Asiana Club - Planning a mileage run on Asiana LAX/SFO-ICN-REP-ICN-LHR/SYD-ICN-LAX/SFO

Hi all,
Never flown Asiana, however have heard great things about the airline.

I am looking at doing a mileage run on Asiana from either LAX/SFO in October 2012. I would like to be in REP for 3 days then fly to either SYD or LHR, to maximize the distance before returning to LAX/SFO.

Are there consolidated fares for such route from Asiana? I am open to leaving from other Asiana US points such as JFK, ORD and SEA as well if the prices are cheaper?

Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you.

I don't think there is an OZ fare but maybe a Circle Pacific fare would work? Or just using a straight USA-ICN-SYD fare with a side trip?

I think it's going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to find something price-wise that a typical FT'er would call a mileage run on those routes. But if you're just thinking about taking a vacation to some places and trying to maximize your mileage and minimize your costs, then that's a valid concept.

There's all sorts of possibilities that will require a lot of time to explore if you want to get the best deal possible. But off-hand, in trying to work in these kinds of trips myself, I've found that most of the time long-hauls on OZ out of ICN are not very competitively priced. But they are out of BKK. I'm not sure about REP. It could be similar, but sometimes airlines don't sell discounted tickets direct to customers from certain South East Asia countries. I know they do though from Thailand, though I've only booked via phone, not via their website.

So what I personally would consider doing would be to purchase two separate tickets with OZ: USA-ICN-BKK R/T and BKK-ICN-LHR R/T, with a side trip on land to REP. Price out such a trip, then see if OZ can sell you the same tickets by replacing BKK with REP and see which one is most cost effective. But one problem is that I don't know if it's possible to do a direct turnaround at REP. I've done it at BKK without any problems. If a direct turnaround isn't possible, then you're looking at spending another day in REP on the return, and another visa-on-arrival fee.

You might also want to consider TG to do your secondary "MR", but recently TG's prices have skyrocketed from being among the cheapest to being one of the most expensive. But have a look to see if it's cost-effective and convenient for you.

SQ seems to still be reasonably priced from ICN. So another option would be to buy one OZ ticket and one SQ ticket:
OZ: USA-ICN-REP-ICN
SQ: ICN-SIN-AUS-SIN-ICN or ICN-SIN-EUR-SIN-ICN
OZ: ICN-USA

I'd recommend buying the SQ ticket online, searching for which dates/routes are cheapest/convenient. Last I heard, you're allowed to do online seating assignment if purchasing your tickets from SQ online, but not if you buy them via a travel agent.

As far as buying your OZ ticket ex-USA, I don't know that I'm of much help in finding discounted tickets as I haven't researched that for a very long time. But I do know that OZ typically will sell you various booking classes even if they aren't available to purchase online. If you know the booking class you want, just call OZ and reserve/purchase it directly with them over the phone. LA has a lot of Koreans, and probably some/all Korean travel agents in Koreatown have close relationships with OZ, so might be able to offer you even more discounted tickets. I'd recommend looking up some of those travel agents and give them a call. JFK/ORD will almost certainly be more expensive. SEA is probably priced similar to LAX, but with more flights out of LAX, and more Korean travel agents there, I'd probably not consider the SEA option. If buying a second OZ ticket originating anyplace outside of the USA, I don't know that any Koreatown travel agent will be of any help, and even if they can sell you a ticket, it might be more expensive than buying directly from OZ. But check that out if you choose that routing. Of course be aware of any booking classes which don't earn full miles.

Thank you very much for your response. It is very in-depth and has got me thinking on getting creative with my route. I will definitely look at your suggestion on two tickets. And potentially using an OZ and a SQ ticket.

I was trying to maximize my time and miles with this trip...

Thank you again for your suggestion.