Originally Posted by
itchief
Find a way to get the extra miles for F. Do this for at least one way, it is worth the extra 12,500 miles. I would skip BA, the surcharge is insane. Go with CX or JAL and think about Hong Kong, Singapore or Bangkok. The first two are very english friendly and you can make it in Bangkok without speaking Thai. You will will get the best bang for your dollar in Bangkok, great hotels at great prices.
Originally Posted by
mmdough
Japan is very safe and Japanese people are very nice and helpful. Hong Kong and Singapore are great destinations too. If you want the best business or first class flight experiences, you would not go wrong by going with JAL or CX. They have the best all around premium product.
I fully agree with these and the other posts endorsing CX or JL to Japan, Hong Kong or Singapore. If you haven't been to Asia before and don't want to have to worry, I'd suggest Singapore as a destination since it's very safe, very organized and English is very widely spoken. Some folks consider it "sterile," but it's interesting and different enough for a cautious first-time visitor to Asia. As others have mentioned, Japan is the safest and most polite country on earth, and a fascinating culture, and you can get by even though most folks speak little English. Hong Kong is not quite as organized as the other two, but still much safer than the U.S. and the most scenic city of the three (though also the most bustling). All three are quite affluent societies.
Simply for the flying experience of getting where you're going, I'd take CX because it will be three or four hours longer flight to Hong Kong than JL will take you to get to Japan, and those extra hours mean you can wine and dine and eat in a relaxed fashion before getting some solid sleep. Plus I hear that CX is a bit of a better airline than JL, though I've not flown the latter. Go for F on CX if you have the miles, but J is also great.
If you decide to fly CX all the way to Singapore, the routing would be SFO-HKG in F (if you splurge with the miles) and then HKG-SIN in J. Or, if you can't find award availability from SFO, you can also search from LAX and a few cities, tacking on AA flights to get to the CX ones for no extra miles. And for that matter, I believe, that flying SFO-HKG-SIN is the same number of miles as simply going as far as HKG, but others will correct me if I'm wrong.
Originally Posted by
shannon94188
Thank you for all these ideas - I'm definitely excited! I have more than 100k miles, but since I'm usually burning them on domestic roundtrips in coach, I feel very selfish using more than 100k for this one trip by myself. Is it really worth a domestic coach trip (or two) to go in first versus business?
Yes! J is great on CX, but F is a truly special experience. Well worth the splurge of an extra 12.5K miles or whatever it is.
Wherever you go, check out whichever lounge you're entitled to as a J or F passenger. A nice experience.
Finally, if it matters to you, check out a site that offers monthly weather patterns to find out what it's likely to be like when you go wherever.
Happy trails!