Strawb

I recently took advantage of the super cheap Malaysia Airlines one way business fares from Thailand to the UK for February next year. I want to position myself from Australia to Phuket in order to take this flight. Departure from Phuket is at 16:55 on a Monday with a 4hr connection in KUL and a 23:30 departure to LHR. I will be in Melbourne for only 6 days and time is of the essence as I need to maximise all my time down under.

I have therefore shortlisted 2 options to get to HKT in order of preference.

1) Leave MEL on the 20:35 Qantas flight to PER landing at 21:40. A one way business ticket will cost me 20K Avios points. Overnight at the Hyatt Regency Perth (employee comp rate). Leave on the first flight out at 06:40 Monday morning to SIN (SIA) arriving 11:25 with connection on Silk Air at 13:10 and arriving in HKT at 14:05. Economy class one way fare is AU$459. Total cost MEL-HKT 20K plus £10.50 plus AU$459 = approx £285.

2). Redeem Lifemiles for one business class ticket with Thai Airways Int'l for the midnight departure via BKK. Cost using both points and cash is 18K miles + US$417 (approx £330). Departure from MEL will be Monday at 00:30 and arriving into BKK at 05:40 with connection to HKT arriving at 09:55 same day.

There are some pros and cons to both options. Option 1 has the best timings flightwise leaving Australia. I still get a decent amount of sleep on the ground (in Perth) and it's a daytime flight to SIN. Timings are good for my onward connection from HKT back to the UK. I would prefer to have dinner in Melbourne with my folks on Sunday evening but leaving at 20:35 would mean I miss out on this and I would be eating in the air instead.

Option 2 allows me to have dinner on the ground before I head off to the airport for my late departure. However, Thai was supposed to introduce the A359 on this route and have delayed it. I have no idea when they will intoduce it and I am not really comfortable with redeeming miles for a sub-par business product on their other aircraft. I've done this flight in business before and found the 777 angled flat seat not conducive to a good night's sleep. The other negative is the 7hr layover at HKT. What is there to do in this time?

I'm leaning towards Option 1 as it allows me to get a good night's sleep but what would you do?

Mwenenzi

Is there award availability?

JQ fly a B787 MEL-HKT direct http://www.jetstar.com/au/en/cheap-flights/phuket.
But flying JQ has a risk, as does having 2 or 3 flights MEL-XXX-XXX-HKT on different carriers

Strawb

Award availability is there for both options and I would prefer to redeem with oneworld but QF flights to SIN/BKK do not suit my schedule. JQ has a flight leaving MEL at 3pm and getting into HKT after 8pm. That would mean overnighting in Phuket. Ideally I would like to leave MEL as late as possible. If there was a direct flight from MEL to BKK/HKT departing early morning it would fit my plans perfectly. Unfortunately there isn't.

number_6

SQ via PER should be the most reliable and the QF MEL-PER flight has sleeper seats (short flight though). Just avoid LCC to HKT, a friend was stranded for 3 days in HKT while his LCC organized a flight out, >24 houyr delays seems to happen fairly often for some reason.

Strawb

Yes, definitely won't be considering LCCs. Perth is looking to be my preferred option, I should be able to get around 6hrs sleep, be up at 04:30am for my 06:40am flight to SIN and get into HKT with 2hrs 50mins to connect to my MH flight.

Strawb

I am a risk taker. 😀 I've flown crazy routings and of course I've missed flights and been stuck at airports...not fun but I enjoy being a risk taker!

Guvner067

You could get the 16:10 TG472/225 combo from Sydney in F/J on Lifemiles

The 1hr Mel>Syd flights can be found for less that AUD $100. Would save on hotels and get you a decent hard/soft product in F on the SYD>BKK leg

Strawb

Thanks for that, I did have a look at departing from SYD and I saw that option too but it involves a very late arrival into HKT as well as having to spend a night there. I actually redeemed Lifemiles on TG from HKG-BKK-SYD (J/F) to get me to Australia and will use Avios points for internal QF flights.

Anton33

If you want to redeem Oneworld carrier maybe you can redeem flights on MH as they also have late night departure from MEL at 00:40 with approximately 3 hrs connection to Phuket and arriving Phuket before 10:00 am. So you will have about 7 hour layover in Phuket as well but MH has new business class out of MEL. I personally think it's a good option. Maybe you can take a look at it.

Tim Aukusitino

Yeah option 2 looks overall better

Strawb

Thanks, I already looked at MH out of MEL, late midnight departure similar to TG but award availability using Avios is non-existent for that flight. In any case YQ is exorbitant if I want to redeem Avios points. What is putting me off the midnight departures to Asia from MEL is the lengthy layover at HKT. Option 2 via PER has minimal connection time in HKT.

Mike Jacoubowsky

Just got back from a lengthy (in terms of miles and number of flights) trip to Australia and Cambodia. Flew to :30 TG flight out of Brisbane to BKK in biz. It was a new 787 with lie-flat seats, very easy to sleep. Curiously, they want to feed you. A lot. Full dinner service about an hour into the flight. They do give you the option to pass on it; just seems a bit odd to be serving dinner at 1:30am. Skip the dinner and you'll get some quality sleep. Keep in mind the air really is better on the 787 (might be similar on a 350), which helps.