The United Island Hopper – An Adventure of a Lifetime – Part 4

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April 15, 2020

This is the fourth post in a five part series covering the Island Hopper written by Dave Schaverien, a guest contributor to Pointsnerd. You can follow Dave on Instagram at @davidschav

The Island Hopper

Part 4 – Guam

Guam is the final stop on the Island Hopper in the westbound direction. Although I didn’t stop in Guam on this visit, I have made two separate visits to Guam in the not too recent past so I wanted to include an article on Guam in this series since it is such a unique and interesting location. Guam is sometimes described as a poor cousin to Hawaii. While Guam is certainly not as developed as Hawaii, this description is also quite unfair, as Guam has a lot to offer as a tourist destination.

Unlike the Marshall Islands and Micronesia, Guam is a US Territory, and unequivocally part of the US. In fact, a slogan you will see throughout the island is that Guam is “Where America’s Day Begins”. This is due to Guam’s position on the other side of the international date line from the US. When it is Sunday evening in Seattle, it is already Monday morning in Guam. Upon landing in Guam, you will clear US immigration the same as you would in New York or Los Angeles. Although a substantial amount of Guam’s territory is a US military base, much of the island is still free to explore.

By far the best way to get around Guam is to rent a car from the airport for the duration of your stay. Taxis are infrequent and expensive and will preclude you from seeing some of the more interesting and remote parts of the island.

A great place to begin your visit to Guam is Two Lovers Point. According to local legend, this was the place where two lovers leaped to their death after their respective parents intervened to try to quash their romance. A statue near the lookout commemorates the two lovers. The lookout itself looks all the way across Tumon Bay and out to the Pacific Ocean and is best visited around sunset when the views are spectacular.

Just down the road from Two Lovers Point is Tumon, the main tourist centre of Guam. Tumon is the one area of Guam which could be described as modern. It is reminiscent of Waikiki in Honolulu – which is both good and bad. You’ll find many upscale hotels, shops and restaurants in the area, including many chain restaurants from the US mainland. Tumon is a great place to visit in the evening for a meal, but the true treasures of Guam lie elsewhere on the island and are best explored during the day.

On one of my trips to Guam, I spent much of the day driving around the southern half of the island. The Guam Museum is found in the town and capital city of Hagatna, with giant letters spelling the word Guam right outside. Nearby, you’ll also find a highly unusual attraction called the Latte of Freedom. The centre attached to the statue was closed when I visited, but nowhere else in the world have I seen a landmark shaped like, and apparently dedicated to a coffee cup.

Just down the road from the Latte of Freedom, you’ll find the excellent Pacific War Museum. This museum is small, but it contains highly informative exhibits detailing the history of Guam, the horrors of the Japanese occupation during World War II and subsequent liberation by the US. It also details Guam’s current strategic importance to the US.

Driving south from the Pacific War Museum you will pass through cliffs, beaches, and small villages as you move around the perimeter of the island. In or near each of these villages there are lookouts to stop at, as well as local stores selling food and drinks. Many of these lookouts are relatively deserted, you might spend several hours here and only see a couple of other people.

After driving for some time, you will arrive at Inarajan Natural Pool which is easy to recognize because it is a hive of activity despite being a very small village. The word pool is usually associated with a man-made structure, but this pool is shaped from a strip of land forming a barrier between the waves and most of an inlet surrounded by both land and rocks. This makes it a fantastic area to swim, because the water is clear and clean, but protected from the ocean. There is also a park right next to the pool which is a favourite spot for locals to barbeque in the afternoon.

Back towards the main towns in Guam, there is one store certainly worth visiting: K-Mart! Normally I would never ever visit a K-Mart anywhere in the US, so why bother in Guam? For a few reasons. Firstly, K-Mart is the only major store on the island, and is the place where you will find any supplies you might need to pick up. Secondly, because there are a variety of souvenirs available which are unique to Guam, such as Guam macadamia nut chocolates, and even I love Guam K-Mart t-shirts and tote bags (I bought a tote bag, but you can’t pay me enough money to be seen in public wearing the t-shirt). Finally, there is something amazing about being on a tiny remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and seeing a giant chain store with every single product you would find at home.

I stayed at the Hilton Guam, which was a fantastic choice and was free thanks to the Iberia Avios points earned through their poorly designed promotion in the summer of 2018. The Hilton Guam is a large resort-style hotel with tennis courts, a pool, restaurants and bars. There is also an outdoor swimming area with a pontoon which reaches out into Tumon Bay. The hotel is located across the bay from most of the shops and restaurants of Tumon, which I thought was a positive because the area is a lot quieter.

