Buying plane tickets in advance / Solomon Airlines / Honiara travel agents

Has anyone used the 'Pacifica Travel Centre' (located in the King Solomon Hotel) as a travel agent? I know Guadalcanal Travel Services are recommended, but I can't contact them.

I want to buy internal plane tickets (at least my first one) in advance, as they're supposed to sell out. Flysolomons.com refers me to a ticketing agent in Australia and both it and solomonairlines.co.uk deal in paper tickets, which aren't much good as they'd need to be posted to me. (Guess what I'm not going to have for a while? A postal address.) They're also more expensive than the fares on flysolomons.com. Can I get tickets reserved and held for me in Honiara so I can pick them up when I arrive? Would Solomon Airlines do this for me (reliably), or do I have to use an agent (hence first question)?

Alternatively Solomon Airlines seem to have some sort of telephone office at Nadi aiport: could I buy tickets when I'm passing through Nadi, which would be just about far enough in advance, I think?

Advice appreciated, please.

Solomon Airlines fly to Nadi, so you should be able ot book tickets there. Otherwise, phone Solomon Airlines in Honiara. I know they now do e-tickets for international flights, but I suspect that they only have paper tickets for internal flights.
Where are you travelling to? Many flights are overbooked, and they "bump" passengers. Other flights simply do not arrive, eg last Friday's evening flight to Auki didn't go because the plane was late coming back from Western Province. You will need to be flexible.
I have booked internal flights (to Santa Cruz) through an Australian travel agent successfully.
Pacifica is OK, but I always bool direct through Solomon Airlines.

Ozziegiraffe: to Rennell and Bellona.

Do you know if there's an actual, walk-up-to ticket desk in Nadi?

Send an email to: sales@solair.com.sb, explain your situation and request them to do a booking for the flights you want, supply names and other details, tell them you will immediately after arrival come to their Honiara City office and buy the tickets.

Agree with comments about Sol Air direct or Pacifica or GTS.

HOWEVER... as per Ozziegiraffe's comments, don't plan your trip assuming that the domestic flights go to schedule. The booking is only the first hurdle. There are too many confounding variables - insufficient domestic aircraft, overbooking, higher demand in the more populous provinces, a crazy ticketing system that allows no-shows to get full refunds, weather, long distances, expensive fuel, etc, etc.

Part of the solution is to present early on the day of the scheduled flight. The rest is up to you to make flexible plans and to not get stressed out if things change.

I am keeping all of these things in mind!

faisi, I haven't (yet) heard back from that email address, but the Australian agent (worldaviation.com.au) now says I can get an e-ticket (AUD$163.70 Honiara -> Rennell). Should I go with that?

Spakatumas, I kind of like the idea of no-shows being given full refunds: I'm a bit worried about the schedules of my international flights in.

But once in the Solomons, I'm not in too much of a hurry. I have just over a month there (rather than the two I am now wishing I had planned, but I had major cheap-ticket availability problems later on). Not too bad? For one small province and however long it takes in Honiara?

I haven't (yet) heard back from that email address

I just did. I got an entire reservation for exactly what I asked for.

I love it when difficult things turn out to be simple.

(I'm remembering the warnings.)

Thank-you everyone in this thread for being so helpful.

It gives me more confidence doing it this way than through Australia.

I think World Aviation is the Australian franchisee for Solomon Airlines so there should be no problems with them selling domestic flights. It used to be only one flight a week to Rennell-Bellona. That will be the main issue.

To be perfectly honest, Solomon Airlines staff used to be fairly generous towards foreign visitors and whenever overbooking was a problem they bumped the local people. I remember a very funny experience sharing a flight with a guy from Simbo who, although technically an Aust citizen, was judged by the staff to be the person to get bumped. He was not happy..

Anyhow, enjoy Solo. Wish I was going.

My recent trip was the first time my Aussie travel agent gave me an e-ticket for Solomon Airlines - previously they were all paper (up to a year ago.)(I think booked through World Aviation).
The e-ticket had the added advantage of departure tax already being paid.

I would also support the advice of being at the airport early to avoid getting bumped.