*A Award Routing Question
 

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!

What about RAR?

cheers,

Henry

With UA's direct routing restrictions and NZ's withdrawal from most (all?) Sth Pac Islands - NthAm routes, I don't think there would be much leeway for any stopover other than AKL.

Try checking the various carrier's websites out for cheapie returns from AKL to somewhere SouthPac return as a seperate side trip.
PacificBlue, PolynesianBlue, Air Pacific, Air NZ, Air Calin, Air Tahiti Nui would be the logical places to start.

NZ flies AKL-RAR-LAX 2/3 times a week (with several more weekly flights between AKL-RAR).

NZ also flies AKL-TBU-APW-LAX a couple of times a week.

If considering side trips from AKL, then NZ flies from AKL to NAN, IUE, NLK, NOU, VLI, TBU, APW, RAR, PPT.

I don't know UA award rules, but if you are allowed a stopover in Canada, then you could also consider NZ's AKL-YVR flight.

You might get better answers in the UA forum for this, but I'm pretty sure there's no restriction that says that the stopover can't be in the departing country. Rather, where you run into issues is if you have an award in a single zone and try to build in a stopover (though it's been known to happen). If they decide to verify the MPM requirements and find you're out of bounds, that may rule out a stopover in HNL, but I'd try it if that's what you want to do.

Also, not that it seems like you're leaning this way anyway, but you would not be able to redeem an award on Virgin Blue. They're a codeshare partner, but you can't earn or redeem on them (it's weird). And no, you can't book codeshare flights that aren't operated by *A members on a *A award.

One possibility is to combine awards on separate tickets if you're set on going to the S. Pacific but can't build it into a stopover. So, for example, book ADL-AKL / AKL-LAX-JAX on one ticket, and AKL-RAR-AKL on another ticket.

Thanks so much to everyone for their suggestions, especially to glex50 for the info on Virgin Blue. That's news to me, so it's great to know. I did look into RAR, TBU, and APW, but with the limited flight schedules (some routes are only once a week), none of those worked out. But I got a fantastic HNL agent who worked with me and put together the following:

Sep 16: ADL-AKL (spend Sep 17 in AKL)
Sep 18: AKL-HNL (arrives Sep 17)
Sep 18: HNL-ORD-JAX

So, while it would be great to take a visit to somewhere in the South Pacific, I was successfully able to put together an itinerary that gives me an official stopover in AKL and a 19-hour transfer in HNL, which works great...not sure why one agent said I couldn't even transfer there, but oh well. I'd love to stay longer in either AKL or HNL, but with all the talk of trouble getting *A awards, I'll take what I can get!