Great until you bleed the fuel scamcharge

BTW, AA will not allow its miles to be used on an Air Niugini QF codeshare. Why do you even need to bother with the Air Niugini codehare? You can use the 20k one way intra S-PAC award from anywhere in the Pacific (theoretically including from IPC) to POM via CNS on the flight operated by QF itself.

Note however that if you are connecting the same day with Air Niugini, they will not protect you in case of an irregularity on the QF segment if bought as separate tickets.

I flew Air Niugini from BNE to Rabaul last year. My first flight was delayed and in anticipation of the misconnect, they upgraded me to business and thus also allowed me to use the QF lounge.

Then when I did end up misconnecting in POM, they put me up for free at the Holiday Inn (around US$250-400 per night) with all meals. All this wouldn't have happened if I were on separate tickets.

QF is usually on time but just be warned.