Introduction
This trip report details my recent bachelor party where we spent a week and a half in SE Asia, with the majority of the time in Bali and brief 36-hour stopover in Bangkok. As much as we tried, the trip came nothing close to a 'Hangover 2'-caliber party, although we still had a blast eating, drinking, and diving our way through Bali. Although Bali has more of a honeymoon-type reputation, I that there is such a variety of styles of travel that work there (backpacking, adventure, luxury) that it's a great option for anyone looking for a SE Asian getaway.
This was also my first time using miles on a return award ticket (had previously only booked one-way SQ F last year during the system conversion), and actually found this part of the trip-planning process really fun. I got around to booking my award ticket only three months in advance, meaning that I was left with a sub-optimal initial routing:
Outbound: SFO-ICN (UA F), ICN-BKK (TG C)
Stopover: BKK-DPS (TG C)
Return: DPS-BKK (TG C), BKK-ICN (OZ C), ICN-SFO (UA F)
So while I wasn't thrilled with my routing, I knew that better routings almost always open up closer to departure, so starting a couple weeks out each morning I'd wake up and check the stock market, followed by various award routing sites (united.com, Expertflyer, etc.) to see if any new award space had opened up. If I had a couple minutes between meetings, I'd pop over to check again. It became a fun little game to continually try to optimize the routing. By the end of it all and after a handful of changes, I was quite pleased with my final routing since I had reduced the number of United flights to just one, and was able to secure first class seats on all flights that offered it. My final routing was:
Outbound: SFO-NRT (NH F), NRT-BKK (TG F)
Stopover: BKK-DPS (TG C)
Return: DPS-BKK (TG C), BKK-NRT (TG F), NRT-SFO (UA F)
Below is an index of posts in the report that I'm posting on Flyertalk, feel free to stop over to my
blog for additional photos and posts from the trip:
1. ANA First Class SFO-NRT
2. Thai Airways First Class NRT-BKK
3. Royal Orchid Sheraton Bangkok
4. Bali Part I: Kuta, Padangbai
5. Bali Part II: Gili-T, Seminyak
6. Thai Airways BKK First Class Lounge and Spa
7. Thai Airways First Class BKK-NRT, United First CLass NRT-SFO