Originally Posted by KezzaKawasaki
I have been trying without luck to get my other half and I from Tokyo to Bangkok in March / April, and CANNOT get any standard award availability for 2 people on the NW direct flights. I didn't even try rulebusting, because I prefer not to use my points at the 50000 point level. However, with the drop, I will definitely consider it now.
Since the flights to BKK from PHX has been expensive (coach $1100-$1300), I had been investigating buying a PHX-NRT ticket, and then using a standard 30k BC award from there.
They had availability in mid March and early April for a number of dates (I called about a month ago). I was, of course, looking for one seat.
One option may be to snag whatever BC seat they have, and book the other ticket in coach. Then recheck every day or so to see if you can upgrade your other ticket to BC as well. I think the 30k award inter-asia is a great deal.
Have you just checked online, or have you talked to NWA?