Anatomy of an Award: Island Hopper, Palau, and Philippines for 47,500 United Miles

I booked myself an award from Honolulu to Manila with eight take offs and landings and multi-day stops on Pohnpei and Palau for 47,500 United miles by taking advantage of the free stopover on roundtrip United awards and how lenient the definition of "roundtrip" is.

A few weeks ago I shared how you can book United's amazing Island Hopper route with miles and stopover at one of the otherwise-nearly-impossible-to-reach islands along the way.

The Island Hopper.

One of the Coolest Things You Can Do with Miles: The Island Hopper with a Stopover

United operates a route from Honolulu to Guam with five stops twice per week on Mondays and Fridays.

The Coolest Thing You Can Do with 57.5k United Miles & 10k Avios: The Island Hopper

There are a lot of cool things you can do with miles. One of the coolest things I've thought up, and one which I am strongly contemplating booking, would turn 57.5k United miles and 10k Avios into:

A trip to a Pacific atoll to be determined, Guam, and Japan. Three places I've never been.
Fourteen hours on the famous Island Hopper route.
Flat bed business class for seven hours.

The center piece for this plan is the Island Hopper route, which I became obsessed with last week and read everything a google search could find.