Air New Zealand Air Points - Flying thru Auckland for miles

I'd appreciate a little advice from the regulars here on the NZ board to help me decide if I'm crazy or not. I'll be in Fiji and was looking at trying to get to Auckland for a few days to visit. What I came upon were some, ah, relatively reasonable C return fares to LAX from some of the more distant out islands. C and C2 and the like. The first is an unrestricted MPM fare, the second a bit restrictive on routing.

I'm a US Gold looking for some miles so I was thinking of chucking the 2nd half of my $57 Fiji fare and doing the Air New Zealand business class back to LA with an open return. The return would be further on this year, possibly into December. I was thinking of a LAX-CHC-AKL-etc. type routing with stopovers. Also looking into a LAX-SFO-HNL-AKL-etc. thing to maximise my US earning potential.

Even if I totally maximize the UA side of things to benefit from the US 100% elite bonus I'd still be looking at around 20,000 miles which comes out to $.09 per mile. Nothing stellar at all, but I figure decent for business class. This would also give me the opportunity to get back to New Zealand later this year for a more leisurely visit and also a chance to try the new business class seat. Any opinions?

Go for it! :D

Well, as much as I considered it, I decided to forego the trip out of the Polynesia and instead bought one of the cheap business class tickets to Brazil instead. I was highly, highly tempted though with the fares offered in the islands. It would have gotten me back down that way this fall and also given me a chance to try the new business class on NZ.

Thanks for all the advice though ;)