Overall, I would certainly recommend a visit to Guam for the right kind of traveler. If you have an interest in adventure, but still want to visit somewhere relatively tourist-friendly then you will likely enjoy a few days in Guam. Guam is also a perfect place to spend a couple of days following a trip on the Island Hopper, or alternatively a nice getaway for several days if you happen to be in Japan. One final Guam tip is to be sure to get a window seat on the plane since you’ll see fantastic views of the island from the plane.

How to Find First Class Routes

By

Jayce

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April 12, 2020

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The goal of earning miles and points is to redeem those miles and points for free travel. What you redeem for depends largely on where you want to go and award availability but the other big part of the equation is the experience you are after. As you likely know, not all airlines are created equal and further to that, some airlines have vastly different experiences between their classes of service (Economy, Premium Economy, Business, and First).

As an example, I had an absolute blast on Cathay Pacific’s (CX) First Class flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Hong Kong (HKG) but was very underwhelmed at my experience in Cathay’s Business Class cabin from Hong Kong to Auckland (AKL).

You’ll have to do your own research on what airlines provide the best experience in each class of service but FlightConnections can help you find which routes feature the class of service you are after. This mostly applies to First Class because almost every airline out there will have Economy, Premium Economy and Business service whereas most do not feature a First Class cabin.

For those that are new to this, airlines that have a First Class cabin only fly them on certain routes that have the demand for a First Class cabin. While Cathay Pacific (CX) has a First Class cabin on some routes, you won’t find it on the Seattle (SEA) to Hong Kong (HKG) route even though that is a route that Cathay flies. Understand this nuance helps you understand that you often have to route to the correct city in order to fly in a First Class cabin.

A word of warning. It’s not uncommon to see a route like Los Angeles (LAX) to Hong Kong (HKG) have multiple flights a day. It is not a guarantee that every one of flights has a First Class cabin so be sure to do your due diligence.

During the Stone Ages

Prior to FlightConnections, you were reliant on blogs and airline websites to figure out what routes featured First Class cabins.

This could be very frustrating because there were lots of occasions where the information was outdated or just plain inaccurate. I remember sourcing a First Class routing spreadsheet a long time ago that was pulled from official sources. That was great until airlines decided to change their planes or get rid of their First Class cabins, something we are seeing more and more as airline economics change.

And Then There Was Light

I was recently thinking of where to go once things recover from this COVID-19 pandemic, and like always, my first stop was FlightConnections. When I got to the page, I was very pleasantly surprised to see a new feature that caught my eye, the ability to search based on Class of Service (COS).

PointsNerd has previously covered FlightConnections and how to use the service in previous articles like this one, but the group behind the site seems to be adding innovating new features to their site all the time, making it one of the go-to tools for Travel Hackers.

How To

Using this new feature of FlightConnections couldn’t be easier.

Let’s say you wanted to see all the available First Class routes available in the world. Simply turn on the Class filter and set it to First Class.

Now if you wanted to see, what First Class routes are available from your city, simply click on your city. Let’s pretend we live in Montreal (YUL). When we click on Montreal on the map, it shows up that there is one direct First Class route available to Zurich (ZRH), Switzerland.

Click on Zurich (ZRH) to complete the route and you’ll be presented with information on the First Class flight with Swiss (LX).

If you click on one of the days of the week, you’ll notice a calendar that is displayed to show you the days of the week that the flights are available. This is especially important because airlines release changes to their schedules all the time and while you could check industry websites like RoutesOnline for this information, it’s much easier to use FlightConnections as your primary source of information and then verify it through a quick Google search.

If you combine this feature with the other filters that are available on FlightConnections, you’ll have a very powerful source to start planning your routings.

As an example, these are all the cities that feature a First Class Cabin within the Star Alliance.

Conclusion

I LOVE FlightConnections and this new feature makes it even more useful for planning your perfect award redemption. I’ll be heavily relying on this site to help me with burning my Alaska Miles for their partner redemptions before they join OneWorld.

If you haven’t used FlightConnections before, I would highly encourage you to try it out. I love it so much that I have a paid subscription that removes ads. You don’t have to go that far but I use it so much that it’s worth it to me.

Happy hunting.

The United Island Hopper – An Adventure of a Lifetime – Part 3

By

Jayce

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April 11, 2020

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This is the third post in a five part series covering the Island Hopper written by Dave Schaverien, a guest contributor to Pointsnerd. You can follow Dave on Instagram at @davidschav

The Island Hopper

Part 3 – Majuro

My second 24 hour stop on this journey was in Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands. I flew directly from Pohnpei to Majuro on the shorter version of the Island Hopper which skips the Kosrae and Kwajalein stops.

