Honeymoon to Bali/Maldives in Star Alliance First: Lufthansa, Thai, Singapore & ANA
Jun 16, 2014, 8:21 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: CHS
Programs: DL Diamond, WN A-List, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 685
Honeymoon to Bali/Maldives in Star Alliance First: Lufthansa, Thai, Singapore & ANA
I'll be posting the trip reports from our honeymoon trip here over the next few weeks, as we complete them. I'll try to edit this first post with an index as we add the posts, hope you guys enjoy reading!
------------------------------------------------
All about our Honeymoon trip: Bali, Jakarta, Singapore and the Maldives - Overview and Index
We’d been stockpiling United miles for months and had finally saved enough for 2x round-trip tickets in first class, a cost of 140k miles each. After some painstaking (but exciting) mapping, routing and time on the phone with United award booking representatives, our itinerary ended up looking like this:
By using United award miles, we were able to take advantage of their routing rules to have 1 free stopover, 1 free open-jaw and 2 long connections that allowed us enough time to explore the city (aka 2 more free stopovers). It looked like this:
We were able to fly some pretty cool First Class cabins on this award ticket and visited some beautiful – and unique - places. We booked this ticket last summer for appx 140,000 United miles + $120 in taxes but, since United’s award devaluation, this same trip would now cost 260,000 United miles!
Here’s the overview of our trip and an outline of future posts:
- Award-Booking Honeymoon trip with United miles…All in First Class
- Finagling our way into Luftansa First Class with VERY last minute changes
- Lufthansa First Class Lounge – New York JFK Airport
Uh…white table cloth dining with a waiter in an airport lounge? Off to a great start!
- Lufthansa Boeing 747 First Class – New York JFK to Frankfurt FRA (LH 405)
Well done again, Lufthansa. Who wants a seat that turns into a bed when you can just have both?!
- Bratwursts galore! Sightseeing around Frankfurt, Germany
The Frankfurt Christmas Market was in full swing; I’ve never been one to turn down a glass (or 8) of hot wine
- Westin Grand Frankfurt Hotel Review – Frankfurt, Germany
- Lufthansa First Class Lounge Review – Frankfurt-FRA Terminal B
Ok, just stop it already, Lufthansa, a jamón ibérico slicing machine at my full disposal?!
- Thai Royal First Class – Airbus A380 – Frankfurt to Bangkok
Best way to fit in when you’re flying for free and your neighbor dropped $6k? Take LOTS of pictures
“Would you like some caviar?” Me: “Uh, hell yes, what kind of question is that–sounds expensive… and awesome.”
- Thai Airways Royal First Lounge and Royal Orchid Spa – Bangkok-BKK
Yes, this is a full-on private spa room inside the Bangkok airport and yes, it was free for first class flyers!
- Thai Airways Royal Silk (Business Class) – Bangkok to Bali
- W Retreat & Spa Bali Seminyak – Bali, Indonesia – Hotel Review Part 1: Booking, Check-In and Room
W Retreat & Spa Bali Seminyak – Bali, Indonesia – Hotel Review Part 2: The Restaurants
- Photo Gallery: Around Bali
- Exploring Bali: Tanah Lot
McCown was like a local celebrity in Bali: tons of Indonesian girls demanded a picture with her. #localceleb?
- Exploring Bali: Taman Ayun
- Villa Semana – Ubud, Bali
Staggered rice terraces of Ubud, Bali next to our hotel
- Photo Gallery: Around Ubud
At the Ubud Palace in Bali: Puri Saren Agung Ubud
- Lounge Review: CIP Lounge Denpasar-DPS Domestic Terminal
- Air Asia – Denpasar to Jakarta
First economy class flight of the trip. I feel dirty and poor.
- Keraton at The Plaza Hotel, Jakarta
- Photo Gallery and Walking Tour: Around Jakarta
- Esplanade Lounge – Jakarta
- Singapore Airlines “First Class” – Jakarta to Singapore
- Photo Gallery: Exploring Singapore
- Singapore Changi Airport
Yes, this is inside Singapore’s airport!
They also have a giant butterfly garden!
