First in my series on using miles to cross the Pacific, and getting to the South Pacific, is using AA miles.

As you’ll see, there are tons of options for using AA miles on partners to get many places in the Pacific, and there are tons of Qantas flights going direct from a few US hubs and to a few cities in Australia.

Plus, using AA miles within the Pacific is a great deal – again with lots of routes – and made better with discounts, like 5k flights within Fiji.

AA miles are definitely the best miles in terms of route options in the Pacific. 

Best miles redemptions:

• Fiji Airways via Nadi
• Intra-Pacific = 15,000 AA miles
  • We flew Tahiti to Sydney for 15,000 miles each
  • Lots of Fiji routes in the pacifc
• Direct flights to Australia on Qantas (from DFW, SFO, and LAX)
• Flights to Tahiti on Air Tahiti Nui
• Flights within Fiji are 5,000 miles!
• Flights within Australia are 10,000 miles

Not shown on the map:

• Domestic Fiji flights on Fiji Airways found here
• Intra Hawaiian Airlines found here
• Domestic Australia flights on Qantas

Using AA miles to go to Australia or anywhere in the South Pacific costs 40k/80k/110k miles for oneway flights (econ/biz/first).

Qantas and AA flights are bookable online, but the rest you need to call for. (Pacific flights starting in Hawaii also show up).

 

 

Prices / Rules

Prices

Econ/Biz/First = 40k/80k/110k

 

Routing Rules

Not a lot to say about AA in this case. No off-peak, no stopovers, no pricing tricks, and it’s pretty straight forward. But one thing to note is that flights to Australia / South Pacific are surely not allowed to route through Asia anyways.

 

One routing rule to mention is that partners have to sell a ticket together.

I.e. Any AA and Air Tahiti Nui ticket to Tahiti (that I know of) can be sold marked as an “Air Tahiti Nui” ticket (or AA), even though AA flies only the first little domestic segment(s).

Similarly I could fly Tahiti to Auckland and then connect on Qantas to fly to Sydney, as they are also partners who sell tickets together.

However, I don’t think you could book a ticket on Hawaiian and connect to Fiji or Air Tahiti Nui, as neither partner with Hawaiian and therefore wouldn’t be selling tickets together.

This is my understanding of the AA rules, that while they are both partners of AA, since they aren’t partners of each other they wouldn’t be bookable using AA miles.

 

Booking

Most of the partners in this case are not bookable online and require calling.

• Bookable online: AA, Qantas
• Requires phone booking: Fiji, Air Tahiti Nui, Hawaiian

 

Using AA Miles on Qantas Flights

AA miles are likely the best now for crossing the Pacific. They not only have a few flights to Australia now, but have more partners, including Qantas.

Here is the full Qantas route map.

Basically you have flights from Dallas, LA, San Fran, Vancouver, and Hawaii, all to Sydney. Then you also have LA flights to Brisbane and Melbourne.

That is easily the best in terms of number of routes, number of seats, and award availability. It might not be as great as a flight to Europe (where there are tons of big cities to fly to), but it’s great.

While AA is the least flashy airline in this series (no stopovers or pricing tricks), it is the best. The best option for getting to Pacific Islands, and for direct flights to Australia.

 

Intra Australia flights = 10,000 miles

As mentioned above, domestic Australian prices are discounted to be 10k/20k.

 

Using AA Miles on Fiji Airways

We’ve only flown Fiji Airways once a few years ago, but I can’t help but think that using AA miles for Fiji flights is a great deal, and an underutilized deal too.

I guess airlines tend to be underutilized when you can’t book awards online. But also, Fiji isn’t part of the OneWorld Alliance (like Hawaiian and Air Tahiti Nui), so they have less partners that can use their miles on their flights.

There is a flight from LAX to Nadi, Fiji, and then you can connect to a lot of the Pacific – Australia, New Zealand, and many Polynesian islands.

Check out the full Fiji Airways route map here.

Another thing to point out is that with AA, the “South Pacific” is one region, that includes Australia and Pacific islands. And flights within the South Pacific are only 15k AA miles… Which wouldn’t be a great deal within Australia, but to go from Fiji to Australia, it’s a pretty good deal.

 

Intra Fiji flights = 5,000 miles!

Fiji is amazing!

Yet(!), the hotels most travel “hackers” stay in are chain hotels on a man made island near the airport. So people are flying around the world, getting to Fiji – a country of amazing islands and reefs – and staying on beaches that could be made in Orlando.

Use AA miles on Fiji to get to a cool island, and don’t stay near the Nadi airport!

While I thought the InterContinental was great, the islands a long boat ride away were amazing.

So you have two options.

1) Take a flight to one of the islands in the first place.

or 2) Hop to one of these islands for only 5,000 AA miles! (5k/10k).

Here’s a map of their routes:

Even if you don’t use AA miles to get to Fiji, these intra-Fiji flights could be a good use of AA miles. And consider that I’ve priced some of these direct flights over $300+ for a oneway.

 

Using AA Miles on Air Tahiti Nui

We used AA miles on a lesser used partner, Air Tahiti Nui, to get to French Polynesia last fall.

Then we used AA miles on Air Tahiti Nui again to go from Tahiti to Sydney (via AKL and connecting on Qantas).

Although Air Tahiti Nui is limited with one route from LAX, availability isn’t bad because LAX is an AA hub, and the routes are not used as much.

Routes are limited, to LAX, AKL, and NOU. Air Tahiti Nui isn’t bookable on AA.com. And again, intra-Pacific flights are only 15k.

Again, you can use AA to connect to get to LAX, and you can use Qantas to continue your flight from AKL – if you were to also do PPT-AKL-SYD (or anywhere in Australia).

 

Using AA Miles on Hawaiian Airlines

“AAdvantage members cannot book awards between Hawaii and the continental U.S. on Hawaiian Airlines.”

You can’t book Hawaiian Airlines to go from the US to Hawaii, but you can use them to book flights across the Pacific. However, I’m unclear about the details.

When I use their site to book a ticket from HNL to PPT the Hawaiian Airlines flights show up on AA.com. And I can use AA miles to book flights on American to HNL; flights show up. But I can’t book the ticket to connect the two online, without it pricing out as two tickets.

Now you can book two tickets and make Hawaii a stopover you pay extra for. But you may be able to find the flights on AA.com and then call and have them manually price it. Not sure.

 

Prices For Hawaii – South Pacific

So while I’m unclear about rules for connecting flights from the US to the South Pacific via connecting on Hawaiian, I should share the prices are different than flights from mainland.

• Econ/Biz/First = 37.5k/65k/90k

Compare that to prices from the US (40k/80k/110k).

And if you had to book flights from the mainland USA to Hawaii, prices are:

• 22.5k/40k/65k
• 20k off-peak
  • To Hawaii: December 29 – March 12, August 11 – November 18, November 24 – December 10
  • From Hawaii: January 7 – March 19, August 18 – November 27, December 3 – December 25

So, it never quite equals out to book the tickets separately as US to Hawaii, and then Hawaii to Australia/Pacific.

 

Conclusion

Again, not the most flashy post, but a really solid option for actually crossing the Pacific. And a great option for flying within the Pacific.

Either way there are lots of route options, making AA miles a great choice.