Asia or South America

[El Ingeniero]

Between DW and I we have:

• 390K AA miles
• 180K UR
• 63K AS miles (and about to start churning 3 to 5 Alaska Visa cards every 91 days).
• 100K Hyatt
• 60K *wood

Also have an ST card, but the first 160K miles from that are already spoken for. Also looking to get a couple of US Air cards early next month ... got to zero out some balances first.

Would like to do something for 2 weeks in October or early November (need to be back in time for Thanksgiving, or my mother will be alone). I'd like to fly in business or first class all the way, my back can't take 15+ hours in coach like it could even 5 years ago. One other constraint is that nohow, no way am I able to take off on less than a months notice, and there are some weeks where I am on call

I'd like to stay in 3 locales in the following list:

• Tokyo
• Singapore
• Bangkok with a side trip to Chiang Mai (mostly to spend a day with elephants)
• Hong Kong
• someplace interesting in Indonesia, Cambodia or Vietnam

My initial thoughts were an open jaw, MSP to HKG or NRT and SIN-MSP and transfer UR to ANA or BA for a HKG-BKK-SIN. But saver space in business or first doesn't exist. WTF, you'd think that 390K AA miles would get you a couple of round trips anywhere in biz at least.

So I was also thinking AA to EZE, 5 days studying tango in BsAs, fly to IGU or IGR, 2 days in Iguassu Falls, then fly to GIG, have my uncle pick me up, spend 6 days in Rio, and fly home to MSP. But then I'd have to fly AA; what good is 390K AA miles when you can't score a decent CX award. I know, I know ... #FirstWorldProblems.

Anyways, if anyone can suggest a viable strategy for that Asia trip, that would make my day.

 

[janetdoe]

Some basic things that you may already know, but good to check:
1. QF is by far my favorite search engine for OW award bookings, their calendar allows a month-long search, and clearly shows Y, J, F availability. You need to sign up for a free QF account to use it.
2. Don't search from MSP, it is likely AA availability on the MSP-domestic gateway is part of the problem. If you want CX, search from CX gateways NYC/LAX/YVR/YYZ/SFO/ORD - HKG and find availability on the TPAC, then build in all your positioning around what is available.

Some other facts that might help:
1. CX usually has last-minute availability, so it may make sense to book something as a place-holder / backup plan right now and monitor CX a month or two before the trip. Even if it costs you $150 to make an award booking change, $150 to upgrade from J-->F is completely worth it.
2. CX is opening service from BOS in May 2015. They should have decent availability on that route when they first roll it out.

Other points:
1. If you are doing CX F, try to get the non-stop from NYC/YYZ-HKG. 12 hours is not enough, we felt shortchanged on SFO-HKG.
2. For your TPAC, you will probably be using OneWorld and thus your Asian gateway hubs are likely to be NRT and HKG (and possibly KUL). It would be nice to do your intra-Asia routes on *A, SQ via SIN or TG via BKK to minimize your connections. Also, F on TG or SQ will get you really nice lounge access to the F facilities in their hubs, which are an experience in and of themselves. Luckily, you have enough UR-->UA to make that practical.

So my ideal routing (to maximize availability, minimize connections, and maximize nice airlines) would be:
NYC-HKG CX
HKG-BKK-NRT on TG or HKG-SIN-NRT on SQ
NRT-USA on JAL (or AA if necessary)

Quick random searches on BA because QF is down... all searches were for 2 adults:
--EWR-HKG has two CX J seats on 29 Oct and 30 Oct. Sub-optimal, but you can use it as a placeholder while you wait for better CX availability. Or search other dates...
--Nov 2 HKG-BKK TG F (via UA search tool)
--Nov 8 and 9 have availability BKK-HKG-NRT (TG F/NH J) via UA search tool
--Nov 12 has two F seats NRT-ORD-MSP on JAL/AA

These were just the first dates I searched, but I'm sure you can find better options if you play with it.

 

[El Ingeniero]

I really appreciate your extended and detailed reply. A couple of questions:

• Once I find my booking on QF, I call AA and book it, right?
• And only saver award space show on QF? 280K AA miles for BOS-HKG would chew up most of my AA miles without getting me home ...

TIA for your help ...

 

[Barb]

I have recently been (exhaustively!) searching CX flights to HKG. I don't think that CX has three cabin on YYZ-HKG any more, only J.

 

[smittytabb]

I really appreciate your extended and detailed reply. A couple of questions:

• Once I find my booking on QF, I call AA and book it, right?
• And only saver award space show on QF? 280K AA miles for BOS-HKG would chew up most of my AA miles without getting me home ...

TIA for your help ...

I would not spend that many miles for that, ever. There has got to be something better than that redemption!