- Lounge Review: KrisFlyer Silver Lounge – Singapore
- Singapore Airlines Business Class – Singapore to Male, Maldives
- Male, Maldives & Hotel Octave
Ferry from Male airport island to the main Male island…they have a surplus of islands around here
- Lounge @ MLE Domestic Terminal
- Maldivian flight – Male to Kooddoo
- Park Hyatt Maldives
- Plaza Premium Lounge - Male International Terminal
- All Nippon Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner Business Class – Singapore to Tokyo
- United Airlines BusinessFirst Cabin – Tokyo to Newark
- Award-Booking Honeymoon trip with United miles…All in First Class
- Finagling our way into Lufthansa First Class with VERY last minute changes
- Lufthansa First Class Lounge – New York JFK Airport
- Lufthansa Boeing 747 First Class – New York JFK to Frankfurt FRA (LH 405)
- Bratwursts Galore! Sightseeing around Frankfurt, Germany
- Westin Grand Frankfurt Hotel Review – Frankfurt, Germany
- Lufthansa First Class Lounge Review – Frankfurt-FRA Terminal B
- Thai Airways A380 Royal First Class – TG 921 Frankfurt-FRA to Bangkok-BKK
- Thai Airways Royal First Lounge and Royal Orchid Spa – Bangkok-BKK
- Thai Airways B772 Royal Silk Class – TG 431 Bangkok-BKK to Denpasar, Bali-DPS
- W Retreat & Spa Bali Seminyak – Bali, Indonesia – Hotel Review Part 1
- W Retreat & Spa Bali Seminyak – Bali, Indonesia – Hotel Review Part 2
------------------------------------------------
All about our Honeymoon trip: Bali, Jakarta, Singapore and the Maldives - Overview and Index
We’d been stockpiling United miles for months and had finally saved enough for 2x round-trip tickets in first class, a cost of 140k miles each. After some painstaking (but exciting) mapping, routing and time on the phone with United award booking representatives, our itinerary ended up looking like this:
By using United award miles, we were able to take advantage of their routing rules to have 1 free stopover, 1 free open-jaw and 2 long connections that allowed us enough time to explore the city (aka 2 more free stopovers). It looked like this:
- Depart New York-JFK on Lufthansa to Frankfurt-FRA. We arrived in Frankfurt, Germany and had an appx 23 hours layover, this allowed us to stay the night without it counting as a stopover.
- Next flight was Frankfurt-FRA to Bangkok-BKK –> Denpasar-DPS (Bali). This was the beginning of our open-jaw.
- After about a week in Bali, we purchased a cheap ticket on Air Asia from Denpasar-DPS to Jakarta-CGK and explored the Indonesian capital for 2 nights.
- From Jakarta-CGK, we flew to Male-MLE in the Maldives via Singapore-SIN. The flight out of Jakarta concluded our open-jaw segment and we purposely picked an 8+ hour layover in Singapore, which allowed enough time to explore the city for a few hours.
- With the Maldives counting as our stopover, we stayed for a little less than a week and then began the trek home flying from Male-MLE –> Singapore-SIN –> Tokyo-NRT –> Newark-EWR. This concluded our United award ticket.
We were able to fly some pretty cool First Class cabins on this award ticket and visited some beautiful – and unique - places. We booked this ticket last summer for appx 140,000 United miles + $120 in taxes but, since United’s award devaluation, this same trip would now cost 260,000 United miles!
Here’s the overview of our trip and an outline of future posts:
- Award-Booking Honeymoon trip with United miles…All in First Class
- Finagling our way into Luftansa First Class with VERY last minute changes
- Lufthansa First Class Lounge – New York JFK Airport
Uh…white table cloth dining with a waiter in an airport lounge? Off to a great start!
- Lufthansa Boeing 747 First Class – New York JFK to Frankfurt FRA (LH 405)
Well done again, Lufthansa. Who wants a seat that turns into a bed when you can just have both?!
- Bratwursts galore! Sightseeing around Frankfurt, Germany
The Frankfurt Christmas Market was in full swing; I’ve never been one to turn down a glass (or 8) of hot wine
- Westin Grand Frankfurt Hotel Review – Frankfurt, Germany
- Lufthansa First Class Lounge Review – Frankfurt-FRA Terminal B
Ok, just stop it already, Lufthansa, a jamón ibérico slicing machine at my full disposal?!
- Thai Royal First Class – Airbus A380 – Frankfurt to Bangkok
Best way to fit in when you’re flying for free and your neighbor dropped $6k? Take LOTS of pictures
“Would you like some caviar?” Me: “Uh, hell yes, what kind of question is that–sounds expensive… and awesome.”
