Getting to Bali (BPN) using miles?
 

Does anyone have any experince with using OnePass miles for a trip to Bali?

I'm looking to fly LAX-DPS around Sep 3 ( +/- 2 days) in Business Class and returning Sep 17 . I can get there via SIN or BKK, however there are 0 award seats available.

I'm also considering going LAX-NRT and spending 3-4 nights in Tokyo as an open-jaw, and then continue on to DPS, however that seems like a tough seat to find as well.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

You might also check using the correct airport code for Bali which is DPS ;).

You've covered the most logical places to try and connect.. BKK and SIN. If you can't get all the way to Bali on your award, perhaps you can get to BKK or SIN and then buy a ticket for the short flight to DPS.

Thanks. I found some availability connecting in London on Air New Zealand. Is it possible to have a 4-5 day open jaw in Europe if you're continuing to Bali?

YES, you can have a stopover in London or Tokyo on the way to/from.

Having said that there is a business seat on Sep.3
LAX-ICN-SIN-DPS OZ/SQ/SQ
as well as
LAX-ICN-BKK(overnight)-DPS OZ/OZ/TG

On the 17th there is DPS-BKK in Economy, overnight, followed by BKK-LAX on TG on the 18th.
Alternatively, you can buy your own $100 ticket to BKK from DPS on the 17th/18th to catch the flight to LAX.

Check Aeroplan.com for more options than Continental.com gives.

Thanks for the feedback. I hear good things about Thai Airways.

Update: I was able to book 2 Business Class seats last night.

-LAX-SEA-ICN on Asiana
-ICN-BKK on Thai Airways
-BKK-DPS on Thai Airways (spending 6 nights)

-DPS-BKK on Thai Airways (spending 6 nights)
-BKK-LAX-SEA on Thai Airways

Overall, I was fairly pleased to get all segments in Business class. I may try to tweak it later on and see if I can get LAX-SIN-DPS on Singapore instead.

Nice work putting that together! FYI, the LAX-SIN nonstop is operated with a 100% business class configured plane and as I recall SQ does not allow award bookings on that flight. But you could possibly get something via HKG/TPE/SFO on SQ.

I recently booked the following trip in business for my wife and I for travel in November:

IAH-FRA (LH)
FRA-ZRH-DEL (LX) - 10 day stopover
DEL-BKK-DPS (Thai) - 5 day stopover (DPS is final destination on this award), DEL-BKK leg is in Y
DPS-SIN (SQ)
SIN-FRA-IAH (LH)

Now that I've done some research and discovered LH's business class seat is nothing to write home about, I'm trying to find alternatives for our return from DPS. I found award availability on SQ on the SQ website, but CO isn't able to find the same award seats.

Some of their flights are restricted, what was the flight that had availability that CO didn't see?

It was SIN-AMS on a 77W. I've now discovered one cannot book C/F awards on a SQ 77W long-haul flight with UA or CO miles. SQ still serves SIN-FRA with a 747, so I'll have to keep checking back for availability on that flight.

I recently booked DPS with UA miles:

SFO-UA-LAX-TG-BKK-TG-DPS (final)
DPS-TG-BKK-TG-ICN (stop)
ICN-OZ-SFO

Since this was business class, and I didn't have time to train a CO agent in the difference between O and I, so I just called UA 1K and wrapped it up in a few minutes.

SQ only makes premium cabin awards on A345 (which is all C), A388, and B77W available to KrisFlyer members; there is no *A availability.

Prior to our repatriation to the U.S. (we were living in London), we used our Amex Points to fly to Bali by transferring them to ANA. Not quite CO OnePass, as they weren't Star Alliance back then, but I guess its relevant now. We flew LHR to BKK to DPS on TG. We actually had options on both TG and Singapore, but we wanted to do a stop over and I had been to Singapore many times. The TG flights were nice -- on 747's from LHR to BKK and A330's from BKK to DPS. Not a complaint, but at the time worth being aware of is the BKK to DPS is not a lie-flat/new J experience (at least at that time), but still was good. It's only a few hour flight anyway.

From the States, I imagine you'd want to look for flights USA-BKK or SIN and then connect to DPS. I'm sure there are other options too.

I flew TG LAX-BKK-DPS in J and thought it was most acceptable...

I have the following reserved for a trip next year all in first: SFO-MUC-HKG-BKK-DPS-BKK-FRA-SFO.

You might want to do a search in the Thai airways threads where they talk about the plane that flies BKK-DPS. Apparently they often do aircraft swaps, but must days it appears to be a 744 with international F seats. The difference b/t C and F on US-Asia routing is so small after the 6/15 adjustment that I wouldn't do it in business if I had the option to go in F.