of carry-on and meals, add around $270 CAD roundtrip. So it would really be around $600 CAD roundtrip for the flight from Honolulu to Sydney.
- Adding up the cost of the 2 roundtrip flights, ($362 + a more realistic $600, we get $962 CAD roundtrip for both flights..
For comparison a regular roundtrip flight from Vancouver to Sydney, Australia on Air Canada in November currently costs $2700 CAD.
Of course, as you probably realize, spending time in Honolulu is not free. A typical couple could easily spend $200/person per night for accommodation alone.
Our $1700 savings (per person) on flights would be considerably less after 5-6 nights in Honolulu.
So you really have to consider the stop in Hawaii to be a bonus addition of the vacation experience, and a nice place to get some rest, to be worth it.
- Your 2 roundtrip tickets have absolutely no association with each other. If something happens with one of the flights, the airline involved with the other flight has no responsibility to help you. This is why it's a good idea to give yourself at least a few days in Hawaii on both ends of the trip. If you cut it too close with say, just 1 night in Hawaii, you could be asking for trouble if there are any delays or cancellations.
