It’s that time of year again… Then again, for a guy who’s averaged over 150,000 miles of flying per year over the past twenty years, when it comes to flying somewhere, anywhere, I suppose it’s almost always “That time of year”. More to the point, it’s typically that time of year in early spring or autumn when I often put together some big, convoluted trip involving trains, planes and maybe a ferry or two to some distant corner of the planet. Some of you may even recall past trips where I've reported on traveling to or through places like Australia, Laos, New Zealand, Pennsylvania, South Africa, Chile, Canada, Fiji, Argentina, North Carolina, Finland, Thailand… even North Dakota for a couple of days.

Anyway, here's hoping you enjoy our shared trip together. No need to push the "Like" button. The memos of them just clog up my message board anyway. If you enjoy the report, great! But with so many great reports being posted here each day, there's really no time to respond to all the ones you like. Just enjoy and move on to the next one.

Last year, in the Fall of 2022, I made my first proper visit to Bali. By proper, I mean I treated Bali as a destination rather than a brief layover as part of a larger trip, such as I did in 2017 when I spent only three days there. This time I flew straight to Bali (EWR-SIN-DPS) and booked myself a Deluxe Suite – the finest accommodation available – at the Bali Tropic Resort in Nusa Dua, located just a half hour’s drive south of the main airport at Denpasar.

Veteran readers of my reports from twenty years ago will recall that I had no qualms about staying in budget accommodations such as hostels and extremely basic – and inexpensive – hotels. I even slept in airports - intentionally - and still would if my back were up for it. For the most part, I’m still okay with budget accommodations, but on the whole I've upgraded the quality of my overnight accommodations over the years. While you won't find me attaining status with the Marriotts, Hiltons or Sheratons of the world, for the past three years I've maintained Diamond Status with both Choice and Wyndham Hotels. The only thing I won't do anymore is dormitory bunkrooms at hostels. And, every once in a while I'll splurge and shell out a couple hundred bucks to stay in a place of historical significance, like Denver's Brown Palace Hotel.

In any event, I so enjoyed my first visit to the Bali Tropic in December 2022 that I came back for 17 days in January 2023 and for 23 more in March. After three separate stays, the resort considers you part of the Bali Tropic “Family”, and then you become eligible for discounts on room stays, so that was a nice bonus.

Discount or no discount, I cannot imagine staying anywhere else in Bali. The island sports a nice variety of world class resorts, but even if I were a billionaire; the people, the grounds and the vibe of the Bali Tropic will always be my Balinese home.

And so it is that I’m getting ready to set off on my fourth visit to the Bali Tropic. On the previous three trips, I was able to use Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan to book Business Class award travel via Singapore Airlines. This translated to extremely convenient itineraries involving nonstop flights from the US to Singapore, whence I’d connect to a short two hour flight down to Denpasar.

Alas, times have changed for the worse at Alaska’s Mileage Plan with regard to mileage redemption for Business or First Class international travel. Although Alaska boasts partnership with thirteen OneWorld Alliance airlines and fourteen independent airlines with which you may also earn or redeem miles, Premium Class award travel has become considerably more difficult to find availability for.

This is especially true for First Class award travel. Occasionally, a seat on British Airways or American may pop up, but BA’s awards come with additional fuel and security surcharges that often total well over $600.00 USD while American’s International First Class is is only offered on flights operated with its 777-300 aircraft.

If you’re within a week or two of your desired departure date – rarely ever more – you might get lucky and find a seat with Japan Airlines, mostly into or out of Dallas. As for longtime OneWorld stalwarts Qantas and Cathay Pacific – your odds of using Alaska’s Mileage Plan to find a First Class seat these days are right up there with winning the Powerball lottery. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and try.

Business Class used to be pretty easy to come by with JAL and Fiji Airways, but that’s not the case anymore. It’s still easily found with many Qatar Airways flights, but typically at a cost of 170000 to 255000 miles one way. BA is also reliable for Business Class award space, but again, be prepared to pay those hefty additional security fees and taxes. Even more extreme is new partner Starlux, a Taiwanese airline that’s said to offer an excellent Business Class but at a hefty price tag of 350000 miles. One Way! (NOTE: Since I wrote this back in March, Starlux has lowered the mileage requirement for its one way trans-Pacific Business Class awards to a mere 250000 miles one way.)