- Thai Airways Royal First Lounge and Royal Orchid Spa – Bangkok-BKK
Yes, this is a full-on private spa room inside the Bangkok airport and yes, it was free for first class flyers!
- Thai Airways Royal Silk (Business Class) – Bangkok to Bali
- W Retreat & Spa Bali Seminyak – Bali, Indonesia – Hotel Review Part 1: Booking, Check-In and Room
W Retreat & Spa Bali Seminyak – Bali, Indonesia – Hotel Review Part 2: The Restaurants
- Photo Gallery: Around Bali
- Exploring Bali: Tanah Lot
McCown was like a local celebrity in Bali: tons of Indonesian girls demanded a picture with her. #localceleb?
- Exploring Bali: Taman Ayun
- Villa Semana – Ubud, Bali
Staggered rice terraces of Ubud, Bali next to our hotel
- Photo Gallery: Around Ubud
At the Ubud Palace in Bali: Puri Saren Agung Ubud
- Lounge Review: CIP Lounge Denpasar-DPS Domestic Terminal
- Air Asia – Denpasar to Jakarta
First economy class flight of the trip. I feel dirty and poor.
- Keraton at The Plaza Hotel, Jakarta
- Photo Gallery and Walking Tour: Around Jakarta
- Esplanade Lounge – Jakarta
- Singapore Airlines “First Class” – Jakarta to Singapore
- Photo Gallery: Exploring Singapore
- Singapore Changi Airport
Yes, this is inside Singapore’s airport!
They also have a giant butterfly garden!
- Lounge Review: KrisFlyer Silver Lounge – Singapore
- Singapore Airlines Business Class – Singapore to Male, Maldives
- Male, Maldives & Hotel Octave
Ferry from Male airport island to the main Male island…they have a surplus of islands around here
- Lounge @ MLE Domestic Terminal
- Maldivian flight – Male to Kooddoo
- Park Hyatt Maldives
- Plaza Premium Lounge - Male International Terminal
- All Nippon Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner Business Class – Singapore to Tokyo
- United Airlines BusinessFirst Cabin – Tokyo to Newark
Last edited by jmgriffin; Jan 4, 2015 at 2:09 pm
Jun 16, 2014, 11:54 am
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: A menace to everything in the sky. Yes. Even birds.
Programs: Eh+ Rapid Rolleyes
Posts: 14,519
Nice trip. Brought back fond memories of our honeymoon, which leveraged CO miles to do:
JFK - FRA - MRS (LH F) // CDG - ZRH - DXB (LX F) // DXB - MLE (EK J) // MLE - SIN (SQ Y - in whY thanks to a CO ticketing screw-up) // SIN - FRA - JFK (LH F) over two and a half weeks.
Definitely a few changes to the system since we did our trip in '10, some pros some cons. The ability to book EK rewards and access to LX F was great. Your hard product on LH was far better than what we experienced.
Bali is definitely on the bucket list for us.
Thanks for sharing the photos and the report. Looking forward to reading more.
JFK - FRA - MRS (LH F) // CDG - ZRH - DXB (LX F) // DXB - MLE (EK J) // MLE - SIN (SQ Y - in whY thanks to a CO ticketing screw-up) // SIN - FRA - JFK (LH F) over two and a half weeks.
Definitely a few changes to the system since we did our trip in '10, some pros some cons. The ability to book EK rewards and access to LX F was great. Your hard product on LH was far better than what we experienced.
Bali is definitely on the bucket list for us.
Thanks for sharing the photos and the report. Looking forward to reading more.
Jun 16, 2014, 6:41 pm
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: CHS
Programs: DL Diamond, WN A-List, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 685
Thanks for all of the kind words and feedback! We'll try to get the rest typed up ASAP!
United for sure 
-We flew Singapore F from Jakarta to Singapore, about a 1.5 hour flight, so it wasn't really too impressive. I agree that the long haul SQ First Class award inventory with United miles is either VERY sparse or existent.
- Yes! We liked Bali a lot but loved the Maldives and would go back at a moment's notice (if only United miles grew on trees!).
- While Thai Airways' First Class on the A380 was awesome, we had already flown Thai First a few years back on a 747 so the novelty and quality of service had already worn off a bit. Given that, I'll have to say the Lufthansa First on the 747 was the best flight of the trip. Between the awesome service and having an independent bed, it was the clear winner.
