Asia - Help on travel to Asia!




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mavrwl
Dec 30, 07, 10:16 pm
New to FT... but spending alot of time reading the various threads and hoping to benefit from the groups expertise! Recently engaged, and my ONLY responsibility is the honeymoon planning...

Our wedding is Sep 20 2008 (honeymoon Sep 20-Oct 4)... After much discussion, we've pretty much settled on Asia - 5-6 days at JapaMala on Tioman Island in Malaysia, followed by 3 days in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. I'd really like to make sure we get business class on our long-haul international flights - without going broke! Here are our legs:

Boston(BOS) to Singapore (SIN)
[We have to use Berjaya Air to fly to Tioman]
Singapore (SIN) to Chiang Mai, Thailand (or Bangkok Thailand)
Bangkok Thailand to Boston, MA

We're trying to figure out whether we should:

1. Book coach class tickets (~ $2300 for each ticket), then trying to use FF miles to upgrade tickets - is this possible?

2. Using FF miles to try and book one business class seat, then buy one coach which we'll try and upgrade with miles. which is a bad option because there's a high likelihood that we'll be split up (seats-wise and potentially relationship-wise ;)).

3. Spend $500 for an AMEX Platinum to use their 2for1 Int'l deal. But don't want to make that plunge unless it makes sense.

We've got ~120,000 miles on Delta, 80,000 MR on AMEX - which we could potentially use... we clearly don't travel much internationally, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Are there travel agents that can help make sense of the various airline FF programs (even for a fee)?

Also, any advice on how to get from Tioman to Chiang Mai in one day would be appreciated... we have so few days that we don't want to waste them in airports!

I don't want to screw up my only wedding task! :) THANKS!


worldcupfan
Dec 30, 07, 10:43 pm
Congratulations on your engagement / upcoming wedding! ^

Some thoughts:
(1) You can buy tickets and upgrade using miles, but you typically have to purchase higher fare class tickets to upgrade and I don't think it's a great value if you're considering booking a business class award ticket. I believe it's probably 30K miles per person each way to upgrade. I'm more familiar with other airline programs, but I'm guessing Delta is similar. I suggest you search that forum or Delta's website for details
(2) A better alternative if you can find award availability is to book a business class award. I believe you could redeem Delta miles for NWA and KLM. United is 90K miles for a USA - Asia Business Award ticket. I'm guessing skyteam is similar
(3) If necessary, you could try booking a 1-way ticket to Asia and buy your return business class from there. Often the fares are lower for business class fares originating in Asia
(4) You can get to Bangkok on the same day that you depart from Tioman (via Kuala Lumpur) but I think you'll have to overnight in BKK before heading to Chiang Mai

Sample:
Tioman, Malaysia to Chiang Mai, Thailand: 1284 miles 16 hrs 55 min

Berjaya Air Sdn. Bhd. Flight J8 187 on a De Havilland Dash-7 (prop plane) in coach class
Departs Tioman, Malaysia (TOD) Sat, Sept 27 4:00p 1 hr 0 min
Arrives Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (SZB) 5:00p
Layover in Kuala Lumpur 4 hrs 25 min
Thai Airways Flight TG4752 on a Boeing 747 (jet) in coach class
(operated by Lufthansa Airlines as Flight LH783)
Departs Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (KUL) Sat, Sept 27 9:25p 2 hrs 15 min
Arrives Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) 10:40p
Layover in Bangkok 8 hrs 5 min
Thai Airways Flight TG1106 on an Airbus A300 (jet) in coach class
(meal)
Departs Bangkok, Thailand (DMK) Sun, Sept 28 6:45a 1 hr 10 min
Arrives Chiang Mai, Thailand (CNX) 7:55a

jaimemayo
Dec 30, 07, 11:47 pm
(2) A better alternative if you can find award availability is to book a business class award. I believe you could redeem Delta miles for NWA and KLM. United is 90K miles for a USA - Asia Business Award ticket. I'm guessing skyteam is similar

I don't know about the rest of Skyteam but NW is 120K for a USA-Asia business award ticket.




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