Back when Emirates was a partner with Alaska, its First Class awards started out at 100000 miles one way. Later, as a result of unabashed credit card churning (including seminars on how to do so), the one way First Class award was raised to 180000 miles.

As for Singapore, its one way U.S. to SE Asia First Class award was initially listed at 200000 miles, but I've yet to ever seen one offered. Anywhere in the world. Ever. One way Business Class awards were going for 100000 miles, and were fairly easy to come by last year. I haven’t been able to find any SQ award space lately – regardless of class – even on short, intra-Asian flights like SIN-SGN. That said, Singapore is a Star Alliance carrier, so I suppose I should count myself lucky that as a OneWorld member, I was able to book so many Business Class award flights last year.

On a positive note, across the spectrum of its twenty-seven airlines with which you can redeem mileage for award travel, Alaska’s Mileage Plan does offer quite a nice diversity of affordable destinations worldwide. For example, if you don’t mind sitting in Economy, you could travel from the U.S. to Indonesia for as little as 42500 miles each way. Santiago can be visited for as little as 25000 one way, while much of Europe can be visited starting for just 22500 each way. No doubt there are plenty of people out there who would happily jump at the opportunity to squeeze into Economy seats at these award levels, so I doubt guys with my complaint will ever garner much sympathy.

Perhaps I should have seen the writing on the wall last spring, when I was trying to book a seat home from Denpasar. I had spent days checking out all the angles – via Asia, Europe or Australia. I did find one option where I could fly Australia’s Jetstar from Denpasar down to Adelaide for $115.00 USD, then use a 55000 mile Qantas Business Class award from Adelaide to Honolulu via Sydney. The connections were awful though, and there were no reasonably priced award or revenue seats out of Hawaii back to Alaska. Finally, I tossed in the towel and plunked down $2400 for a one way Business Class ticket from Jakarta to San Francisco using Etihad from Jakarta to Abu Dhabi and on to New York, then connecting to Jet Blue’s Mint transcon service across the country to San Francisco. I even scored one of those highly coveted throne seats on Jet Blue’s A321 – the ones with the extra space and the sliding privacy doors. And, I logged my first flights with Etihad and Garuda between Denpasar and Jakarta, allowing me to chalk up my 204th and 205th airlines flown. I know, I know… mere peanuts compared to what most you have probably flown, but still, this was pretty exciting for a small timer like myself!

Now I imagine some of you might be wondering why I didn’t write a trip report for that attractive collection of flights with Etihad and JetBlue that got me home from Denpasar. Well, I actually had a trip report well and truly started, including pictures and descriptions of a couple of nice lounges in Denpasar and Jakarta. Unfortunately, either during a visit to Ubud or via some suspiciously undercooked food at the lounge at Jakarta, I contracted a nasty bacterium that caused me to fall ill about an hour into the flight from Jakarta to Abu Dhabi. I carry a basic First Aid kit with me, and it includes an old, glass thermometer. I checked my temperature while at the hotel in Abu Dhabi and it was almost 104°F! Although I felt marginally better the next day, I still wasn’t out of the woods. Now I had diarrhea to contend with. Thankfully, I slept through most of the flight between Abu Dhabi and New York and drank plenty of water along the way, but it was not a pleasant passage. Indeed, it thoroughly prevented me from enjoying Etihad’s Business Class service to the fullest, with the result being that I ate very little and since I’d spent so much time sleeping, there was little I was able to report upon. I can report that while Etihad's overall service was pretty nice, I wouldn’t say it’s on the same level as Emirates or Qatar. It is a solid product though, and I would happily fly with Etihad again.

To make a long story short, I visited an Urgent Care clinic shortly after arriving back in the U.S. and it was later determined that I’d ingested Campylobacter bacteria, a rather common bug endemic to Indonesia as well as many other third world countries. It was serious enough, however, that upon my return home to Alaska, I received a call from the State Health Department, just to make sure I wasn’t still symptomatic and to be sure to check in with them should that change.

