UA SEA-MNL $730's AI - +Island Hopper return..
Jul 6, 2012, 5:53 am
#31
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Southern, CA, USA
Programs: UA just 8800 mi short of Silver
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There are nice beaches in Palau and Majuro. The beaches in the Truk Lagoon are OK and you can hire a ponga to show you all of the islands in the lagoon and/or head to the ocean beaches, or go fishing. I enjoyed Pohnpei because you could snorkle or dive with the mantas, hike around Sokehs rock and head out to waterfalls and Nan Madol ruins.
Jul 9, 2012, 11:23 pm
#32
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Austin TX USA
Programs: UA life 1K, 2MM; AA Life Pt 3mm; DL nada now!; AS nada now; BA, FD, CX, LH, DD, Amex Pt, Diners
Posts: 950
Nah
Jul 10, 2012, 3:17 am
#33
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Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Programs: Frontier Gold, DL estranged 1MMer, Spirit VIP, CO/NW/UA/AA once gold/plat/comped gold now dust.
Posts: 38,151
I've flown on the island-hopper a number of times. The first was as an alternate to HNL-GUM (as I had an overnight in GUM either way), and that inspired later visits to MAJ (twice), Pohnpei and Kosrae. The way to do it was to book a 25K award out of MNL with stopover and see 2 spots (and Palau and Yap also were eligible). This being pre-merger.
Before 9/11 you could get out and walk around at the airports, but afterward as a thru passenger they herded you into holding pens like so much cattle.
Also, they can only wait out bad weather for so long before skipping an island. KSA passengers had to be offloaded in PNI on one flight I took and sent back on the next one eastbound.
Pohnpei's a beautiful island that'd get lots of tourists if it had a beach (other than offshore). The real hibiscus and waterfall thing, + Nan Madol. KSA is even slower-paced. MAJ itself is NOT really a tropical paradise (though there are nice sections of the island, like Laura), but it's culturally fascinating and very threatened by rising sea levels.
All places are also especially great if you like eating tuna.
Before 9/11 you could get out and walk around at the airports, but afterward as a thru passenger they herded you into holding pens like so much cattle.
Also, they can only wait out bad weather for so long before skipping an island. KSA passengers had to be offloaded in PNI on one flight I took and sent back on the next one eastbound.
Pohnpei's a beautiful island that'd get lots of tourists if it had a beach (other than offshore). The real hibiscus and waterfall thing, + Nan Madol. KSA is even slower-paced. MAJ itself is NOT really a tropical paradise (though there are nice sections of the island, like Laura), but it's culturally fascinating and very threatened by rising sea levels.
All places are also especially great if you like eating tuna.
Jul 11, 2012, 12:51 am
#34
Join Date: May 2009
Location: SEA
Programs: AA EXP (2.5MM), Hilton Gold, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 4,859
As a diver with a WWII interest, the Island Hopper is amazing. You can go to Palau (Pelilieu) to dive and visit the sites of the vicious battles there, and then make a stopover on the way back at Truk and dive the Japanese wrecks, or explore Pohnpei or Majuro. Some have even made the stopover at Yap and taken the missionary plane over to Ulithi. There are hundreds of different combinations. I have been lucky on Island Hopper trips. All have been partly cloudy so you can see a thousand different atolls below with various shades of blue and purple. It is so worth the inconvenience to take it, as opposed to the non-stop to Guam. It seems UA has removed Cairns from that itinerary. Pre-merger, I was able to book a reward from Honolulu to dive the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea and do stopover at Truk on the way back for 40,000 miles. The same is true of Nadi, where you could fly on the return to Honolulu NAN-GUM and choose your stopover on the Island Hopper. As I see it, for just a few less hours of sleep, one could take the 6am to Guam via the Island Hopper and and have some fun, or take the afternoon non stop to Guam and read a boring book. Both flights arrive in Guam at about the same time.
Any recommendations? Sounds like great diving oppportunities.