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Comment by throwaway742 | Hacker News Reader

What if you had a medical emergency while on the tarmac in Guam?

Same as if there was a medical emergency anywhere along the flight path. The plane pulls into the nearest gate where you'd be looked after and you get off. The prohibition is on transporting passengers between two domestic points as a single flight or as a single ticket / with stops under 24h - but note that there's nothing to stop you for instance buying a ticket from SFO-NRT and then a separate NRT-GUM ticket both on ANA.

Cabotage is also referred to as the 9th air freedom, for the curious. [1]

The prohibition on cabotage also applies to passenger and cargo ships. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedoms_of_the_air

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabotage

I'm sure they'd treat you locally (I wonder if air-rage cases get dropped there unscheduled, too, although I don't think so). It's not like the border is hermetically sealed; just disembarking on those particular flights is not available to passengers or skiplaggers. (To be clear, that's because it's a non-US (Philippine Airlines) flight on a technical stopover in a US territory (Guam)). The limitation is purely legal. The airline treaties distort pricing and competition, otherwise it should be possible to do a 24/48h stopover in Guam, Taipei etc., and even lower your overall ticket price if you're flexible about dates.

If not, a creative itinerary with multiple stopovers like Manila-Guam-Honolulu-Anchorage-Seattle could be interesting.

If you're looking for 'cool itineraries that end in Guam' there's nothing more interesting IMO than the United Island Hopper, a single flight number with 5 stops operated by a 737. Service is between Honolulu and Guam, taking around 14-16 hours, with stops in:

- Majuro in the Marshall Islands (MAJ)

- Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands (KWA)

- Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia (KSA)

- Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia (PNI)

- Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia (TKK)

I believe passengers aren't allowed off in at least one, if not two, of the stops because they're basically just a US military base on a rock. [1, 2]

> The limitation is purely legal. The airline treaties distort pricing and competition, otherwise it should be possible to do a 24/48h stopover in Guam, Taipei etc., and even lower your overall ticket price if you're flexible about dates.

Note that you can do this, it just has to be on separate tickets if connections are under 24h. For a connection over 24h, the world is your oyster, so to speak, from a ticketing perspective. Unless you plan to stay at the airport (and only an option in some places with sterile transit) you may need a visa for the intermediate point.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Hopper

[2] http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=HNL-MAJ-KWA-KSA-PNI-TKK-GUM

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