But enough of the past! On to my present day endeavors –

With Singapore Airlines no longer offering award travel through Alaska’s Mileage Plan, I had to get creative with finding premium class award space. The old First Class award pipeline using JAL through Tokyo or Cathay Pacific through Hong Kong appears to have dried up, with each airline offering only sporadic Economy Class availability for the most part. As for Starlux and its ridiculously priced one way Business Class awards – a fool and his money are soon parted, and I fly too hard while earning my miles to frivolously toss them away on such an expensive award. Even if I had millions of miles in my account – there is no in-flight product – First or Business – that is worth 250000 miles to me.

I might add, I wasn’t solely focused on flying into Denpasar. I would just as happily have used award travel just to get nearby, i.e. Jakarta, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, because the local fares between those points and Denpasar are all very reasonable. Even Australia would work because of the attractive fares offered by LCC Jetstar from a variety of Australian cities up to Bali.

I even looked at booking BA through London to somewhere in Europe or the Middle East. Back in the good old days (early 2000s), BA used to offer a fair bit of Premium Class award space between the U.S. and Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia. Alas, now BA’s awards extend beyond London only to Europe, the Middle East and a smattering of Economy awards to India and Singapore. But again, most of BA’s Premium Class awards come with over $600 in extra fees, plus I’d still have to expend more miles and/or money to get from wherever BA dropped me onward to Indonesia.

Qatar Airways is an excellent source for Premium Class mileage redemption through Alaska’s Mileage Plan, but as noted earlier, most of its Business Class awards were going for 170000 to 255000 miles each way. Ah, but the key word is “most”. Every now and again, the persistent, diligent and lucky researcher could be rewarded with an 85000 mile Business Class award. That would be me. (NOTE: These 85K award levels are no longer offered for intercontinental travel)

I should note that I don’t employ any of those new fangled search engines or tools like expertflyer.com. I probably should – it might save me some time, but I’ve been doing this stuff the old way since I was a kid and since that way has always served me well, I just stick with it. Plus, I enjoy the hunt. I go at it with all the fervor and persistence of a hopped up meth-head on a 3am high.

What that means is I go online to the alaskaair.com website and start plugging in various city pairs. In the case of Qatar, it flies into twelve US gateways, so they all needed to be checked within the date range I was looking for. One benefit of Alaskaair.com’s displays is that they show a number of days on either side of the target date that was input, so I can check about a ten-day window that much more easily.

Eh – what’s this? There’s an 85000 mile Business Class award available between Houston and Doha on March 22nd. Hmm…Can I use it to get any closer to Indonesia, like say…Colombo, Sri Lanka or anywhere in India? No. It turns out that at the time I was investigating these options, Qatar’s one way awards from the U.S. were only good to regional Middle East destinations or Africa. Travel to Indonesia would require two separate awards. That has since changed, but more on that in a moment.

Well alright then, just for fun, what about Houston to Amman? Because, from past experience I’d noted the award redemptions from Amman onward to Asia were no different than they were out of Doha. I spent a few days in Amman two years ago and had a good time. I wouldn’t be averse to a short return visit if the price were right.

Hmmmm – this looks nice! I can fly aboard Qatar’s A350 Business Class Q-Suite from Houston to Doha and then, following an overnight stay in Doha, I can continue on to Amman in First Class aboard an A330-200 marketed as a Qatar Airways flight, but listed as being operated by Oman Airways. This would be great because not only would I get an additional two hour flight in International First Class at no additional cost, but I’d also get to add Oman Airways to my collection of 205 airlines flown so far.

Right on! Book it, Danno!

Continuing from Amman on to Bali, it looks like I’m going to have to fly into Jakarta since the only airline showing any availability to Denpasar via Alaska’s awards – Qatar Airways – shows only Economy Class available on its single daily flight from Doha into Denpasar. Jakarta however is served by three flights a day, and Business Class is available on the two morning flights on the 25th. The downside of this is that I wouldn’t be able to spend any time in Amman, basically flying out in First Class, then turning around and coming back to Doha that same evening in the back of the plane. I could’ve continued on to Jakarta that night via a 130am redeye, but Qatar’s Business Class service is nice enough that I’d prefer to be conscious and enjoying it throughout the flight.

