Hello Flyertalk Trip Report section, long time no see
welcome to yet another trip report, in which we will travel to Malysia, Laos and Japan - flying among others in J on Aegean, Saudia and Japan Airlines and see some extraordinary destinations on our way.
Since my last
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan trip report which I posted a year ago, I have made quite some trips but haven't had the time to post them here. Although I have been posting in quite some other Flyertalk forums and glanced through some nice recent TRs on this forum, I just didn't have the time and energy to contribute here, as in the same time I've been spending a lot of my spare time on building my own website to chronicle my travels and save all my pictures and experiences for eternity. Given that Flyertalk has given me so much inspiration and information over the years, it would however be a fallacy if from henceforth I'd only post these new trips on my website and not to give something back to the community here.
The entire
Laos trip report is already online on my website (Disclaimer:
This link is to a website to which I contribute/have a financial interest) but I will post every installment here as well, to begin with the introduction to this new trip.
A trip to Laos
Some trips look perfect on paper at the moment you book them but might not be as good of a plan at a later point. This is the perfect example of such a trip. Laos is one of the few countries in south-east Asia which I haven’t visited to date, so it made for a logical destination. There are some great sights and wonderful nature to see in the country – and the food should be equally superb.To get to Laos, I booked a one-way ticket from Bucharest to Athens, from where I booked a great 350 EUR one-way journey to Kuala Lumpur on a recent Saudia business class deal. For a lie-flat bed all the way to Asia that is an unbeatable price.
From Kuala Lumpur it is then a short hop on low-cost airline Air Asia to the Laotian capital of Vientiane (40 EUR one-way).
China stopover
The return journey looked excellent on paper too. I booked a business class ticket on China Eastern from Luang Prabang to Dubai with a 24-hour stopover in Kunming, China, using a chunk of my Flying Blue miles (74,000 miles plus 233 EUR in taxes). Although not a particularly good value for miles, it wasn’t bad either – and a paid ticket would have set me back well over 3,000 EUR for these flights.
More importantly, it would give me the opportunity to fly a new airline (which includes China Eastern’s excellent Boeing 787 from Kunming to Dubai) and explore Kunming for a day as China gives visa-free access to many cities if you have a stopover en route to a third country.
From Dubai I would then head back to Bucharest via Istanbul on Turkish Airlines in economy class (240 EUR one-way). Itinerary decided and settled for, you would think.
Then as my early February trip slowly approached came the corona virus crisis.
The trip as originally booked
Rebooking the ticket
When most countries giving a negative travel advisory to China and doctors warning that it is perhaps better to rethink all non-essential travels to the country, I decided to cancel the return journey. Luckily, most airlines have issued waivers allowing you to cancel a booked trip to China for free.
Although even in normal circumstances I could refund my China Eastern ticket as I booked it using miles, Air France as the issuing carrier was this time also waiving the 50 EUR redeposit fee which the airline normally charges to deposit the frequent flyer miles of a cancelled award ticket back in your account.
As the Dubai-Bucharest ticket was now no longer needed, I decided to cancel this too as the ticket was semi-flexible. I however had to pay a 120 USD cancellation fee for this, which Turkish Airlines deducted from the refund.
Alternative travel plans
After a lot of last-minute stress (and admittedly, also a wee bit of fun puzzling together a new itinerary!) I finally managed yesterday – only a day before departure – to come up with an alternative way how to get home from Laos.
I would say that the new route is perhaps even more exciting than the original route when it comes to airlines flown and places visited on the way!
Japan Airlines
In the end, I thought it would be a fun idea to route my travels through Japan instead of China. Even though there were quite a few corona cases in Japan too, at least there wasn’t the danger of being quarantined, which was probably a worry as big as the actual disease itself.
The reason why Japan was that I somehow found an excellent miles redemption to fly in business class from Bangkok to Tokyo on Flying Blue partner Japan Airlines (JAL). I could hop straight on the direct Bangkok to Tokyo flight, but as that flight is only three-and-a-half hours long it is not really getting the most out of the business class experience.
For the same amount of miles – and only a fraction more in taxes – I could route the trip through Jakarta, first flying on Garuda from Bangkok to Jakarta where I would connect to the JAL flight to Tokyo’s Narita Airport. As the Jakarta to Tokyo flight is seven-and-a-half hours overnight flight, it would be a great opportunity to try out Japan Airlines’ new Apex Suites in business class on the Boeing 787.
For both business class flights on Garuda and JAL I only paid 55,000 Flying Blue miles plus 115 EUR in taxes, which I thought was excellent value for money (err.. miles). And as I had never been before in Japan, it would be an excellent opportunity to explore Tokyo!
Booking the last few flights
I still had two minor problems at this point. First of all, I needed to find a way to get from Luang Prabang to Bangkok. Second, I now found myself stranded in Tokyo and still required a flight back home to Europe.
Luang Prabang to Bangkok was relatively simple as the route is flown by four airlines. I settled for an economy class ticket on Thai Smile (95 USD) as it was the cheapest and had the most reasonable departure time.
Japan to Europe
Finding a flight from Tokyo to Europe was a bit more difficult than I initially expected. There was a cheap flight on Aeroflot when I started rebooking my flights, but when it actually came to buying this flight the cheap fare classes had already disappeared. In the end it left me with no other choice than to buy a relatively expensive one-way economy class flight home on Turkish Airlines (550 EUR).
From a financial point of view it would have probably been better to ditch the whole Japan idea completely and just fly home from Bangkok for half the price, but as I was now dead set on flying JAL in business class and seeing Tokyo, I didn’t bother cancelling the miles booking again and decided to just bite the bullet.
As a bit of silver lining, at least the Turkish Airline flight was in a booking class which earned me a full 100% mileage, which would all but guarantee re-qualification for another two years of Star Alliance Gold status in Turkish Airlines’ own Miles&Smiles frequent flyer programme.
With the last flights decided on, the final route map looks like this:
The final itinerary for this trip to Laos
Highlights
In this ‘Lazing in Laos and Gallivanting a Wee Bit Around Asia’ trip report, you can expect the following highlights:
– Business class experiences on Aegean Airlines, Saudia, Garuda and Japan Airlines
– Exploring the night markets of Kuala Lumpur, Vientiane and Luang Prabang
– Biking and tubing fun in the gorgeous backpacker town of Vang Vieng
– Three days between the temples, food markets and French cafes of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed city of Luang Prabang
Lazing by the pool in Vang Vieng, Laos.
Watching the sunset on the mighty Mekong river in Luang Prabang
The Japanese breakfast set on board my Japan Airlines flight from Jakarta to Tokyo
A perfect winter day in Tokyo
The first chapter, detailing a business class flight on Aegean Airlines from Bucharest to Athens, will be posted soon!