Asia - Airfares for my trip to Asia

We are planning a trip from Chicago to Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore for September/October. So far, all the airfares I have priced is over $2000 per person! Would it be better for me to buy a ticket to Tokyo here and then buy tickets to HK and Singapore in Tokyo?

Or should I opt for the Cathay Pacific All Asia Pass?

I would opt for the All Asia Pass if you intend to fly coach. The only down side is that you have to normally connect thru a hub each time you fly, however, this should not be a problem since you can pretty much do NRT, HKG and SIN in a straight line with proper planning.

I would structure it as a RT from ORD to SIN with stopovers in NRT and HKG. You could do the whole trip on UA/NH.

Alternatively, if you did an open jaw SIN-HKG with a stop in NRT you could add JL as a potential carrier.

Your routing is on the break-point between cheap ($700) and expensive ($2000) because most fares only permit one stopover or open jaw. But, if you stay on the case, I'm guessing you'll be able to get in the $1000 ballpark. One nice thing about JL and NH is that many of their fares don't count NRT as a stopover (helps promote tourism). The same goes for CX in HKG (which might help you) and SQ in SIN (less useful because SIN is your furthest port-of-call).

Yes the stop overs would work. there are also some consolidators that offer round asia fares

Also be aware that there is another consideration besides cost: frequent flyer points.

The number of frequent flyer points you'd get doing it by paying more can be a significant reason not to go the cheapest way. The miles can be substantial especially if the airlines are running bonuses as they do fairly frequently. Watch american airlines site for cathay promos or go to cathay-us.com and register as a cyber traveler. (Cathay sometimes has done promotions offering mile bonuses for economy fare passengers who register while the AA site only shows promos for business class passengers, so watch for it.)

You can easily end up with a free u.s. ticket and if you hit the bonus period come close to going back to asia for free. But you have to look at costs.

There are three ways to do it cheap. One is the cited Cathay Pacific All asia pass. The second is Malaysia Airways Access Asia pass
http://us.malaysiaairlines.com/

Neither give miles.

malaysia air also has some deal with a consolidator called gobundle that offers some deals

http://vinamall.com/gobundle/gen.jsp?dir=/gobundle



[This message has been edited by MrAOK (edited Feb 23, 2004).]

I think it will depend on the order of your stopovers. United has a Q fare that allows stopovers, but it specifically says that Japan s/o is ONLY permitted on the return. In addition, the fare will not "auto-price" in the computer reservation system, which means it has to be manually priced by the agent. Here's the text from the fare basis QLXPXSG ...

11 STOPOVERS - NO ENROUTE STOPOVERS ARE PERMITTED, WITHIN
JAPAN. 2 ADDITIONAL FREE STOPOVERS ARE PERMITTED. A
STOPOVER OCCURS WHEN THE PASSENGER DOES NOT DEPART AN
INTERMEDIATE POINT WITHIN 24 HOURS.
*** STOPOVER CLARIFICATION- STOPOVERS ARE PERMITTED
IN JAPAN INBOUND. ADDITIONALLY 2 STOPOVERS PERMITTED
AT USD 75.00 EACH. NONE IN JAPAN OUTBOUND.
CHILD/INFANT DISCOUNTS APPLY. *** WILL NOT AUTOPRICE
***

------------------
sftrvlr

I was thinking of the Cathay Pacific All Asia Pass, but my travel agent has not heard of it before. Does anyone out there know of a travel agent that has done this before? If so, can I have the name and number? Thanks!

Char

CX Pass (http://cathayusa.com/offers/aap/subdefault.asp)

I'm guessing sftrvlr's suggestion will be far cheaper though and require a lot less travel (so long as you can do NRT on the return). You could fly ord-hkg-sin-nrt-ord or ord-sin-hkg-nrt-ord; the former routing doesn't require ANY additional connections.

With CX, you'd have to fly yourself to a CX gateway, then go to HKG and backtrack to NRT.

Not sure your budget but as a treat from flying coach, Singapore has a $1050 roundtrip airfare from LAX to SIN. Plus taxes, makes it a little over $1100. It's not business class, and certainly not first class, but the seats look comparable to domestic first class on a decent airline, with a better entertainment system -- wider, more pitch, a leg rest (that doesn't look too comfortable actually), etc.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ebell:
Not sure your budget but as a treat from flying coach, Singapore has a $1050 roundtrip airfare from LAX to SIN. Plus taxes, makes it a little over $1100. It's not business class, and certainly not first class, but the seats look comparable to domestic first class on a decent airline, with a better entertainment system -- wider, more pitch, a leg rest (that doesn't look too comfortable actually), etc.</font>

I've heard a lot of support for this new LAX-SIN flight of late (and been bombarded with their ads on economist.com), but I've yet to meet anyone who's ever taken it. Therefore, I'm curious as to its allure. Personally, if I had to choose between LAX-NRT on UA, NH, JL, or any other carriers with civilized pitch and a 17 hour flight with something 20% better, I'd surely go with the former, even if the costs were equal.