F 1

Another user recently posted a similar question regarding booking a flight with Avion or Avios and received some great help. Hoping I can get the same assistance. I have 100k Avion and 33k Aeroplan to make use of.

I would like to book a trip in September travelling solo from YVR to NRT, then HKG, then HKT and finally back to YVR. Economy class works for me, although perhaps if there was ever a small chance to make at least one of the legs to/from YVR in business class, that would be something I may take advantage of. Dates are flexible.

Given that Avios has their 50% bonus conversion from Avion coming up, how would you suggest I tackle this? I'd prefer to avoid any strategy that includes applying for any new credit cards. Thank you in advance.

Far Siren

Avios is a segment based reward program, and the amount of mileage you need is based on the length of each segment in your itinerary.

For your purposes, here is the mileage required for each of the following segments in business class:

YVR-NRT: 50,000
NRT-HKG: 20,000
HKG-YVR: 60,000

So with the 50% promo, your 100k Avion points will become 150k Avios, which is more than enough to cover the above segments leaving 20k to spare. With this remaining 20k, you can travel one way from HKG to BKK for 15k and purchase a one-way from BKK to HKT, and another one-way from HKT back to HKG (Thai serves this route direct). So basically your only revenue tickets would be the BKK-HKT-HKG segments which you can get for a reasonable price I think.

If you haven't done so already, sign up for a Qantas account as I find their website and reward search engine better than BA's.

In the end, your itinerary will probably look something like this:

* YVR-NRT on Japan Airlines in business (beware they use old recliner style seats on this route, though this is subject to change soon) for 50k Avios.
* NRT-HKG on JL or Cathay for 20k Avios.
* HKG-BKK on Cathay for 15k Avios.
* BKK-HKT-HKG revenue ticket on Thai, Air Asia etc.
* HKG-YVR on Cathay for 60k Avios.

Good luck!

alc

Just thought to add to what Far Siren had suggested, for BKK to HKG where it state as "revenue ticket" at the moment, you can also use your AEROPLAN and get a business class Reward with in Asia 1 for 30K. Asia 1 is China, Hong Kong, Japan, North Korea, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, & Vietnam.

For example, you can do:

BKK - SIN on SQ
SIN - HKG on SQ

Surcharge show up as CAD$53.00.

F 1

Wow I was hoping I might be able to afford maybe one leg of my trip in J but had no idea I could do the entire trip. Thank you far siren and alc. For comparison purposes, how much less would economy tickets be? For the shorter legs, would that make more sense?

Loess

Don't forget there is an Avion to AA miles 20% bonus on right now. With 55000 aa miles you could fly from hkt-hkg-yvr on CX. The fees will be less with AA as well. September 27 has first and business available. You could fly out using BA Avios if the point bonus by segment works better in that case rather than AA's zone. I would likely use my points and try to get first class on cx and pay cash for the shorter cheaper flights but it depends what you want to spend and if you value first class over paying for some short flights if your in out of points.

Far Siren

I personally don't think reward Y travel is a good use of points, unless it's for short notice travel where Y prices might be astronomical. For example I recently snagged a coach seat YYZ-ORD on American using Avios when all one-way Y tickets for that route were pricing out in the $600-700 range.

choupeo

Don't forget to check for surcharges when using avios for yvr-nrt on JL. Last time I checked they were more than $300 for business class.

alc

For the Aeroplan ticket, it will be 20K for Y. Tax will be about the same if you select SQ flights.

yerffej201

Fly:

YVR-NRT JL J 50k Avios
NRT-HKG CX J 20k Avios
HKG-HKT TG J 30k Aeroplan
HKT-HKG-YVR CX J 55k AA

Plus:
Free one-way on AA award = free YVR-JFK CX J
Other segment of AP award: free HKT-HKG TG J

Transfer 47k Avion to 70.5k BA
Transfer 46k Avion to 55k AA
Use 30k Aeroplan

Business class all segments!

nabeelj

+1, awesome recommendations yerffej201.

OP, you could also book YVR-NRT using 50K AA, so "spending" ~8K more Avion to save ~$290 YQ (and potentially get a free North American one-way XXX-YVR).

Also, keep in mind Avion -> BA are 10K minimum, no increments. So you can transfer exactly 46,667 Avion. Same goes for Avion -> AA, 5K minimum, no increments. Also, Avion -> AA 1.2x promo runs out on Sunday, while Avion -> BA 1.5x promo starts on Monday.

F 1

Wow I did not think I could pull that off. Thank you.

Sorry, I am fairly new to this game, could you please explain how this works?

F 1

Good to know about the Sunday deadline. Thanks

Loess

These options are why I like RBC Avion points so much. So many good choices. You can convert AP - esso - Avion - BA or AA with bonus as well.

You could also look at using Avios to fly hkg-hkt for 10k in Y and 20k in J plus $43. What's the cost of the TG business Aeroplan flight?

I still go back to transferring Avions to get 67500 AA miles to fly F from hkg-yvr (would likely be business from hkt). Even if you paid for the extra miles,who wouldn't pay $400 or so to upgrade to CX F for a long haul flight.

The extra segments you might be able to fly are because AA and AP are based on NA to Asia awards rather than BA which is based on flight segments only. Both have their pluses and minuses to consider.

alc

BTW OP, my example above actually suggesting you to do a stop at SIN as well. Just make sure you select SQ flights over TG, to save on YQ.

nabeelj

AA is zone based and allows free stopovers at the North American gateway only.

So, HKT-YVR is Asia 2 to North America. However, you could tell AA you're interested in booking HKT-JFK for example, which would be the same mileage, and route yourself HKT-HKG-YVR-JFK (if allowed by the CX fare), stopping over in YVR for months.

Essentially, you now have a free YVR-JFK flight (potentially in CX J, since they fly that route) for future use.

That's an example, you could also book a AA/AS flight YVR-XXX, if allowed by the CX fare.