This was moved from the Asia forum not spg. I have been to the far east several times and I am aware of the various LCC's-I have flown Bangkok air, PAL, Cathay Pacific, Cebu Pacific, Thai and others. The post above said because the LCC are so cheap it doesnt makes sense to use miles. I agree at least if the mileage award is the traditional 25K. And I have KVS Availablity tool but i am not very adept at using it and I thought there might be more I am missing. Right now I am going ORD-BKK but i need to be in HKT (phuket) soon after my arrival and then to REP (Siem Reap). From there I would like to go to Vietnam and the Phils (preferably cebu although I am sure I can get a cebu pacific flight from MNL to CEB rather cheaply). I have looked at Bangkok airways discovery pass and also Malaysian Airways pass. I am not sure these will solve the problems. Getting into and out of HKT and REP is not easy- almost everything routes through BKK and hence the cost of the flights even with the LCC's goes up. KUL and SIN are much easier-for example I could use Malaysia but it only flies to REP like 2 or 3 times a week and they are the wrong days. I will probably end up using some combination of paid flights, award tix and one of the passes but I am looking for imput. In the old days, NW had some cheap inter-asia award fares. These would have been ideal except perhaps that many airlines do not service HKT, REP, MNL and CEB. I am not going until November so I have time to look and plan. Some priorities I have is: 1 I would prefer to fly for free on award tix when possible and reasonable; 2. while i am going ord to bkk in f, i don't mind flying coach for these short distances; and 3. While star alliance would be nice, I am not married to that for these trips and I have lots of miles with other carriers and partners. If I pay, I prefer star alliance.
Finally, i was talking to someone recently and he said Bangkok airlines award tix could be gotten through skymiles but i see no evidence of that Any constructive comments and advise will be appreciated.


One thing I learned in law school is that I never contradict myself, but sometimes others are confused easily.