The Marshall Islands, like Micronesia is a party to the Compact of Free Association with the United States which gives citizens of these countries the right to live and work in the US without a visa (and vice versa). Also like Micronesia, the Marshall Islands are an independent sovereign country recognized by the UN. When I visited in January 2020, there were very stringent health checks required before entering the country. Every traveller was required to have proof of a measles vaccination, and there were health workers wearing masks at Majuro airport taking everybody’s temperature before they were allowed to proceed to immigration.

Majuro is the name of the entire atoll, which is rectangular shaped and approximately 40km x 10km. The atoll itself surrounds a large lagoon, however, the land area is only 500 metres wide at its widest point, and throughout most of the atoll it is only around 100 metres wide.

At its highest point, Majuro is barely a couple of metres above sea level. Due to this unique geography, you can see both the lagoon and the ocean from almost anywhere on the atoll. Unfortunately, it also makes Majuro one of the most threatened places on earth from rising sea levels due to climate change.

I stayed at the Marshall Islands Resort. To say I chose this hotel would be slightly inaccurate. It was the only hotel in Majuro listed on any of the hotel booking platforms. To call it a resort would also be a stretch, but it was perfectly fine for a one night stay. Although the hotel charged for wifi, the connection is provided through a local telecommunications provider and included use of their hotspots around the atoll of which there were a few.

Despite the natural beauty surrounding the atoll, Majuro actually has quite a poor reputation. Before arriving I was warned incessantly about aggressive stray dogs, garbage on the street, the lagoon being full of trash, and there being a lack of things to do. Unfortunately, all of these things are true, but also somewhat exaggerated.

One interesting feature of Majuro is the shared taxis. Since the atoll is so narrow, there is only one major road with one lane each way. For the same reason, Majuro is not very walkable. However, a seemingly unlimited number of taxis drive up and down the street picking up and dropping off passengers on demand. It costs US$1 to go just about anywhere within a reasonable distance of the main town.

I set off in the morning to see the sights of Majuro, but unfortunately there was not much to see. The Alele museum contained an interesting history of the Marshall Islands, including some of the more tragic aspects such as when the US used several of the Marshall Islands for testing nuclear weapons hundreds of times more powerful than those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There was also a local supermarket which had a very strange definition of everyday low price (see photo below). This was a good reminder of just how remote the Marshall Islands are, and that almost everything needs to be imported. Finally, I visited and was politely asked to leave the Legislature of the Marshall Islands for violating their dress code – shorts were not acceptable.

The Marshall Islands is one of a small handful of countries which officially recognize Taiwan as a sovereign country. Taiwan contributes a lot of aid to the Marshall Islands and in return there are signs everywhere thanking Taiwan for the donation of things like infrastructure and sporting facilities, as well as recognizing the friendship between the two countries.

With a lot of time on my hands and no hotel room to return to, I decided to try to make it to Laura Beach, all the way on the other side of the atoll near the village of Laura. This journey (both ways) turned out to be more eventful than I had expected.

The information I found on the internet on how to reach Laura Beach was both scarce and inaccurate, so here is how it actually works: There are shared taxis (definitely a taxi, not a bus) leaving from the parking lot opposite the Robert Reimers Hotel. They will look like a large van with a taxi sign on top, but may not be there when you arrive because there is no regular schedule or timetable, but keep asking people and you will eventually find one. They leave when full, and cost US$3 in each direction. Make sure you are taking a shared van as a private taxi is significantly more expensive.

Apparently it is 100% acceptable to ask the driver to stop at random places for snacks, water, and of course betel nut, an extremely popular stimulant similar to chewing tobacco in both its effects and method of consumption. I left at 11am and spent the next hour surrounded by very friendly betel nut chewing Marshallese on the road to Laura. As the villages we passed became more and more remote and traffic reduced to zero, I asked my fellow passengers how I might get back in time for my flight.

Each passenger had a slightly different answer, but most were along the lines of “there might be a taxi home, but there might not be, just ask people and you’ll find a way home, somebody will be going in that direction”. Needless to say, those answers didn’t fill me with confidence. The village of Laura is actually very pleasant. It is quiet, remote, surrounded by great scenery, and devoid of much of the trash, shipping containers and stray dogs which make the more built up parts of the atoll unpleasant.

Laura beach itself was a very nice place to spend a couple of hours. There were perhaps four other people on the entire beach and the water was clear and warm. You can’t go too far from the shore though because the current is extremely strong and there is nobody to save you if you get into trouble.

After a couple of hours at Laura Beach, I started the journey home, with the expectation that it might take some time. I walked about a kilometre into the village of Laura down a very quiet road. At this point, I was starting to get worried about whether it would actually be possible to get home. In the space of 15 minutes I saw zero cars, and three people. I was starting to prepare for having to walk a very long distance to get back to some kind of civilization.

