Travel packages are the way to go. You can buy an additional 50K points if you don't have enough points for the travel package you want.

You can get up to 132K miles on United with the 10% bonus, and that's close to getting two RT coach tickets to Asia. Just get the united Visa, and you have an additional 30 - 50 K United miles. If you are careful on the routing, you can stopover somewhere (like tokyo, or hong kong) and also spend a night or two coming or going at a gateway, like San Francisco. Intra asia flights are usually cheap, and mileage for award tickets intra asia is also quite low. If you have some FF miles built up on either United or American, you can find some good bargains flying around asia.

Thailand is amazing. Many of the hotels are cheap enough to pay for, and even if you want to use points, they tend to be lower categories and better than north american properties.

There are three category 5 hotels in Thailand: Bangkok Marriott Hotel Sukhumvit, Renaissance Bangkok Ratchaprasong Hotel and Pattaya Marriott Resort & Spa. The lounges at the first two are amazing. I haven't stayed that the Pattaya Marriott, but have stayed in Phuket at the JW, the Ren and the timeshares. All are amazing properties.

True, it's a long way to go. I would not recommend going for just a week. If you have 2 to 3 weeks, this is the place to go. You can find very good rates, and if you stay at a non-resort hotel (in Bangkok) you will be amazed at the lounge.

Just my 2 cents.

Billy