Originally Posted by zvezda
If I were doing it, I would fly ORD(UA)-LAX(NZ)-LHR(LX)-ZRH(SQ)-SIN-HKG-SIN-PVG(NH)-NRT-ORD and spend the weekend in Singapore. That's 27022 miles. Another possibility would be to spend the weekend in Bali.
BKK looks much more interesting to me than SIN does; Bali would be fabulous, but in trying to make the trip manageable I think going ZRH-SIN-BKK and then BKK-HKG will allow me the best combination of enjoyable flying and quality time on the ground.
Along similar lines, HKG-SIN-PVG is 9 hours flight time plus layover in SIN ... I just can't do that when I can fly non-stop in 2.5 hours.
Any chance that Shanghai and/or Air China will be *A members by May? Given the fact that neither of them currently has a functional English website, I'm not holding my breath ...
Originally Posted by Greg45
Another convenient stopover on an east-bound Star-RTW in SE-Asia (other than the obvious choices like BKK and SIN) is Saigon. On a Star RTW it can be reached from Europe via BKK or SIN and there is a United flight out to HKG (UA862 05:05 08:40 2:35 nonstop) early in the morning. No going back to BKK or SIN, very convenient.
I hadn't considered this will give it a look ...
Anotherer idea: On my upcoming trip to HKG we are stopping over in Ko Samui in Thailand for a week at the beach. LX will get you to BKK from ZRH. PG (Bankgkok Airways) will get you to the island from BKK and on to HKG. PG is not a Star carrier, but our ticket HKG - Ko Samui - BKK was only €265. Airport code for Ko Samui is USM and PG flights can be booked on their homepage.
I don't think I can pull this off - I'm not a huge beach guy to begin with, and given all of the flying I'm doing I don't know that adding more connections makes sense (I was thinking about Siem Reap but am probably not going to do it, more or less for the same reason). If I want to relax, I think my best option is to find myself a nice 5* hotel in BKK, get a massage, and sit by the pool ...