Questions and Answers

Hello Lucky…and anyone readying this!

I am recently engaged and have begun planning my honeymoon. I currently live in Gainesville FL and was inspired by your recent trip scheduled for Fiji, Auckland and Tahiti (sorry it was cancelled).
My future wife and I were thinking of staying 3 days in Fiji, 7 days in New Zealand, 3 days in Bora Bora and 2 days in Tahiti.

We are brand new to earning miles and I know that is an intense trip but I have 18 months to make it happen (we spend approximate $5000 per month on credit).
We currently have approximately:
Barclay Arrival Plus – 50,000 pts
Starpoints – 30,000 points
Delta Skymiles– 100,000 miles
AMEX Rewards – 22,000 points

I received the Alaska 50% off deal to purchase miles and thought about buying enough for the whole trip. Thoughts? I have never booked with Alaska (or a multi-day stopover) so is this a plausible mile’s redemption trip?
GNV – NAN (stopover) – AKL
AKL – PPT (stopover – I’ll pay cash for the flight to bora bora) – GNV
Am I correct for 2 people Business class this would be 220,000 Alaska Air miles?

Again I have 18 months to do this but I figure I need to start buying with this trip in mind now. I have no clue which hotels I plan to stay in and the days at each location are loose and can be modified.

I am very new at this so any advice would be fantastic. I am also happy to sign up for any card you think I should get to make this trip happen.
-David

So Alaska doesnt serve GNV, meaning you need to buy a paid ticket from GNV to LAX to get onto Fiji Airways for LAX-NAN//NAN-AKL. I would make sure you see 2 seats before buying miles. 55k per person for the one way.

If you can find award space on AKL-PPT on Air New Zeland, you can book using United miles – 40k per person one way, You can also book this using AA miles for travel on Air Tahiti Nui for 30k miles.

You will need AA miles to book PPT-LAX on Air Tahiti Nui but if there is space, you can also add LAX-CLT/MIA-GNV at no additional miles. However, it’s 80k miles one way.

You can also use Alaska miles for PPT-LAX (60k one way) but will have to buy a separate ticket for LAX-GNV.

If you do find space on the AirFrance flight though, you can probably book it using Delta SkyMiles instead and include the LAX-ATL-GNV flights at no additional miles. It may require checking segments individually and then calling Delta to piece it together.

Make sure you see *FOUR* seats on Fiji Airways before buying Alaska miles. Alaska has access to “Inventory minus 2” there.

The other advice is perfect though 🙂

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 20175, member: 7″]Make sure you see *FOUR* seats on Fiji Airways before buying Alaska miles. [B]Alaska has access to “Inventory minus 2″[/B] there.

The other advice is perfect though :)[/QUOTE]

I wondered about this. A friend and I were using AA miles for NAN-LAX and I saw 2 seats on the AS website. When she booked her ticket that remaining seat disappeared and it scared me. Was so relieved when the AAgent said she could see the remaining seat.