best use of points for trip to thailand?

Linda marshall

Level 2 Member
I’m hoping for some advice regarding my choice of award options for an upcoming trip to Thailand my husband and I plan to take early next year. We are hoping to fly Cathay Pacific Business class. I understand that typically Alaska miles are the best option (50K) for this flight, however, in order to access 50K Alaska miles, I would first need to transfer Amex points to SPG points before transferring those to Alaska. Given that I lose 2/3 of the miles in the amex to SPG transfer, I’m not sure going this route is the best choice.

Other options include transferring points directly from Amex to Cathay (isn’t there an option here to make additional stops along the way?) I also have Citi Thank You points available to do this, or, I could use AA miles. I will list my current points balance below (as well as my husbands) if anyone wants to make any suggestions about the best options I would be grateful!

Also, I know how booking awards works for AA and have booked tickets to Europe a few times using my miles. That said, how do I add segments using Cathay Pacific? For example, I have found available award space when looking at AwardNexus for SFO-BKK, but I would need to add segments from PDX to SFO and from BKK to HKT or CNX? Do these require additional award miles or like AA are they added to the ticket for the same amount of miles?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!!
Linda
My Current Point Balances

trans amex to spg spg to Alaska Total
Amex MR points: 189141 63000 63000 + 15K bonus 78000
SPG Points 55166 55166 +10K bonus 65166
Marriott Points 20388 20388 + 5K bonus 25388
Alaska Points 8313 8313
Total Alaska Miles 176701 miles available

My Husbands Points
Amex MR points 62151 20717 20717 + 5K bonus 25717
SPG points 40150 40150 + 10K bonus 50150
Alaska Miles 44916 44916
Total Alaska Miles 120783 miles available

My Citi Thank You 129288

My AA Miles 182830
Husband's AA Miles: 268446
 

Linda marshall

Level 2 Member
AAARRGGHHH! My neatly spaced tables didn't post- sorry for the mess of numbers. If it's too confusing, please let me know and I will repost.
Essentially, I have 176,701 alaska miles available if I transfer through spg (with bonus miles). My Husband has 120873 alaska miles. We started out with 189141 and 62151 Amex MR points respectively.
Thanks!
Linda
 

Linda marshall

Level 2 Member
Is applying for another Alaska card each a possibility?
probably not great though in not sure what is required. he has 2 already. i only have one with a fica score of 780 but I've applied for several cards in the past year... does Alaska have a business card? that might be an option.... thanks for your ideas!
 

knick1959

Level 2 Member
I just booked 2 ppl in J for JFK->HKG and 2 return flights from HKG to ORD (2 options, 1 will be canceled later). These with 70k AA miles + fees each OW ticket on Cathay Pacific flights. I had AS miles, too, but was overloaded with AA and was thrilled to be able to save AS for later. I could have mixed and matched.

As others have taught me here, you find availability on BA's site, then call AS or AA to book. Another benefit with using AA miles is that their calendar opens up 1 day before AS, although in hindsight only one flights disappeared before I booked (I was preferring ORD->HKG going out).

Upon booking my first HKG->ORD flight I soon realized I missed an opportunity to add the staging flight from HAN to HKG. BA's website showed coach availability. I called 12 hours later and had this flight added for only the additional fees. It tooks another call to shake the paperwork free (CX shows my flights booked but AA's site would not update my status).

I'm looking to add BKK->HKG to my #2 option, but BA's site doesn't show this available on the day I need. Oddly, all days up to that show multiple options, but not what I need. I'll keep looking. I've also allocated some BA miles directly for some shorter haul flights in the area.

In short, you have enough AA miles for 2 one-ways there or back. BA is the site to check for AA and AS bookings. Hope that helps! I'm just repeating what others have told me here, now put into practice!

One note. It seemed difficult to find a BKK to ORD or JFK flight on the way home. HKG was super easy so I'm opting to position there to get home. Not sure how west coast availability might differ.

Update: Ah, you have two pools of AA miles. You have enough to do the whole trip with those if you want. 140k for 2 each way!
 

Maverick17

Level 2 Member
So the benefit of AS miles is two-fold: 1) the total miles is a bit lower and 2) you can book a free stop in the transit city. If you're going PDX-SFO-HKG-BKK, then you have two options for the stopover, SFO or HKG. The downside of AS is that you cannot book more than 1 other carrier besides AS. So you are limited to CX + AS and have no real option to add BKK-HKT onto your trans-pacific ticket because CX does not fly that route. So if you wanted to use the full advantage of AS, you would do something like PDX-SFO-HKG (stop a few days to explore HKG)-BKK, stop awhile, tour Thailand and buy a cheap ticket with cash as said above (yes they are coach but they are very short flights). Then on your return you go something like HKT-HKG-SFO(stop a few days)-PDX. Or, for example if you have no interest in SFO (or LAX), you could try to work in Japan Airlines instead of CX on the return, and do something like KUL-Tokyo(Stop a few days)-YVR-PDX.

In your case, where AA is easier to use, you have to consider it might be better even though the point total is higher. For one thing, they have better availability than AS when it comes to Cathay seats. Unfortunately AA/oneworld does not have a partner in BKK though. So any flight to CNX or HKT would have to be from HKG directly, or possibly via KUL for HKT. So your best option would still be to use cash, or to use an open jaw and depart back to the US from one of those cities. Thus AA doesn't change your routing on the Asian end, but it would allow you to use AA on the US end.

So in summary AS offers stopovers and fewer total miles. AA offers more availability and more flexibility on the US end of the trip. Neither really helps you a ton with that last BKK-ZZZ leg.

For intra Thailand flights, I there are several cheaper options as mentioned. One thing I always mention for BKK though is that Thai AirAsia is ok, and they have a nice lounge actually in the domestic terminal at DMK that is priority pass. But the immigration lines at DMK, and especially the traffic getting to/from that airport are pretty awful. I'd always prioritize BKK airport over DMK airport in Bangkok so you can use the train to get there quickly and easily. So look for Bangkok Airways and maybe some cheap Thai flights that leave from BKK if you can find them, is my thought.
 
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