-We flew Singapore F from Jakarta to Singapore, about a 1.5 hour flight, so it wasn't really too impressive. I agree that the long haul SQ First Class award inventory with United miles is either VERY sparse or existent.
- Yes! We liked Bali a lot but loved the Maldives and would go back at a moment's notice (if only United miles grew on trees!).
- While Thai Airways' First Class on the A380 was awesome, we had already flown Thai First a few years back on a 747 so the novelty and quality of service had already worn off a bit. Given that, I'll have to say the Lufthansa First on the 747 was the best flight of the trip. Between the awesome service and having an independent bed, it was the clear winner.
Jun 17, 2014, 3:45 am
#11
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Iver
Programs: BA GOLD/OWE BA Amex Prem Plus Tesco Airmiles Qantas Bronze IHG SPG Eithad
Posts: 2,902
Thanks for sharing your TR with us, although not yet finished, amazing those bed/seats on Lufty, have not tried them, but it must be great just to be able to roll over from your seat to the bed. Loved all the other quick photos places, and the Maldives being one of our favourite places, been there 3 times, but not the island where you stayed, it looked lovely, await to read more when time allows^
Jun 17, 2014, 8:04 am
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: CHS
Programs: DL Diamond, WN A-List, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 685
Award-Booking Honeymoon trip with United miles…All in First Class
To me, one of the most fun parts of planning a nice trip is researching really awesome First Class cabins and nice resorts that we can fly on/stay in for cheap or free.
Before planning our honeymoon, I strategically signed up for 2x Chase cards a few months prior to booking that yielded me 100,000 bonus points so, those points (combined with the other points we had been patiently earning and hoarding over the last few years) came out to just enough for two round-trip tickets in First Class using United MileagePlus miles. The total points we used to book were 280,000 miles, 140k each. As a side note, United has massively devalued their currency and now the same trip would cost 260k miles each, 520k miles total.
We started this one off by basically just planning where in the world we wanted to go and cross-referenced it against where in the world we could go with our award miles balance. When using Delta SkyMiles, United MileagePlus miles, etc… you always want to make sure you take advantage of their 1 free stopover and 1 free open-jaw. This would cost you big on a paid ticket but is absolutely free when booking with miles, so it would be foolish to not use it. As a result, we typically try to think of fun city pairs when booking award travel; in the past, we’ve done Bangkok/Phuket (Thailand) paired with Hong Kong; Istanbul, Turkey to Lisbon, Portugal and Paris/Bordeaux/Nantes, France paired with Florence/Venice, Italy, etc… Where you can go will largely rely upon which carrier you’re booking through and which Alliance it’s a part of. We started with a list of 5-10 places we’d love to go on our honeymoon and I got to work seeing what was feasible. In the end, we chose Bali and the Maldives… with plenty of stops along the way:
The crazy part is that our itinerary started off looking like this:
…But it morphed repeatedly and, at times, drastically. I had the original itinerary all worked out to look like this:
Our 24,606 mile trip will take us to 10 countries (including connections) over 16 days:
Bali/Ubud, Indonesia
Our award ticket starts in New York as we fly out of New York-LGA and, appx 33 hours later, land in Denpasar, Indonesia-DPS, better know as Bali.
The trek begins with an Air Canada flight from New York-LGA to Montreal, Canada-YUL. We’ll then connect to Air Canada’s Montreal-YUL to Paris-CDG.
After a short hop from Paris-CDG to Frankfurt-FRA on Lufthansa, we’ll be ready for the longest flight of the trip: 10 hrs 10 mins from Frankfurt-FRA to Bangkok-BKK on Thai Airways’ Airbus A380 in “Royal Silk” class:
I’m sure the A380 will leave us spoiled for our next flight…on Thai Airways’ from Bangkok-BKK to Denpasar (Bali), Indonesia-DPS.
A short stop in Singapore
We’ve got a pretty short 1.5 hr flight from Jakarta-CGK to Singapore-SIN on Singapore Air.
Our 8 hr layover, while it is pretty short, should give us at least a few hours to check out Singapore.
The Maldives
After a few nights in the Maldives, we start the trek back to North America.
The first leg will take us from Male, Maldives-MLE to Istanbul-IST on Turkish Air.