This is where I met Thomas, whose name I have changed to protect his identity for reasons which will soon become apparent. I saw Thomas sitting on a chair outside a building in Laura staring into space. I asked him where I could find a taxi back to town. He said they would arrive right here, and that I was welcome to wait with him. He said perhaps it will be 10 minutes, and perhaps 2-3 hours, there is apparently no way to know, but he says there will definitely be one today.

Thomas works for a government agency, and the reason he was sitting on a chair doing nothing on a Monday afternoon was because he didn’t really feel like going to work that day. He was ready to leave in the morning, and just decided to stay home instead. Thomas was very well travelled due to his job, and sounded like he lives quite the life. He shared a bunch of bad taxi experiences in foreign countries with me, and I introduced him to Uber to make his life easier next time (yes, there are still people in 2020 who haven’t ever heard of Uber!).

Thomas was right, a shared taxi arrived about 40 minutes later and I was on my way back to town with a brand new set of betel nut chewing passengers. After arriving back to town there was enough time for a meal and a quick walk before heading over to the airport which has a wonderful park with scenic views about a five minute walk away.

So would I recommend Majuro as a layover on the Island Hopper? Unfortunately, probably not. While the people were very friendly, and I have no regrets about going, there isn’t much in the way of things to do beyond Laura Beach. Most people who visit Majuro stay for a day or two before heading off to some of the other more remote and less developed atolls. It saddens me to say it, but I appreciated Majuro much more from the air than from the ground.

Important Air Canada Altitude and Aeroplan News

By

Jayce

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April 6, 2020

2

First, my apologies for not posting anything until very recently but like most of you out there, I have been dealing with COVID-19 and it’s affects on my family and career. It’s certainly not ideal but I’ll do my best to post on a more consistent basis. Now onto some big news from Air Canada.

Air Canada Altitude Status Extention

Due to the pandemic, many flyers have been unable to take any flights and as such, are going to have a hard time requalifying for their Altitude status.

Air Canada realizes this challenge and has automatically extended all Altitude status members to the end of the 2021 membership year (February 28, 2022).

This will be well received by Air Canada status members and something that many other airlines are extending to their members. Notably, WestJet, Air Canada’s biggest competitor, has not released any information about the extension of the status of their top-tier members. This may be because WestJet’s qualification periods are different for everyone based on the date you enter the program. This means that it’s substantially more difficult to manage top-tier members, so a broad “everyone gets a 1-year extension on their status” is likely very difficult, if not impossible for WestJet to pull off.

Sharing Status

If you are one of those frequent business travellers and you have already qualified for the 2021 year, you can gift that status to a family member or friend. As your status is already protected for the 2021 Membership Year, Air Canada is allowing you to give away the status you earned so it doesn’t go to waste.

For example, I am a 35K Member and due to COVID-19, my status will remain until February 28, 2022. If during 2020 (January 1 – now), I have somehow managed to requalify for either 25K or 35K, I will be able to give that status to anyone of my choosing.

This probably won’t affect too many people but it’s a nice perk nonetheless.

Earn Status at Home

Between now and April 30th, if you donate your Aeroplan Miles to a charity that is helping fight COVID-19, you can use those miles to cover off your AQM (Altitude Qualifying Miles) requirement for the 2021 year.

The Aeroplan Miles you donate are counted at a 5:1 ratio, meaning 5 donated Aeroplan Miles equal 1 AQM.

You can donate to a maximum of 125,000 Aeroplan Miles, which will result in 25,000 AQM.

Altitude has a two-part qualification. We talked about AQM but there’s another component, AQD (Altitude Qualifying Dollars), a spend requirement that must be met before you make status.

Unfortunately, the AQD portion of the Altitude Qualification is not waived, meaning that you cannot simply donate 125,000 Aeroplan Miles and make Prestige 25K … you still need to spend $3,000 with Air Canada to qualify.

Temporary Pause of Aeroplan Mile Expiration

Again, due to COVID-19, Air Canada has paused all expiration of Aeroplan miles until May 14th, 2020. This means that if you have Aeroplan Miles that were due to expire soon, you have about 1.5 months of grace period to put some activity into your account and extend your Aeroplan Miles expiry by another year.

This is a very nice benefit given that many people have their minds on other pressing matter so expiring Aeroplan miles may be the furthest thing from their minds.

Cancel Any Flight Reward Free

Until April 30th, all members can cancel any Flight Reward free of charge and receive their Aeroplan Miles back in their account. Any taxes, fees and surcharges will be refunded.

PointsNerd’s Take

All of Air Canada’s steps are very customer focused and something they should be applauded for. Not a single announcement coming from Air Canada today is negative and speaks to how well they understand their customers.

I for one am quite happy with the steps that Air Canada has taken to help lessen the pain of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bravo.