Good lord, I've become so completely addicted to planning for trips. I'm currently planning two to three trips ahead (and far ahead of what my wallet can handle
-- I wish I had Travelsnsj's budget! You, sir, are my hero). Anyway, I'm planning for a bigger trip, now. '09 if I'm lucky, but more likely 2010. This would be one in which the costs are partially offset by my frequent flyer miles (American). Everything I've read and seen on this board indicates Palau is one of the best and my wife and I are approaching the experience level (50+ dives) where I think we could handle the requirements (btw, I'd be interested to hear if any of you disagree with that assessment).
The problem: American doesn't fly to Guam, at least not directly. A partner of theirs like JAL does, but through some weird rules, we would need to fly to Tokyo first via AA, then switch to a JAL flying back to Guam. Obviously, that's one extra leg and several extra hours of flying time, but the price is right. Other than the added level of complexity w/ regard to logistics, does anyone see any real problems with this plan? Once in Guam, we'd use a Visit Micronesia Air Pass to get to Palau and Chuuk.
On a side note, I'm toying with the idea of burning the miles on a trip to Bali to get us Wakatobi, but Palau just seems to be it, ya' know? One of the benefits to getting to Bali would be that we could get there directly, even when using our miles. I'd also love to hear from those who disagree.