Fiji
 

I have a ton of Marriott points that I want to use next year (actually early 2008) for a trip to Fiji.

I was planning on converting them to AA points and wanted to book business class from BWI-Fiji. According to AA, its 125k miles/ticket.

We would really like to leave BWI have a stopover in Hawaii (1 week) and then 1 week in Fiji. Return from Fiji would not have a stopover.

1) Is the stopover in Hawaii possible/legal?

2) Has anyone had any success on this route or are seats next to impossible?

3) How far out can I book?

Any additional advice or comments are welcome.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Todd

I think you may not be aware that AA has an All-Partner award and an AA OneWorld award, which are different.

The 125k award you mentioned is an All-Partner found here:
http://www.aa.com/apps/AAdvantage/Vi...artnersContent

You posted this message on the OneWorld board, and the AA OneWorld award is based on the distance travelled. In your case, this is a Zone 6 OneWorld award which costs 130k.
http://www.aa.com/content/aboutUs/on...horEvent=false

Main differences: The AllPartner lets you choose from more airlines, has limited stopover rules, and you can fly on as few as 1 airline if you choose. The OneWorld gives you multiple stopovers, but requires that you fly on at least 2 non-AA OneWorld partners.

You can read more about the latter award here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=433366

Depending on what you want, your question may belong on the AA board instead.

To answer your first question, if you are able to get a OneWorld award to Hawaii and Fiji, then yes you are permitted to stopover in Hawaii.

No Oneworld airline goes to Fiji, so a Oneworld award isn't possible. Qantas codeshares, but those flights aren't available on a Oneworld award.

As rrgg said, AA has what they term an all-airline award. You can use any combination of the carriers, but you would have to go from the US to Fiji via the south pacific and not via any other continent. So your options are to go BWI-DFW/ORD-HNL-NAN on AA and Air Pacific or BWI-DFW/ORD-HNL-SYD-NAN on AA, Qantas and Air Pacific.

I think you can book 330 days out, iirc. Judging from the posts on the AA forum, seats on Air Tahiti Nui and Air Pacific were always plentiful, but have gotten harder to book in the past year or so. Seats on Qantas are notoriously difficult. Seats on AA are hit and miss.

Thank you both for the feedback. We will probably use miles to get to HNL and then buy our own tickets to Fiji.

I guess this situation should have resolved itself by 2008?

I wouldn't worry unduly.

Fiji has had several coups in the past and they always steer clear of impacting on tourists (since so important to the economy).

Just to expand on the Fiji coup situation. This happens from time to time and is generally isolated in Suva, while the main airport is in Nadi, a good distance away. The majority of resorts are also a good distance from Suva or on an entirely different island.

As always you can obtain travel advice on go/ no go destinations at: http://www.smarttraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/

Fiji is currently set to High Degree of Caution while Suva is set to Reconsider Your Need to Travel.

Keeping things in one Fiji thread- QANTAS have an office in Nadi I believe. If I wanted to buy a ONEX RTW ticket starting in Mauritius (or any other country for that matter) my reading of the rules is that I could buy in Fiji and pay the same price as if I buy in the country that the trip originates in as there is no fare published for Fiji. Does that look right? It would save having to try and arrange a ticket to be waiting in Mauritius (and require a quick 3 or 4 day long-weekend to Fiji from Sydney to arrange the ticket :D )

Yep, unless they stiff you on the BSR.