We’ll connect on another Turkish Air flight from Istanbul-IST to Zurich-ZRH and then pick up our second-to-last flight on SWISS from Zurich-ZRH to Montreal-YUL.
For the most part, that is how the flights worked out — but, not without a few last minutes changes (for the better).
To me, one of the most fun parts of planning a nice trip is researching really awesome First Class cabins and nice resorts that we can fly on/stay in for cheap or free.
Before planning our honeymoon, I strategically signed up for 2x Chase cards a few months prior to booking that yielded me 100,000 bonus points so, those points (combined with the other points we had been patiently earning and hoarding over the last few years) came out to just enough for two round-trip tickets in First Class using United MileagePlus miles. The total points we used to book were 280,000 miles, 140k each. As a side note, United has massively devalued their currency and now the same trip would cost 260k miles each, 520k miles total.
We started this one off by basically just planning where in the world we wanted to go and cross-referenced it against where in the world we could go with our award miles balance. When using Delta SkyMiles, United MileagePlus miles, etc… you always want to make sure you take advantage of their 1 free stopover and 1 free open-jaw. This would cost you big on a paid ticket but is absolutely free when booking with miles, so it would be foolish to not use it. As a result, we typically try to think of fun city pairs when booking award travel; in the past, we’ve done Bangkok/Phuket (Thailand) paired with Hong Kong; Istanbul, Turkey to Lisbon, Portugal and Paris/Bordeaux/Nantes, France paired with Florence/Venice, Italy, etc… Where you can go will largely rely upon which carrier you’re booking through and which Alliance it’s a part of. We started with a list of 5-10 places we’d love to go on our honeymoon and I got to work seeing what was feasible. In the end, we chose Bali and the Maldives… with plenty of stops along the way:
The crazy part is that our itinerary started off looking like this:
…But it morphed repeatedly and, at times, drastically. I had the original itinerary all worked out to look like this:
Our 24,606 mile trip will take us to 10 countries (including connections) over 16 days:
Bali/Ubud, Indonesia
Our award ticket starts in New York as we fly out of New York-LGA and, appx 33 hours later, land in Denpasar, Indonesia-DPS, better know as Bali.
The trek begins with an Air Canada flight from New York-LGA to Montreal, Canada-YUL. We’ll then connect to Air Canada’s Montreal-YUL to Paris-CDG.
After a short hop from Paris-CDG to Frankfurt-FRA on Lufthansa, we’ll be ready for the longest flight of the trip: 10 hrs 10 mins from Frankfurt-FRA to Bangkok-BKK on Thai Airways’ Airbus A380 in “Royal Silk” class:
I’m sure the A380 will leave us spoiled for our next flight…on Thai Airways’ from Bangkok-BKK to Denpasar (Bali), Indonesia-DPS.
A short stop in Singapore
We’ve got a pretty short 1.5 hr flight from Jakarta-CGK to Singapore-SIN on Singapore Air.
Our 8 hr layover, while it is pretty short, should give us at least a few hours to check out Singapore.
The Maldives
After a few nights in the Maldives, we start the trek back to North America.
The first leg will take us from Male, Maldives-MLE to Istanbul-IST on Turkish Air.
We’ll connect on another Turkish Air flight from Istanbul-IST to Zurich-ZRH and then pick up our second-to-last flight on SWISS from Zurich-ZRH to Montreal-YUL.
For the most part, that is how the flights worked out — but, not without a few last minutes changes (for the better).
Jun 17, 2014, 10:54 am
#15
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: IAD
Posts: 319
Looks like you had a terrific honeymoon.
I'm surprised that UA allowed this routing, but maybe I don't understand the routing rules well enough. I guess the mini-RTW is permitted if you treat it as two one-way (TATL one way, TPAC the other), but I didn't think you could backtrack (SIN-MLE-SIN) unless MLE is the destination. With the open-jaw, isn't CGK/DPS the destination? Somebody please help unconfuse me.
I'm surprised that UA allowed this routing, but maybe I don't understand the routing rules well enough. I guess the mini-RTW is permitted if you treat it as two one-way (TATL one way, TPAC the other), but I didn't think you could backtrack (SIN-MLE-SIN) unless MLE is the destination. With the open-jaw, isn't CGK/DPS the destination? Somebody please help unconfuse me.