South Pacific 2017/18 - Plan of attack?
 

So I've got one of those dreaded milestone birthdays coming up in the spring of 2017 & one of my goals has always been to get to the South Pacific by that time.

I've been thinking about this trip for a while & have done a little legwork already but was looking for some suggestions as how to best round out my card/point holdings to minimize expenses as much as possible.

I've got roughly 120k IHG points & really like the IC property in Fiji. I've also heard the best diving is probably around Fiji so that's kind of an important factor. I intend to get my better half to sign up for the IHG card before their current bonus promo expires - this should add another 70-80k IHG points.

I also currently have cards to accrue points with Chase UR, Citi TYP & AmEx MR. Additionally, I have access to some airline statement credits thru Citi & AmEx.

At this point I guess what I'm looking for is the best airline/alliance card/program options. Unfortunately I'm not a frequent flier so I've only got a smattering of points w/ most of the major US airlines.

Any other suggestions you might have are appreciated as well.

Thanks so much!!

What are your points balances currently.
If you don't fly, and already have most of the cards, its going to be very hard to get enough points to fly to the South Pacific in a premium cabin within the time you'd need to book, and may even be hard to get enough points for 2 coach tickets.

As for IHG, if you are a cardholder, you should have your annual free night certificate. If you want to stay at that IC, youc an look into getting an ambassador membership which would give you a BOGO for a weekend.

Point balances are currently in flux as I'll be using some for a trip to Italy in a couple of months.

While of course it would be nice, I'm not terribly concerned about a premium cabin seats.

UA - 2540 miles
AA - 2600
SWA - 5255
Avios - not sure what it'll be after flight to Italy?
Guessing I'll have 50k points each in my AmEx MR & Chase UR accounts after Italy.
Marriott - 100k

Definitely plan on utilizing my free IHG anniversary night :) I'll check out the ambassador membership.

What airline/partnerships should I focus on for travel in that region?
Would it make sense to get an AA card & then also use the Citi TY for transfer to Quantas? If I recall correctly Fiji Airlines was a partner in there somewhere I think... or is that getting too convoluted?

If you're not flying a lot, partnerships dont matter. Youll need to get your points from credit card signups. (An SPG one could be good) AA miles don't combine with Qantas miles, so you'd need enough for a ticket in either account.
Most airlines have partners that can get you to the South Pacific. The question is whether there will be award availability.

To see how many miles you'd need, look at the award charts for different airlines, including Alaska Airlines (SPG partner), United (Chase and SPG Partner), Cathay Pacific (Amex and Citi and SPG partner), Delta and Aeroplan (Amex /SPG). Qantas requires a lot more points than these. Note, Cathay, Aeroplan and United will be hard because they require finding award availability on Air New Zealand, which is hard to come by. Both American and Alaska partner with Fiji Airlines. On Alaska you can also route via Seoul on Korean. Delta has Korean and Virgin Australia.

To be blunt, with as little points you currently have, if yorue willing to fly coach, it might be better to just look for a sale. Flights are available for under $1000. For two tickets, you'll likely need between 140,000 and 200,000 miles; this might not be trip to get all of those for.

So you basically have close to nil ff miles in any ffp. You need to do a lot of research on how awards with airline frequent flyer programs work. You cannot move ff miles from 1 ffp to another.
Frequent flying is not the same as frequent spending

South Pacific islands can be hard to get to. Limited airlines service these places. Airfares from Australia and New Zealand to Fiji , Samoa and others can be cheap. Hotel & airfares package deals can be as cheap.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html Looks at the bottom of post 2

Thanks for the feedback. The whole partners/transfer thing is still kind of new to me obviously. Sounds like maybe since I don't really have an organic opportunity to earn ff miles I'll probably have to rely on my UR/MR/TYP & maybe get lucky & find a fare sale too. Even if I was able to get just one of the fares covered by points it would be great!!

Thanks again!

Not sure where (in USA?) you are based.

There aren't a lot of options to South Pacific.

Air Tahiti Nui flies LAX-PPT (Tahiti) and on to AKL
Fiji Airways flies LAX-NAN, HNL-NAN and onward connections to neighbouring countries
Air New Zealand flies LAX-RAR (Cook Islands) and on to AKL
LAN flies SCL-PPT (via Easter Island)

There are a few options from Asia
e.g. Korean flies ICN-NAN

More options from Australia (especially Sydney), and the most options are from New Zealand (mainly Auckland).

Having spent a fair bit of time in the Pacific (literally) I would just ever so slightly caution you to undertake careful due diligence of Fiji and Tahiti before you press the button. People often have the wrong image of these places based on books/photos/legends they've come across and are surprised and disappointed when they realise these islands are a bit dumpy in many places (especially the former).

Thanks Kiwi Flyer,

I am based on the US west coast so that makes it a bit easier. Most likely I'd catch a quick flight or drive to LAX & go from there.

Hmmm. Food for thought indeed. I've spent time in Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico and many of the smaller Caribbean islands that were less than glamorous. Do you think it would be comparable? I'm definitely not looking for or expecting 5 star everything. The IC property in Fiji is way beyond what I would usually book but given the occasion I thought I'd splurge a little. With any luck I'll be spending most of my time underwater anyway :)

I strongly recommend you read Paul Theroux's excellent 'The Happy Isles of Oceania' It's a great book written by a terrific writer. It will give you a bit of perspective on the South Pacific.


There is no question that there are beautiful islands and resorts (even in Fiji), but much of the rest of the country, especially in any city, is so badly treated by locals that you just don't want to spend much time there and it leaves you with a bit of a bad taste in your mouth.

Also Air France flies LAX-PPT. The Flying Blue program charges 30K miles (and unfortunately, IIRC, something like $200 in fuel surcharges) one-way in Y. FB is a transfer partner of both UR and MR (plus Citi TYP and SPG) so that might be the start of something to work with for part of a trip the OP. Of course OP could consider other partners such as DL that you could redeem on the AF flight (at different mileage rates but in some cases without the fuel surcharge).

The best diving is from liveaboardv or specific resorts on Viti Levu and outlying islands. The IHC is near Nuvstu and not awfully far from Pacific Harbour, which means some decent (albeit not as you would from a Bligh Channel liveaboard) diving and highlands rafting and hiking. Not much diving out of Nuvstu afaik, and not out of Nadi-Denarau just north.

Of course, time of year can be important for rain and the occasional tropical cyclone. Link.

So for IHG I would sign up for their Accelerate 2016 promotion. See what they are offering and see if it makes sense to do a mattress run for bonus points.

After that, without doing some crazy Mileage Runs, you are stuck to earning points/miles by means 'other than flying.'

Look at some of the biggest sign-up bonuses being offered now. You can basically get 220,000 SkyMiles with four Delta Co-Branded AmEx cards and meet the minimum spend. Thanks a huge chunk towards an award ticket to the South Pacific.

Virgin Australia (a SkyTeam partner) has been having some real sales recently; we had an SFO-Australia roundtrip for less than $430 and then an LAX-Australia for about $458. Either of those could re-position you for a cheap flight from either Australia or New Zealand to Fiji.

Keep and eye on on FlyerTalk or some of the specialized Mileage Run and Fare alert blogs.

Fiji is considerably dumpier than The Bahamas for example. Do your research carefully though as in Pacific nations the best diving is often not on the main island.