Trip Report Index
American Eagle First Class Houston Intercontinental to Los Angeles; Hyatt Regency LAX
Qantas First Class Lounge LAX; American Airlines First Class Los Angeles to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific The Pier Lounge HKG; Cathay Pacific Business Class Hong Kong to Jakarta
Singapore Airlines First Class Jakarta to Singapore; Hilton Garden Inn Singapore
Singapore Airlines The Private Room; Singapore Airlines Suites Singapore to London
Plaza Premium Lounge T2 (Arrivals) London Heathrow; Turkish Airlines Economy Class London to Istanbul; Istanbul to Cairo
Exploring Cairo Day 1
Conrad Cairo
Exploring Cairo Day 2
Egypt Air Business Class Cairo to Beijing
Air China First Class Lounge Beijing; Air China Business Class Beijing to Phuket
Phuket Marriott Nai Yang Beach
Malaysia Airlines Business Class Phuket to Kuala Lumpur
KLM Business Class Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta
Japan Airlines Business Class Jakarta to Tokyo Narita
Japan Airlines First Class Lounge NRT
American Airlines Business Class Tokyo Narita to Los Angeles
American Eagle Economy Class Los Angeles to Houston Intercontinental
I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate one my 1,000th post here on FlyerTalk than introducing one of my most favorite trips.
Back in January 2017, American Airlines was offering Business Class fares from Los Angeles to Jakarta for just $1,400. It was perfect. I was already planning on going to Jakarta later in the year to visit my family there. Getting there in comfort at a very reasonable price was all the more reason to go. So I booked a ticket for travel in early October 2017. On the outbound, I would be flying American from Los Angeles to Hong Kong and then connect to Jakarta on my favorite airline, Cathay Pacific. My return was via Tokyo Narita on Japan Airlines, before connecting to Los Angeles on American’s brand new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. I then used my very last System Wide Upgrade to upgrade the Los Angeles to Hong Kong segment to First Class. I’m sorry. “Flagship” First Class. I had a great run with American, maintaining either Platinum or Executive Platinum every year since 2010. But the reduction of benefits and just plain awful service combined with having to connect to go anywhere except for an American hub from Houston made maintaining status with American not worth it. It was fitting that I used my very last upgrade to experience the very best American Airlines has to offer.
The problem with booking a ticket ten months in advance is that life happens and things change. A lot. Let’s start with work. Somehow, when they pay you more, they expect (a lot) more from you. Who knew? Anyhow, 2017 was another busy year at work. And in August, Hurricane Harvey devastated much of the Texas Gulf Coast. While my family and I escaped unscathed, many of our friends weren’t so lucky. So we spent quite a bit of time helping them and the local community out. Although this wasn’t my first rodeo, having watched Hurricane Katrina devastate my hometown of New Orleans 12 years prior, it wasn’t any easier to deal with. I was exhausted by the time September rolled around. With the trip to Indonesia just mere weeks away, I should have been excited. But I wasn’t. I was actually dreading it. Don’t get me wrong, I did want to see my family. Just not at that time. I really needed a vacation, and a couple of weeks with family probably isn’t the best way to go about it. I’m not proud of this, but I began to look for ways to flake out of actually staying in Jakarta.
If I was going to flake, I’d better have a damn good reason. Fortunately, one was about to present itself. One thing that had been nagging me for a year so was my Singapore Airlines Krisflyer account. A few years ago, I transferred a ton of Citi Thank You points in anticipation of booking my first Suites flight. It just never worked out, and the points were going to expire at end of 2017. Singapore is somewhat stingy about premium cabin award space in advance on their North American routes. But they do release a fair bit of space on all their other routes. My heart practically leapt out of my chest when I saw there was Suites award space on one of Singapore’s A380 operated flights from Singapore to London. I’m sad to say, it didn’t take a minute for me to decide to flake. After a couple clicks and taps, I was going to spend 14 hours in Singapore’s Suites for a bargain 115,000 miles and $100-ish in taxes.
A day or so later, I was talking to a friend of mine who was originally from Egypt. He’s been offering to let me use his flat in Cairo and arrange for a tour should I decide to visit for several years now. I have wanted to visit Egypt for years, but I never got the chance. There’s no better time than the present. Fares from London to Cairo were a bit steep, with the lowest starting from ~$300 in economy class. I ended up buying a ticket on Turkish Airlines as they offered the best timed itinerary, even with the connection in Istanbul. Plus, Turkish would be a new airline for me! That ticket set me back $400.
Traveling for the sake of traveling is great, and I had my fair share of doing so over years to satisfy my almost primal need to keep moving. Normally I wouldn’t even entertain the idea of sitting on the beach for more than a day; however, at that moment nothing sounded better. After spending a good bit of time going back and forth, I ended up choosing to go to Phuket because… loyalty programs. You see, I was dangerously close to not re-qualifying for Marriott Platinum. What made Marriott Platinum particularly valuable for me is the inclusion of United Premier Silver status, especially since my home airport is a United hub and I’m losing my American Executive Platinum status after 2017. The Phuket Marriott Nai Yang Beach was offering very reasonable rates of $120 per night. With the fourth night free benefit on my Citi Prestige credit card, this brought my rate down to an even more palatable $90 per night.
Cairo is famous in the frequent flyer community for very reasonable premium cabin fares. To Phuket, Etihad was offering Business Class fares for $960, which is a bargain. I was fortunate enough to fly Etihad a couple of years ago. While I enjoyed it overall, I wasn’t exactly jumping at the prospect of another Etihad flight. So I looked to other options. Enter my United MileagePlus account. From Cairo, United charges just 60,000 miles for Business Class to Southeast Asia. There were a number of interesting routings with award space for the date I wanted. One in particular that caught my attention was flying EgyptAir’s redeye from Cairo to Beijing on their A330-200, and then connecting to Air China’s evening departure to Phuket. Two new airlines and two new routes? Count me in! It didn’t take more than five steps onto the EgyptAir A330-200 to realize I made a terrible mistake. But more on that later.
That’s all fine and dandy, but that would only get me as far as Phuket. I still needed to get back to Jakarta to pick up my tickets back to home. I found a $65 fare on Malaysia Airlines from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur, which allowed me to fly Malaysia Airlines for the first time. About a week before departure, I received an invitation to bid for an upgrade for my flight. I bid the minimum $50, which was accepted immediately. From Kuala Lumpur, I bought a Business Class ticket on KLM’s fifth freedom flight to Jakarta for a very reasonable $120.
I’m not proud of flaking on my family, but this trip is exactly what I needed after a long year. As for you dear readers, it’s gonna be another long one. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride!
Previous Trip Reports:
2017:
The Earth IS Round (UA/LH/HU/CZ/TR Y; CX/BR J)
2017:
Something Old and Something New (SQ A350 J / AA J)
2015:
Christmas in Asia (AA/CX/UA J; BA/AA/CX Y)
2015:
A Manic Fall(AA/WN/UA/CX/FD Y; CX F; AA F)
2015:
An Apartment in the Sky (Etihad Apartment First Class, AA Y, BA J/Y, QR Y)
2014:
The End of An Era (JL/CX/TG/QF A380 F, OZ J, KA Y, and a Chinese Bullet Train!)
2014:
A Tale of Two Cities (AA 77W J BA Y IB Y AF J)
2013:
It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year (AA/MQ F AS Y)
2013:
Geeking Out Across America (AA F)
2012:
Around The World and From Sea to Shining Sea (AA F/Y, CX F, SQ F, UA F, DL F, WN Y)
2011:
Everybody look at me because I'm sailing on a boat (KL J and DL Y)