 

[SC Trojan]

For your intra Asia trips you might want to consider Bangkok Air, booked via JAL Points. It can be a really good value if you are doing short haul, especially near BKK. For instance you could goto Koh Saumi or Siem Reap from BKK for much less than the dollar cost. You can get the points by transferring from Starwood. One note is to check availability first by calling JAL.

Here's some details
https://www.jal.co.jp/121campaign/pg_discount/index_en.html

A Blog post on how it works (note that they recently extended the promotion so this references out of date expirations)
http://travelcodex.com/2014/03/using-spg-points-book-bangkok-airways-via-jal/

 

[smittytabb]

For your intra Asia trips you might want to consider Bangkok Air, booked via JAL Points. It can be a really good value if you are doing short haul, especially near BKK. For instance you could goto Koh Saumi or Siem Reap from BKK for much less than the dollar cost. You can get the points by transferring from Starwood. One note is to check availability first by calling JAL.

Here's some details
https://www.jal.co.jp/121campaign/pg_discount/index_en.html

A Blog post on how it works (note that they recently extended the promotion so this references out of date expirations)
http://travelcodex.com/2014/03/using-spg-points-book-bangkok-airways-via-jal/

That's a great tip! I flew Bangkok Airways from BKK to REP and it was very nice.

 

[janetdoe]

I really appreciate your extended and detailed reply. A couple of questions:

• Once I find my booking on QF, I call AA and book it, right?
• And only saver award space show on QF? 280K AA miles for BOS-HKG would chew up most of my AA miles without getting me home ...

TIA for your help ...

1. Yes, you must call AA to book CX. You will probably have to spoonfeed them cities, flight numbers, dates, etc.

2. Yes, all AA awards issued on partners are always saver pricing, AAnytime pricing is only for AA flights. Anything that shows as a 'partner/classic award' on QF should be bookable through AA. If you are worried, double-check what you found on QF on the BA site to verify it exists (especially if AA says it doesn't, see #1).

 

[El Ingeniero]

I would not spend that many miles for that, ever. There has got to be something better than that redemption!

And it looks like I won't have to. So far, I have BOS-HKG in CX biz for 2x55K and HKG-LAX-PHX-MSP in CX/US 1st for 2x67.5K miles.

Now I just need to figure out HKG-BKK, BKK-SIN, SIN-HKG legs. Looks like we will just layover and go to BKK directly from HKG.

 

[El Ingeniero]

No direct SIN-HKG award flights on the UAL award search engine for 10/28. I really don't want to spend a whole day in transit. Any ideas?

 

[janetdoe]

And it looks like I won't have to. So far, I have BOS-HKG in CX biz for 2x55K and HKG-LAX-PHX-MSP in CX/US 1st for 2x67.5K miles.

Now I just need to figure out HKG-BKK, BKK-SIN, SIN-HKG legs. Looks like we will just layover and go to BKK directly from HKG.

If you are going bos-hkg-bkk with less than 24 hours in hkg, then it should be basically free to add HKG-BKK on CX to your itin, especially if you haven't booked or are within 24 hours of booking (i.e. still within free cancellation window). Maybe some additional taxes...

No direct SIN-HKG award flights on the UAL award search engine for 10/28. I really don't want to spend a whole day in transit. Any ideas?

There is the direct 5:45 am flight on UA metal in coach

Try a OneWorld carrier (BA Avios due to the short distance will be cheap-ish) and get a direct flight on CX.

 

[El Ingeniero]

If you are going bos-hkg-bkk with less than 24 hours in hkg, then it should be basically free to add HKG-BKK on CX to your itin, especially if you haven't booked or are within 24 hours of booking (i.e. still within free cancellation window). Maybe some additional taxes...

There is the direct 5:45 am flight on UA metal in coach

Try a OneWorld carrier (BA Avios due to the short distance will be cheap-ish) and get a direct flight on CX.

I changed things up, and added on a SIN leg to the BOS-HKG reservation and purchased it for the same 55K AA miles. Purchased the return flight in 1st from HKG as well. Then I splurged 120K UA miles on SIN-BKK in TG biz, and BKK-HKG in TG 1st. Now to book the massages (my wife does not know about this). And figure out how to spend 8 days in Thailand. And figure out how to get to BOS.

A good day.

 

[El Ingeniero]

That MSP to BOS leg on 10/16 is kicking my ass though.

 

[janetdoe]

That MSP to BOS leg on 10/16 is kicking my ass though.

Domestic route 9 months in advance? Wait for a sale... It's a little tough because DL is the only one who flies direct.

