Looking for a wee bit of advice here, or possibly merely affirmation that my own plan is the best way...
Looking into getting myself and my wife out to Tokyo for a week or so around October. I've been before, so I've some limited experience of the sights, hotels, Green Passes for the trains etc, but what I need assistance with is getting out there and back in the most comfortable and economic way.
The factors at play here are:
- We currently have an upcoming F trip to YVR in June (booked in the half-price sale and on a 2-4-1) - all a bit of a luxury brought on by the sale;
- The 2-4-1 above expires in July 2009. Not likely to trigger another until Nov or so (i.e. too late for this trip);
- I'm a UK Silver and my wife is a (Euro)Gold; consequently, we're not in a HHA;
- I currently have 23k miles, and my wife has 11k (and neither of us have purchased miles this calendar year);
- TPs are a mild concern for next membership year (mine ends in July, the wife's in Jan 2010);
- There is absolutely no way we will have either a 2-4-1 or the necessary miles to make a redemption booking directly in CW for the trip.
What I propose to do is the following:
- Cancel the YVR trip (returning 75k miles and the best part of £900 in taxes)
- Book 2 x WT+ tickets and MFU at the same time (approx £1.1k + 40k miles each)
- We did consider keeping YVR, both buying miles, buying WT+ on seperate tickets, me MFU-ing both ways on purchase and her MFU-ing outbound only (not enough miles in her account, she can sleep anywhere, and there's always the increased outside chance of an op-up), but the added cost really tips the balance (£2.2k plus c£750 for the miles against the net cost of £1.2k for the WT+ flights when the YVR refund is factored in)
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Now the questions:
1. Is my proposed strategy (cancel YVR, use those miles to MFU a WT+ booking) sensible?
2. Am I missing anything obvious? (I've checked the likes of Cathay Pacific and Finnair only to be scared off by their prices!)
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We did also consider combining this with a trip to HKG, either booking to HKG and then hopping (I know it's 4-5 hours!) to NRT, or booking an open-jaw with a one-way NRT-HKG ticket, but I'm stunned at the inter-Asia prices (possible to fly cheaper LON-HKG in Y than it is to fly NRT-HKG
). Again, am I missing something here, or is this a particularly pricey route?
Please excuse my ignorance - I'm more a short haul kinda guy, and have never MFU'd, so this is all a wee bit daunting!
Thanks in advance.