So, I’ll depart Doha later that morning at 850am, hopefully enjoying a breakfast and a lunch enroute aboard the nine hour flight. I’ll overnight in the Jakarta Airport Transit Hotel, and then continue on to Denpasar the next day aboard a Garuda 737.

Total mileage redemption from Amman to Doha to Jakarta came to 70000 miles.

Here's the total itinerary:

Day 1: Qatar Airways Business Class - Houston to Doha - A350-1000
Day 3: Oman Airways First Class - Doha to Amman - A330-200 85000 miles + $58.00
.......... Oman Airways Economy Class - Amman to Doha - A330-200
Day 4: Qatar Airways Business Class - Doha to Jakarta - 777-300 70000 miles + $76.00
Day 5: Garuda Airlines Economy Class - Jakarta to Denpasar - 737-800 $117.00

It was tempting to consider flying one of the many budget airlines offering service between Jakarta and Denpasar, but upon further review – literally reading reviews on sites like Skytrax – I was scared off due mainly to these airlines having a propensity for last minute flight cancellations and haphazard baggage service.

Alright then, so that takes care of getting from the U.S. to Bali. 155000 miles for the two Qatar awards, plus $117.00 for a coach seat on the hour and a half hop from Jakarta to Denpasar. And $134.00 in additional taxes and fees.

In some ways, it’s painful to acknowledge how much times have changed with regard to award mileage redemption for Premium Class travel. Back in 2002, when I submitted my first trip report covering international First and Business Class travel here at FlyerTalk, I had booked roundtrip First Class on British Airways – including First Class on Alaska from Fairbanks to the gateway cities and back – from Alaska to Melbourne, Australia for 150000 miles – or 75000 each way. Over the next eight years, I booked six of those BA awards. Some of you may also remember the many trips I made aboard Cathay Pacific’s First Class between the U.S. and South Africa via HKG – again for 150000 miles round trip. As recently as 2022, I was able to book First Class on Japan Airlines from Asia to the Chicago for 75000 one way. Those were the days, my friends...

That said, I guess I’m okay with paying 155000 – for travel on Qatar. I wouldn’t shell out that amount for travel on a U.S. airline’s Business Class. On Qatar so far, the flights, the service and the overall adventure have been well worth it.

As for those who could never justify paying 155K to get to Indonesia when they could have gotten there for a mere 42.5K, I wish them well way back there in row 37. While it’s true that we all arrive at the same time, for people like me – and perhaps a few of you FT readers as well - the thrill of cruising high above terra firma in a comfortable and spacious First or Business Class suite whilst sipping fine spirits and enjoying a multi-course gourmet meal will forever more be worth some added expense – in whatever form that may take. Another way of putting it is this: Luxury, once experienced, becomes necessity.

Be that as it may, before I move on to the return itinerary, let’s take a short look at life in seat 37K as opposed to life up in suite 2A…



The View From Seat 37K


The View From Suite 3K


And hey, who can forget the giddy anticipation of watching the drink and meal service carts parked way up there at about row 21 slowly inching their way back to you in row 37? It is said that patience is a virtue, and that good things come to those who wait. Well I guess you’ll find out.



Cocktail Hour in Economy


Feeding Time in Economy


Meanwhile, up in the pointy end of the plane, let’s visualize the good life up front at mealtime…



Cocktail Hour in the Forward Cabin
Cathay Pacific ~ Johannesburg to Hong Kong


Caviar Course
Asiana ~ Frankfurt to Seoul


Appetizer service
Qatar Airways ~ Houston to Doha


Soup Course
American ~ Dallas to Santiago


Salad Course
Austrian ~ New York to Vienna


Dinner is Served in the Forward Cabin
Emirates ~ Seattle to Dubai


Dessert Course
British Airways ~ London to Bangkok


Cheese and Port
Japan Airlines ~ Tokyo to New York City


Yep. I know where I won’t be sitting on those ten hour intercontinental flights.

