chiph

Hi. I'm trying to book a trip for two in BF or F (on another carrier) from IAH to BKK using either CO miles or AmEx points. I think I'm running into trouble because we are planning to go AFTER Continental ends their relationship with Skyteam.

I'd like to take CO6/7 and then get to BKK via United or Thai. Is it possible to arrange this? There are no 120k awards available, but obviously the 240k ones are available. We are both elite on CO -- I figure the odds are good that we could book 6/7 now they'd open up cheaper seats later that we could rebook into. We are not very flexible (+/- 0 outbound, +/- 1 return) on the dates.

I applied for a Thai FF account to see if I could search their rewards (don't know how) and maybe transfer AmEx points for a biz or first class ride LAX-BKK. It seems like they do not offer first class (only business) out of LAX based on aircraft types and seatguru. I guess that's okay. Additionally, I really don't like the idea of having to do LAX-IAH in domestic F after the long haul. Plus, that'd be like 80k OP miles in addition to the amex points transferred to Thai.

Qatar Airlines now flies IAH-DOH nonstop and they have a connection to BKK. I'd be open to that, but it adds hours to the trip. British has a similar deal through LHR that has the same (albeit lesser) problem.

Any ideas? Thanks!

craz

I believe at this point it is NOT possible to book any *A award trips or a trip with *A segments , unless you are paying for the *A flights.

So either you wait till *A is set up (you didnt post when U wanted to fly) and go all *A or book what you can now as all ST

Now if you can use the Amex pts not for a fre tkt but to purchase a tkt, then you can mix and match all you want.

I highly doubt that you will be able to book now with ST and when *A comes aboard add a flight or 2 from *A to the res. its ALL 1 or the other

chiph

Within a few weeks of the Skyteam breakup, late October/early November.

channa

What about NW or KE to BKK?

colpuck

That is still available to book until the break-up

chiph

So I can book it now and it'll be OK even after they break up?

When I tried to just do IAH to BKK on continental.com, it suggested a CO/NW trip but even selecting EasyPass, it said no BizFirst/WBC/Biz/First seats on Northwest. I thought maybe it's because of the split.

channa

No, and KE space doesn't show up at co.com.

Also, I have had two (2) agents tell me we cannot book SkyTeam rewards next year, but they are dead wrong. Nice job trying to get your call times down, agents, but the third agent was able to book and ticket me.

Bonehead

What is not clear is how any changes/irrops will be dealt with after CO leaves SkyTeam.

MBM3

NW downgraded NRT-BKK to a 752 last year, so it has become quite difficult to obtain reward seats from them.

sbm12

CO does not have last seat availability on the NW flights, even at slEasyPass rates. So even though you've selected that you can still be shut out on availability. Copa is the only partner where there is last seat availability; NW/KL is "increased" availability and everything else is just the same.

IndyDavid

The only break-up-related date that matters in this case is when you ticket the reservation. Once the flights are ticketed & confirmed, the computer treats them like any other ticket, including a full-fare revenue ticket. So if you want to fly SkyTeam or other CO partners using OnePass miles, you have to ticket before the break-up. If you want to fly Star Alliance using OnePass miles, you can't ticket until after the break-up. Given your time constraints, I'd grab something on a current partner as soon as you see it, unless you're comfortable waiting until the last minute.

Once you can use miles on Star, it's surprisingly easy to see Star award availability using the ANA tool. Search in the Star forum for more info. By doing my own research first, I was able to successfully book SYR-LGA/JFK-FRA-SIN-AKL returning BNE-SIN-MUC-JFK/LGA-SYR on US, LH & SQ in F & C in one phone call to US after finding the seats on ANA.

Good luck!
David

HeathrowGuy

If there are no blackout dates involved, I'm quite confident you can piece together something using Korean Air -- recall that they have more USA gateways to Asia than any other airline -- try looking from IAH-CO-DFW/ORD/LAX/SFO/SEA/ATL/YYZ/YVR/JFK/IAD/LAS-KE-ICN-KE-BKK.

And if that doesn't work, consider flying IAH-CO-EWR-CO-HKG-EK/KQ (many people forget this one!) - BKK if the flights are available. It's the same 120K per ticket as a Saver J award. It might even be possible to do IAH-CO-NRT-NW-TPE-KL-BKK, but I haven't priced it out before personally, but worth a shot if all else fails.

oopsz

Can you try going through TPE on EVA? I think a biz seat on eva to thailand would be 160k instead of 120k on korean though.