lensovet

Spurred by AA's upcoming devaluation, looking to cash out my miles there and thinking to go to MLE on CX and on *A on the return.

Currently thinking to use my A3 miles to do CMB-BKK-TPE-SFO in J, with TG on the first two segments and BR on the TPAC. This will cost me 75k miles and allows me to snag a reasonably-priced revenue ticket for my SO for $1500 on the same planes. Originally I had wanted to redeem on SQ but the revenue ticket cost would be astronomical so I decided to skip that.

So some questions,
1. Is this a good use of miles?
2. How is the TG hard product? From seat maps it appears that this is flown with newer, angled flat seats as opposed to recliners.
3. How does the BR hard product compare to SQ and TK? I have done SQ on JFK-FRA and TK on IST-SFO, so those are my reference points (I've done UA and AC as well but let's not talk about that lol).
4. What are my best shots at availability? I see a bunch of BR close in, but not that much more than 3 weeks out.

Thanks!

KLouis

Check the miles you have to pay on the *A flights. TPE-BKK-CMB in J should cost 45K (one way Central Asia to Far East), leaving 30 K for the TPAC leg. That doesn't sound correct.

lensovet

The actual routing would be just CMB-SFO. Availability of one-stop flights for this is pretty minimal.

lensovet

On United this did price out to 80k, which is their price for NA to Southwest Asia.

malmostoso

I have flown the Royal Laurel product (which is what you should get on TPE-SFO) and I was very happy with it. Comfy seat, good service, plentiful champagne and tasty food.

Can't compare to SQ or TK since I've never flown them in J, but I imagine you won't be disappointed.

nanyang

2.
TG hard product - assume this is a regional 777 of some kind? Flew on an older 777-200 in J on the MNL-BKK sector recently - no issues whatsoever on a short flight. I have taken a number of flights on 777-200/200ER/300 on TG over the years. Perfectly fine for regional flights.

Would also recommend giving the 77W a try one of these days - I quite like that product on TG.

3.
BR on the 77W is pretty good (world class?) in my opinion. I prefer the wide seat on SQ and I feel one has more privacy there. Then again, I can imagine there are people who might prefer the BR seat.

Haven't flown TK long-haul for the past 2 years, but only seen the 2+2+2 cabin in J on the SIN, BKK and HKG sectors. BR is a lot nicer on the 77W.

As for food, BR has been ok the few times I have flown with them. I think SQ has better options, but haven't had any issues with BR.

Mwenenzi

Does your ffp allow you to book a flight for your SO with your ff miles?
If you have the revenue ticket you get ff miles, which long term may be more beneficial in your ff account than in your SO's ff account.

KLouis

I see your logic but I'm not certain it works this way: you'll get in "trouble" with A3's stupid rules that state that not more than one stopover is allowed. The stupidity lies in the fact that they consider every connection, even if only 60 minutes long, a stopover. I've had numerous calls with them on that matter, which resulted in... no result. I therefore also had to break a recent trip across three zones into different award tickets, obviously resulting in higher prices (in miles).

lensovet

thanks for the heads-up! I've got 90k miles in UA as well that I can use, if A3 won't work here.

PS. Is there somewhere this is stated in the rules? I can't find it. All the stops would indeed be under 24 hours.

lensovet

yep, i'm thinking about that too ;-)

KLouis

Here, third bullet from top. Strictly logically, this would imply that you can have as many stopovers of >24 hours each, but unfortunately, this isn't true

lensovet

i just saw that. ugh. guess UA is what I will use.

sooge_sj

I use UA miles to go from SFO to CMB and back every December, and I have done CMB-BKK-TPE in TG and TPE-SFO in BR. Another option is CMB-BKK-NRT in TG and NRT-SFO in NH.

I have really enjoyed TPE-SFO in royal laurel class on BR. I think it is better than NH J. My only comparison for TPAC flights in J is BR, NH, and UA, in that order of preference.

CMB-BKK-TPE in TG J in the angled flat seats is not bad. Both these flights are only about 3+ hours. The one bad think about flying out of CMB on TG is that the flight leave at 1:30 am. By the time they serve you a meal, there is hardly any time to get any sleep. You arrive in BKK feeling groggy.

Last week I came back CMB-BKK-NRT in TG J and NRT-SFO in NH J. The BKK-NRT leg was on A380, and was nice. The flight was slightly longer, so you get to enjoy it more. Also it was fairly empty.

TK flies to CMB. Have you thought about CMB-IST-SFO on TK?

lensovet

thanks for the really detailed info! i've done the 380 on SQ (JFK-FRA). NH sounds appealing primarily due to the fact that they fly to SJC. Beyond that I've never heard anything amazing about them, unlike BR which I've seen highly rated…and I've also been to their lounge at SFO which is the best J lounge in that airport by far. given the service I've received there…I feel like the flight should be equally amazing.

agreed about the schedule, though i was thinking that there's enough time there to leave the airport in taipei.

i did see the TK flights. for me personally it's a bit less interesting because i have already flown IST-SFO (and IST-YYZ) on them in J.

one thing i did completely forget and just realized is that i can leave from MLE. the only reason i'm going into CMB in the first place is because of AA's ridiculous zones, which don't allow single-award redemptions there over the pacific. however according to matrix this apparently gets me nothing, as my only options with one stop are TK and LH.

i do wonder if A3 would allow an SQ redemption on SQ 451 followed by SQ 2, even though SQ 2 technically has a stopover (but is it considered such given that the flight number doesn't change?). but the prices are still astronomical, over $5500 for a OW J ticket.