Any any event, I’ll spend two weeks on Bali, and then it’s back home to Alaska and another summer – my 37th – in Denali National Park. Looking at Bali and Alaska’s respective locations on a world map, one would logically surmise that the journey home would route across the Pacific to the U.S. west coast. In years past, that would likely be true for award travel options. Alas, as mentioned earlier, it would appear that Singapore Airlines is no longer offering award redemption through Alaska’s Mileage Plan, though it does remain a partner upon whom one can still earn mileage. Cathay and Japan Airlines, once reliable options for trans-Pacific First Class service, now offer only an occasional Economy Class trans-Pac seat and – if you’re lucky, an intra-Asia Business Class seat. First Class? Pfft! Fuhgeddaboudit!!

Be that as it may, after much searching and multiple bottles of Maker’s Mark, I managed to cobble together an acceptable trip home, but I had to get pretty creative to do so. Here’s what I came up with –

Day 1: Batik Air Business Class – Denpasar to Jakarta – 737-800 $140.00
Day 2: Sri Lankan Airlines Business Class – Jakarta to Colombo -A321-NEO 40000 miles + $40.00
Day 3: Sri Lankan Airlines Business Class – Colombo to Kuwait - A321-NEO 30000 miles + 139.00
Day 5: British Airways Business Class – Kuwait to London -787-10
Day 6: British Airways First Class – London to San Francisco - A380-800 90000 miles +$330.00

Does adventure still exist in the realm of commercial aviation? Some might argue that true adventure existed only in the days of treetop hugging Ford Trimotors or island hopping Pan Am flying boats. Some might even extend that perception to the days of Lockheed Constellations and the advent of early jetliners such as the DeHavilland Comet.

I would counter that the opportunities for adventure are continually evolving, and this is especially true when piecing together international itineraries involving disparate flights operated by airlines famous and occasionally infamous.

I’d like to think that the routing presented above has potential to be quite adventurous. I’ve flown Batik Air before. It’s one of those so called “boutique airlines” that offer full service and a Business Class cabin aboard its 737s and A320s with large, spacious recliners offering an impressive 45” of pitch. The onboard meals are pretty good, too. I’m also really excited about my two flights with Sri Lankan, if only because they’ll represent my 207th airline flown. Collect ‘em all! I say. (Except for the little prop operators). I’ll have a full day in Kuwait with an air-conditioned room at the downtown Ramada Inn. Ramada’s are different overseas. Here in the U.S. they’re an average two-star brand for the most part, but overseas they’re generally quite a bit nicer – a solid three star at prices much more affordable than the average Hilton or Hyatt.

On day five it’s on to London aboard BA’s 787-10. I’m looking forward to checking out BA’s well regarded Club Suite as well as its overall long distance Business Class service, something I’ve only experienced via its dreadful Club Europe product offered aboard an A320 I flew back in 2022 on a five hour hop from Amman to London.

I’ll overnight at the Holiday Inn Express at Heathrow’s T4, which will allow me to conveniently access whatever terminal (Hopefully T5) my next day’s flight to San Francisco will be departing from. Being as I’m in First Class across to SFO, I’m envisioning a nice breakfast of Eggs Benedict in the Concorde Room before strolling aboard BA’s A380 for the eleven hour flight to SFO. I’ve logged ten flights aboard A380s, eight with Emirates and two with Qantas – all of them in First Class. I’m excited to add BA to the collection.

So then, rather than drag you along through descriptions of the Alaska First Class and Southwest Economy Class flights that transported me from my home outside Fairbanks, Alaska down to Denver and on to Houston, let’s start this report off with my departure from Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport aboard Qatar Airways’ highly regarded Business Class service to Doha, Qatar.

P.S. Don't forget to find yourself a comfy chair, and bring some food and drink along for the ride. Even reading, it's a long haul out to Bali and back - 29000 miles by air and just over 35000 words of print.