tothetrail

I have these miles to use:
500k US
212k AA
150k BA

Business Class for two people
12 day window Thanksgiving week 2012
Willing to connect anywhere, thinking New Zealand, Australia, or Japan

I have the following requirements:
Need to be in GUM for 5 hours between 9 AM and 4 PM, M-F (ANA, AA, UA)
Need to be in SPN for 3 hours between 10 AM and 5 PM, Wed - Sun (UA)
(Hopefully the above can be on the same day)
Need to be in PPG for 5 hours between 8 AM and 4 PM, M-F (HA)
(Can connect in APW) (NZ, AA)
Need to be in HNL for any full day except Sunday and any other day for 4 hours between 8 AM and 5 PM
Need to be in KOA or ITO for any full day

It seems like Star Alliance can cover everything, but I can't figure out where to start. Is there any chance to use one *A Award for this?

PresskittJon

Search FT for "island hopper" and you might get some options.

tothetrail

Thanks, that does look like a fun way to get to/from Guam from HNL.

bosboy73

Really curious - 5 hours? 3 hours? 4 hours? Is this some kind of "Amazing Race"?

For one, Tutuila is a fascinating island and if you've never been there before, spending only 5 hours in PPG is a bit anomalous! Unless you're not there to have a poke around and are just trying to get in and out.

One of the strangest posts I've seen on FT for a while!

tothetrail

Well, these are just minimum times I need to spend there. I'm trying to visit all 397 U.S. National Parks. Each National Park unit has a passport stamp that has a changeable date so you can record your visit. So I have a "Passport Book" for all of these stamps. I just need to get to the visitor center for the stamp. They usually have a film and displays you can check out to learn about the park. Then, I usually find a small hike or something and visit the significant areas of the park. I have visited about 260 of the 397. Guam and American Samoa are among the most difficult to visit, along with all the remote Alaska parks.

This trip is just about getting the stamps and checking out the parks to see if they are worth taking a whole vacation to fully experience. I'm trying to use miles to just do a bare minimum visit and try to get all of stamps in Guam, AS, and Hawaii in the twelve days, just to see if it can be done.

It's only complicated because there are no direct flights from Guam to AS. So it will require going back to HNL or going to Japan or New Zealand after each island. That's why I am having trouble figuring it all out.

vysean

One of the more interesting things you can do in American Samoa is a homestay, semi-coordinated by the National Park Service staff there. I attempted to do it on my stay but there are only a few families that participate and I waited until too close to my departure date to finalize any plans. I'd encourage you to consider it and make your stay in PPG a day or three longer.

I didn't check to see if they have the passport stamp (I assume you've researched enough to know), but they do of course have the standard color park brochures and a few other documents on trails and related information.

As may be expected, not much to do there, but the park has some beautiful views, and the staff were incredibly friendly when I stopped by. I could swear that the visitor center was in a small two-story commercial building just down the street from the McDonald's, but looking at Google Maps it looks like that's not the case (or no longer). The tsunami came through a few months after I was there, so I wonder if they have moved since?

NZ flies AKL-APW, and APW-PPG is a cheap and frequent flight via prop. At check-in, you get on the luggage scale so they can see how much you weigh. Not for the modest...

vysean

Only thought on this is to book a LAX-SPN award using US miles, on the outbound LAX-HNL-GUM-SPN, return SPN-GUM-CNS-AKL [stopover] - LAX.

For your stopover book a separate AKL-APW return flight either as an award via US miles or just pay for it (I booked a cheap ticket with Pacific Blue which was just fine).

As you will find out, US is absolutely fantastic for redemptions in the South Pacific (so long as availability on partner carriers exists).

Total cost in business class should be 110k + 30k per person, or 280k total for two people.

tothetrail

Wow, thanks for all the great info, this is exactly what I was looking for. I really appreciate it.