I think this forum is the most appropriate place for this question....I'm working on an award from JAX-ADL (Adelaide, Australia) using my UA miles. Currently I have an itinerary on hold for JAX-ORD-LAX-AKL-ADL, and the same on the return. LAX-AKL-ADL is on NZ, and it works fine to return ADL-AKL-LAX; however, I would like to take advantage of already being in that part of the world, and would like to try to make a short stopover on the return. It appears that ADL-AKL-HNL-LAX is not allowed, since the stopover is in the departure country.

So I am trying to come up with another option, to stop somewhere in the South Pacific on the return. NZ does fly AKL-PPT, but PPT-LAX is on Air Tahiti Nui, which has a codeshare with NZ, but they are not members of *A, so I don't believe that it's possible to book that. I've tried looking at NZ's route map, but I had one UA agent tell me that the only valid routing on NZ is ADL-AKL-LAX, but I don't know of another *A carrier to work with. I do know that Virgin Blue, although not a *A member, does codeshare with UA on some routes (i.e. ADL-SYD, ADL-MEL), but I would really like to visit one of the islands in the South Pacific. If anyone has any suggestions, or knows if this is possible to somehow route from Australia back to the US via a stop somewhere in the South Pacific, I'd greatly appreciate any input!