dyrewolf31

Hey all -

We are planning a 2 week trip to north Asia for spring 2017, and I'm trying to get all my ducks in a row for when the schedule opens up.

We will be spending half the trip in Seoul/Jeju (where my sister lives), and half in Japan (probably a mix of Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka). I'm planning on an open jaw into Seoul/out of Tokyo or vice versa. We are ex-LAX.

It will be me and the mrs, plus our kids who will be 4.5 and 1.5 at the time. The older one has logged about 100k miles so he's a pro.

Conveniently I have a plethora of miles to burn - Chase, SPG, AAdvantage. I'd like to redeem for 4 business class seats each way, in a product that is both 1) awesome and 2) a good layout to supervise kids.

I think for the LAX-TYO leg, Singapore A380 business is a no brainer, right? I've never flown Singapore, but it seems to be the holy grail. Would you consider LAX-HND on AA 787 instead? Or should I not overthink this?

For the LAX-ICN leg, is Korean the way to go (vs Asiana)? I've never flown either, but my sister swears by Korean and curses Asiana.

Thanks in advance

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Personally, I would not invest too much energy in this endeavor until I determined how many carriers will actually offer you four Business Class award seats on the same flight on your desired date of travel.

JDiver

As guv1976 says, you may want to rethink. E.g. one adult with one child in two groups to have better chances of finding the seats you want. Finding four Business award seats on the same flight will be very difficult.

travellingwineO

This being Flyertalk, I risk getting banned for posting encouraging words when it comes to someone asking about more than 2 premium cabin award seats, but Korean usually has reasonably good availability. That's a pretty good bet for at least one direction. It might be your answer for both legs. One caution re: Korean- you need to register all your family members and provide proof of their relationship to you (birth certificates and marriage certificate). That can take up to 2 weeks to process.

I would start searching any of the the options you are interested in to get a better sense of availability. You may find options other that Korean with good availability. Good luck.

erik123

JAL LAX-KIX also has good availability but angle flat seat. UA to NRT is also pretty good with availability. You can book and change to a better option a few weeks out.

dyrewolf31

Korean has enormous premium cabin availability, F4 or J4 is doable almost every day. Singapore would be more complicated, but I have definitely found days 200+ days out with J4.

LondonElite

Whatever.

OP, come back here when you have some concrete date that you an book and we'd be delighted to give you advice. To kick this off, I'd suggest that SQ J is probably superior to the rest, but you may not get seats released. I don't share the Korean/Asian animosity, however, Asiana has done just fine by me.

dyrewolf31

Thanks for all the input. I'm not too concerned about finding award availability in general, since I've been monitoring the routes for a few months, plus I have a lot of point flexibility (different programs) and a lot of date flexibility. I was just looking for input on the relative quality of the products, so I could prioritize my search.

theshortfinal

I feel for the folks that paid thousands for their business seats and see kids running around! haha. Just kidding, I'm sure your kids are well-behaved.

As soon as someone sees a kid on the plane they start trembling!