Screaming Bagel

My wife and I would like to head to Asia next year around the holiday season - We're still figuring out exactly where where our jumping off spot should be, but we're thinking either Delhi or Bangkok

We have several possible destinations in India on our list, as well as Phnom Penh/Cambodia, Nepal, Chiang Mai/Thailand. We figure we should lock in the flight over to Asia first, then fill in short-hop international and domestic flights afterwards once we really figure out where we want to go.

We're a bit short on miles, so we'll be flying economy as I have just enough to cover two 80K tix.

Here's what I'm looking for guidance on..would appreciate any feedback you fine folks can offer (we'll be flying out of Charlotte if that makes a difference)

- What is the relative difficulty around booking these tix on *A partners? Do we need to get on the phone RIGHT NOW and get it done, or can we wait a while?

- Any idea how big the "pool" of award tix to Asia are?

- Any experiences on the ease/difficulty of getting awards tickets to specific airports (I see there are *A flights into Delhi, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, etc, but asssume that some of these routes are more popular than others).

- Is there a specific carrier we should try and get on (we've always really liked Thai Airways, but the non-stop between JFK and BKK appears to have been discontinued)

Will gratefully accept any other guidance / thoughts / advice you guys can offer - this'll be our first time trying to use DM to get to Asia so I have nothing to go on.

Thanks!

fcn2121

If you are somewhat flexible and don't have specific dates you should be fine with finding *Alliance flights to BKK. Especially using US Airways miles (No Starnet filtering!). You have dozens of different itineraries and airlines to choose from: just a few examples: CLT-LAX-BKK (US & TG) or SQ or OZ (Asiana) via Seoul. Try SFO or SEA as a gateway (or maybe ORD or IAD). You can also fly via Europe without any additional milage requirements. Try CLT-CDG-BKK (US & TG) or any gateway in Europe (LHR, FRA, MUC, MAD, FCO, MAN, VIE or even ATH). Your possibilities are endless. Just check for availability on ANA (you need to be an ANA milage member - just sign up) and then call US and book. I never had any issues with availability through US when I first checked ANA. Try getting the same seats with UA miles (about the only positive side to Dividend Miles). Check for seats on LH, SQ, TG, OZ, OS and as a last resort check UA.
Good Luck and do not wait too long since you like to travel around the holidays.
Intra Asia flights seem to be no problem whatsoever. I just booked 2 C-Class trips from BKK to DPS (Bali) with three weeks notice. Everything widely available with US DM's.

A37845

I was in the same boat earlier this year: trying to use US miles for a trip to Asia. I second the prev response; in fact, I booked in coach on Singapore airlines both ways and right on the dates I wanted.

In fact, I almost managed to build a biz-class itin (not on Singapore, of course: a mix of UA and ANA), but the dates were off by one day :-(

Jhoc

It is not too difficult to book other airlines via US air just make sure you know exactly what you want so you can tell them and simplify the process.

I booked Thai Air LHR-BKK last year first using the ANA tool to find exact flight numbers with award space and then called the USair reps to sort it out.

The only hitch was it required paper tickets for Thai (possibly all other *A carriers not sure) and they shipped the tickets to an old US address rather than the London address I gave them. I guess they at least got the hard part right.

Benny8444

It should be Easy. US does not block flights like UA does. If you look on the ANA tool and are flexible you will be able to find something. I have seen OZ available a lot as well as TG. The ANA flight from ORD is also open sometimes. You can also look at LH via the Atlantic.

Screaming Bagel

Thanks, all.

rsydney

I hope someone can help me here. I am trying to book MNL - SIN Flight 921 Sept 23 Business class on Singapore Airlines. I shows available in the Aeroplan, and Singapore website and the KVS Tool(lots of seats available) But I can't seem to book it with United or US Airways. Is there a limit to those airlines what they can get from Singapore? In the past the Inter-Asia flights were easy to book dont know what happen now.Seem to be blocked most if not all of september on singapore airlines. Can anyone state there experiences.

KVS

Those SQ C Award Seats are definitely available.
For tips on dealing with Agents, who may claim otherwise, please see http://Help.KVSTool.com/#AgentSaysNo

[KVS Availability Tool 7.0.3/Diamond - SNT: Awards/StarAlliance/JP-ANA-SP1]