Originally Posted by
Shareholder
I thought TG was now flying non-stop between NYC and BKK? This could resolve your double SIN transfer problem. Otherwise, have you considered ANA via ORD/NRT? This way the minimum permissible mileage (which on award tickets is a 5% variance rather than the 25% on revenue tickets) may be met, but the problem is the open jaw defines your furthest distance than the addition of the HKG stop puts you over the MPM.
Thanks for the suggestions, all! I had indeed tried, home from HKG, via NRT, KIX, ICN, PVG, PEK, etc. The only availability I could find was through SIN (it was a lack of intra-Asia availability from HKG that was the problem).
I understand the comment about it being an IT nightmare; but when you hear my solution, the great shortcomings of the booking engine become apparent (as if they weren't already).
I repeatedly tried to find STAR options home from HKG, to no avail. (Sometimes the booking engine won't even pull up a STAR option, even when it is the cheapest, and just offers 100K+ awards on AC.) I just happened to search YYZ-SIN, departing Feb 17 returning March 4. A number of STAR options came up, at 75K. When I clicked 'view details', I saw that one of the options was routing from SIN, through HKG! to ORD, then YYZ. So, I could then see there was availability in economy from HKG-ORD-YYZ on March 4, even though this hadn't come up as an option when searching from HKG-YYZ on March 4 (that's how you spell frustration!). I immediately hopped on the line, confirmed availability on the HKG-ORD-YYZ segments, and changed my ticket!
Now flying:
YYZ-EWR-SIN-BKK (leave 17, arrive 19)
BKK-SIN-HKG (Feb 28)
HKG-ORD-YYZ (Mar 4)
A much better routing, but entailing much frustration and hours and hours of searching on the website, often using some creative methods!
Thanks again to all those who tendered advice!
Canadair