Well, I have a bit of a problem. I'm "stuck" on the island of Tuvalu.

Here's what happened. I booked a round trip United award from Southeast Asia to Samoa, then returning 10 days later from Tonga to Southeast Asia. During those ten days I planned to do some island hopping on Fiji Airways, from Samoa to Fiji to Tuvalu to Fiji to Tonga. Two days in Tuvalu, what could go wrong.

Everything was going smoothly until I got to Tuvalu and some rain hit the area and Fiji Airways cancelled yesterday's flight out and apparently the flight is not coming today either. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not. The next scheduled flight back to Fiji is in four days (Tuesday).

Unfortunately, my United return flight departs on Monday from Tonga. Here is the routing:


3/1 Supposed to fly from Nadi, Fiji to Tonga on Fiji Airways, now looking doubtful. No flights from Fiji to Tonga on 3/2.

3/3 Fly from Tonga to Auckland to Melbourne on Air New Zealand, start of United award return
3/4 Melbourne to Bangkok on Thai Airways
3/5 Bangkok to Phnom Penh on Thai Airways


Let's say I can get back to Fiji tomorrow (3/1), but probably not in time to fly to Tonga. It looks like I can't re-route the United award return from Fiji to SE Asia instead of Tonga, there are no award seats from Fiji remaining.

I could buy a ticket from Nadi to Auckland on 3/2 and try to pick up my itinerary in Auckland, but I don't think that will work. I know that if you're flying from cities A to B to C on an airline, and you skip/miss flight A-B, they will promptly cancel your flight from B-C.

There are also direct flights from Fiji to Melbourne on 3/2, from where I could pick up my itinerary on Thai Airways on 3/4. Would they also be aware that I had missed TBU-AKL-MEL on Air New Zealand and have cancelled my ticket, or is it possible that they would not be aware because those segments were on another airline?

Another option is to pay $600 to fly from Fiji to Auckland to Tonga on 3/2, arriving in Tonga on 3/3, then immediately board presumably the same Air New Zealand plane back from Tonga to Auckland, picking up the return itinerary intact.

I haven't tried calling any of the airlines yet since my phone doesn't work on Vanuatu. I'm not sure what my best approach would be with them, would United or Air New Zealand waive my requirement to board in Tonga if I call them in advance and tell them I can't make it there?

Any advice appreciated, I'm in a bit of a pickle here and would appreciate any ideas that I haven't thought of.