Hello again everyone. I'm humbled by all of the great advice and suggestions that everyone chimed in with and am happy to say that it really helped me make my decision. I also think that the difficulty in getting to Seychelles, Maldives and Mauritius really influenced me away from those properties at present. Same for Europe: it was pretty eye opening to see how little availability there was for oneworld and *A carriers in July/August. Then again, I guess everyone and their mother is trying to hit Europe during that time.

So, I've decided to book a four night GLON at the Conrad Bangkok, a 4 night AXON award at the Conrad Koh Samui bookended with 2 free weekend nights courtesy of the Citi Hilton Reserve card. 119k points + 145k points + 2 free nights for roughly $6,000 of hotel stays at the prevailing revenue rates = a very happy chubby bunny 13.

Flying Cathay F for the LAX-HKG and HKG-BKK segments and vice versa and was even able to tack on two free one way awards to/from NYC on either end of the trip... My girlfriend echoed my sentiments as well and is excited to see her friends and family in BKK while also enjoying some downtime in beautiful Koh Samui.

Question for those who've transited from BKK to Koh Samui in the past: What's the easiest/cheapest way to get down to USM from BKK and back to the city? I've read Gary Leff's trip report and he flew Bangkok Airways and I know that Thai has several flights as well. We are leaving Bangkok for Koh Samui on Monday morning and then flying back on Sunday. Flights for the one hour flight are pricing at $300 each which is twice as much as the taxes on my first class transpacific flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong! =D