2011: the least expensive route

Above is the image of the cheapest itinerary I could find for a date range in 2011 that I think mirrors a possible date range in 1961 in which Barack Obama (senior) and his new wife, Stanley Ann Dunham Obama, might have traveled (had they traveled) between Hawaii and Kenya. I picked June 10th as my outbound date, because the University of Hawaii's spring semester might have been over by then, and October 1st as my return date, because, even though the fall semester would have already begun, it's unlikely airlines in 1961 would have allowed on a plane a woman with a baby younger than two months. (Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961.) Since I have never seen any specific evidence from a birther for a specific scenario in which the Obama family might have traveled to Kenya from Hawaii and back in 1961, I'm using my own dates. If someone wants to point me to a specific 1961 scenario with even the slightest reality-based background, I can adjust these dates accordingly, both for 2011 and, to the best of my ability, 1961.

Once more, this is not the shortest flight between the two cities available in 2011 for that date range (feel free to suggest another date range in the comments, based on evidence you have), but rather the least expensive flight one could book this year.

All right, all that being said, let's analyze it a little bit: the flight costs, this year, in 2011 U.S. dollars, $2,266.99. It entails a nine-hour-and-40-minute flight from Honolulu to Newark; a six-hour-and-45-minute layover in Newark; a seven-hour-and-30-minute flight to Brussels; a nearly three-hour layover in Brussels; an eight-hour-and-15-minute flight to Bujumbura, Burundi; and then a 90-minute flight to Nairobi.

The return flight involves an eight-hour flight from Nairobi to Zurich; a three-hour layover in Zurich; a hour-long flight from Zurich to Frankfurt; a three-and-a-half-hour layover in Frankfurt; an eleven-hour-plus flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco; almost three hours at SFO; and then a five-hour-and-40-minute flight to Honolulu.

Whew. Imagine taking that return flight with a two-month-old baby, future President of the United States or not!

Fortunately, as I mentioned, this is merely the least expensive flight between Hawaii and Kenya that I could find for mid-2011. You can also do this flight with one less stopover (two instead of three), but it will cost you a bit more. Let's look at another 2011 option in the next post, before we turn to 1961.