However, it looks like Southwest flies that route for $140-200 in August, but they haven't released October flights yet. They offer a one-stop flight with no plane change on some days.

 

[El Ingeniero]

Domestic route 9 months in advance? Wait for a sale... It's a little tough because DL is the only one who flies direct.

However, it looks like Southwest flies that route for $140-200 in August, but they haven't released October flights yet. They offer a one-stop flight with no plane change on some days.

BOS-HKG-SIN leaves at 1:25 am ... talk about a red-eye. Going to want to sleep about 7 hours in. Will be a struggle to keep DW awake until then.

So the the 1st consideration would be an evening flight so we can sleep in Thursday am and don't spend all day sitting in clubs. Second consideration would be 1st/biz seats. The evening flights are already down to 2 or 3 award seats left in front, and the back of the plane is a 40K award.

Still ramping up my ST spend. Just tried for a Schwab account, hope to be able to run $10K a month in mobile deposits through it.

If SW does the one-stop-no-change tango on Thursday evenings, it'd be perrrrfect. Except I'd need a SW card, then I may as well go for the companion cert.

 

[kampung]

Hi just curious, did u consider taking the budget airlines like tiger air/air asia for SIN-BKK and BKK-HKG which can be had for $60 and $100 for some days in oct/nov. Of course it's not J or F but can help save those 120k UA miles for more 'worthy' redemptions.

 

[El Ingeniero]

Hi just curious, did u consider taking the budget airlines like tiger air/air asia for SIN-BKK and BKK-HKG which can be had for $60 and $100 for some days in oct/nov. Of course it's not J or F but can help save those 120k UA miles for more 'worthy' redemptions.

No, I didn't. I had my reasons:

• Due to my job, I only get one big trip a year.
• I have a bad back, and I'd rather be comfortable. The return from last year's trip to China in Economy Plus wrecked me for about 5 days.
• I wanted my wife to have the Thai Airways 1st class lounge experience (not that we don't get massages every day when we are in Asia)

 

[Tyler2]

I know you have already booked, but It might be worth it for someone doing a search of the forum. I have a similar trip coming up and think I was able to get away with quite a bit on my United award within Asia, the pricing was unexpectedly good. I fly in and out of Asia on two one-way CX business awards using AA miles like you, then connect them with a similar "roundtrip" United award that takes full advantage of the two stopovers and an open-jaw.

To/from Asia: CX biz on AA miles ORD-HKG-HKT/TPE-HKG-ORD (mostly, used BA Avios for one ticket due to the lap child pricing benefits)

Intra-Asia: 32.5k United miles for the following route (I have no idea why it priced this way, and I really tried to figure it out, if you know please do explain):
HKT-BKK-PEK/PEK-NRT/NRT-TPE

HKT-BKK Thai Airways, after a week in Phuket we'll head to Bangkok for a connection to Beijing the next day
BKK-PEK Thai Airways, stay for 1 hour less than three days allowed to take advantage of the 72 hour transit visa
PEK-NRT ANA, stay 5 nights in Tokyo
NRT-TPE EVA on a Hello Kitty flight no less, visit a friend from college, take the CX AA award home from here

I booked 5 seats each segment, and a lap-child, I'm crazy. United didn't properly display all of the availability for 5 seats, ANA only allows the viewing of four seats, I had to call in to check when there was a fifth available. Probably not that common an issue. Also, I had to call in to add in the HKT-BKK segment, adding it broke my multi-stop itinerary on the website. I used the paypal payment method trick to first hold an itinerary then called in to avoid the phone fees, I additionally surmise that you need to have the United member on the reservation with # included for it to work properly. Found out how to do it at the Milevalue blog.

 

[kampung]

Tyler

Just curious, how much cheaper was the pricing for the lapchild using AVIOS vs AA? I am planning on somewhat similar route on CX IAH-LAX-HKG-KUL with a lapchild. AA quoted me $1.7k for lapchild in J . Using Avios it comes to only $180 but it requires 112k Avios points for the adult in J, double of AA miles. Which makes me think that overall its 'cheaper' to just book an award in J for the infant instead of paying for lapchild with AA or Avios.

 

[Tyler2]

Thousands! I had a similar experience to you. I agree that just getting an award ticket makes the most sense normally.

AA would pass on 25% of the full business fare, apparently it's 25% with CX rather than the usual 10%. BA just charged more in miles, more in fees, but saved thousands in my particular situation.

I would have needed 6 award seats, but instead got 5 and a lap child. We talked a younger cousin of ours who is still in college to come along with us and perform as nanny in exchange for being able to come along for free. She will be wrangling our youngest on her seat for the 16 hour trans pac flight . Having that extra set of hands along to help with the kids will be well worth the higher Avios cost.