HillyardJKM

We're looking to book our honeymoon using Chase UR points. We have about 110K. Our dream vacation would be Korean Air flight coach from NYC to Seoul (with a 2-3 night stay), then Seoul to Denpasar, Bali, then back to NYC. I'm guessing we'd use the points to just get one of our tickets. However, when exploring on the Korean Air website, it won't let me do a multi-stop award ticket search. Two questions:
(1) Is what I'm hoping for even possible?
(2) If so, how in the world do I book this?

I have no idea how to use our points to get that done--this is the first time I've ever had a significant amount of points to play with! If any kind and expert miles flyer could give me some advice, it would be much, much appreciated.

Thank you!

tcook052

As this a UR redemption question and not a mileage run topic I've relocated your thread here to the Chase Ultimate Rewards forum. Good luck with the honeymoon plans and welcome to Flyertalk!

Regards,

tcook052
Mileage Run Forum Moderator

philemer

Chase UR can be transferred to KE, and a few other airlines, but you'll have to do some homework to see how many KE miles you'll need. Read the Chase UR threads here & go to KE site and study their award chart. If you have enough miles you book through KE site.

JonB110

Is there a reason why you want to fly Korean? Why not use your points through united . . . which requires 80,000 roundtrip coach or 140,000 roundtrip business. United would also allow for the 3-4 day stopover in Korea.

Depending upon your dates you could fly direct to Seoul from JFK on Asiana Airlines or by routing through Beijing (Air China then Asiana), Tokyo (ANA then United) or Vancouver (Air Canada). From Seoul you could fly to Bangkok then on to Densapar. Return I would do DPS - BKK - PEK/ICN - JFK.

While you are short in united miles, I am sure you can search these forums and find a way to obtain the additional miles. Bali is a beautiful place and I would highly recommend it. If you need any help feel free to PM me.

HillyardJKM

To: JonB110. Thank you for the really wonderful suggestions! We initially liked Korean because they did direct flights from Seoul to NYC and Seoul to Bali--which would have nicely cut down on layovers. But I'll definitely check into United's flights to see if we can do it through them.

Thank you!

cruisr

Not that you are asking for Bali advice, but, I was there last month and I was so disappointed. Check a lot of sites before you decide. There is actually a thread on FT about most disappointing places and Bali pops up more then once.

I flew there using UA miles on a combo of LH and TG in F.

iahphx

I think Bali is a terrific honeymoon destination, but one that is not that well understood by Americans. This isn't the right place to discuss this in detail, but you have to decide what kind of vacation you want to have. If you want an "authentic" Balinese experience, you have to get out of the big tourist towns and fancy resorts in the south, and head north (rural area of Ubud or further north). If you want to stay in a tourist town, it's going to be a lot like beach resorts anywhere (lots of people like this, particularly Australians). The great thing about Bali and the rest of Indonesia right now is that if offers fantastic value for money.

As far as getting there, I high recommend using UA miles. We recently went from NYC on Singapore airlines through FRA and SIN, and then returned via PEK (free stopover without visa if less than 72 hours or so) combining Singapore Air with UA. My recollection is that it's 70,000 miles in coach. Biz class award tickets -- which obviously would be quite nice for such a long trip -- have gotten much more expensive lately. I also recall that Singapore Airlines inventory has been taken off the UA site, so you have to call.

But since you don't have at least 140,000 in your account, it seems like the very first thing you need to do is sign up for another credit card and get another large bonus. They you can book the seats.

BTW, you might also want to consider Thai and other Star Alliance airlines booked through United.com. You can go to the UA site right now and see what award seats are available. It won't be hard to get an idea (except for the Singapore seats, which I don't think are displaying).

Daveyb101

A few months back, Lucky put together what appears to be a fairly comprehensive post on booking KE awards: http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...awards-online/

I understand that KE only permits bookings for certain "family members." Considering the fact that you're looking at a honeymoon, you may have trouble getting the ticket booked if they don't consider a fiancee to be a family member (yet). I am not saying that I have a clue what the answer is, just that there is a potential question.
Also, KE will charge fuel surcharges (albeit likely reasonable ones) on award tickets -- another factor to consider.

I agree that UA miles on Asiana is worth exploring, as may be other routings on Star Alliance.

Does anybody know if Singapore would allow SFO-ICN (STOP) ICN-SIN-DPS (DEST) DPS-SIN-(FRA)-EWR as a single RT ticket? If so, that is an option that I would consider, as SQ's product is considered by many to be one of the best. I would look into purchasing SFO-NYC tickets to avoid having SQ price that ticket as a Star Alliance award (apx 62k vs 110K (RT in Y)).

I also just completed a trip to Bali (using UA points on Air China and Singapore) and am happy to try to field any additional questions you might have.

HillyardJKM

Thanks for all of the suggestions to check out UA. the good news is that the soon-to-hubby and I each have some random points with UA, so we could very easily get tickets using just points. Probably not enough for two first class tickets....sadly. The Singapore fights would be a great option. I'll look into those.

UPDATE: I called Korean Air. Reservations for non-upgrade economy with points seems to be much easier than booking an upgrade with points, though similar procedure. Call to reserve. Then transfer the points into your Skypass account. Call them back, fax in all your documents, etc. I was quoted 85K points per ticket for JFK -- ICN -- DPS round trip, including the free stopover in Seoul for late April/early May.

We're hoping to avoid the "family member" thing by just using our points for one ticket, paying out of pocket for the second. Maybe using the rest of the points for free hotel stays in Seoul, or something.

Thanks for the advice on Bali. We are definitely avoiding Kuta and trying to stay in the more beautiful, quiet, and natural parts of the island.

biggestbopper

Concur on the Bali is a great place offering remarkable value for money--especially if you get out to Ubud and the country away from the coast.

As to getting there, Chase is offering 50K bonus miles for its UAL card right now. This is a great offer and both you and your spouse to be should probably apply right now before it expires. UR pts transfer one to one to UAL miles.