imnewhere

Looking for interesting ways to burn the Avios from HKG. However, seems like only Y and J flights on CX to major cities like TPE, KHH, TYO, SIN, BKK are available. Nothing in F at all.

Any ideas anyone? On any airlines to any destinations? Seems like besides simple round-trips, nothing else is possible?

craigthemif

Perhaps you should have done a bit of research before spending the money.

Only return trips on partners. Completely non-refundable rewards. Phone agents are generally useless at finding anything other than simple availability on IB.

mdonley

It really depends on your time off, your level of adventure and how much risk you are willing to take! I do wonder whether we're different types of flyers and if by 'interesting' you mean 'luxurious journey in F' rather than 'boring but still acceptable Y flight to fascinating destination' (both are equally valid!) but I'll still attempt to answer this.

I'm a teacher based in HKG and I've used BA Avios for loads of regional leisure flying, really saving over cash prices on CX/KA, which as I'm sure you know can be quite expensive even in Y for we HK-origin folks. Some useful links:

• This excellent thread from Propsero highlights (after scrolling down a bit) all the great-value edge-case redemptions from HKG.
• Here is a handy map of all the Oneworld destinations served non-stop from Hong Kong.

Some particular highlights from my travels:

- last summer: HKG-KUL on Malaysia // overland // SIN-PER on Qantas, then PER-MEL-CBR-SYD, then SYD-DPS on Qantas and DPS-HKG on Cathay Dragon

- a month-long summer vacation on JAL - domestic Japanese redemptions have almost no tax (I've had to add 1 HKD as a charity donation to get the credit card charge to go through!) - in a week I'm going on JAL to HND, CTS, MMB, KCZ, FUK, and NGS - that's Haneda, Sapporo, Memanbetsu for Shiretoko and Akan National Parks in Hokkaido, Kochi for some driving around rural western Shikoku, Fukuoka and Nagasaki! JAL flies to some very isolated places but I have had almost no problems booking these flights on BA.com.

- Dubai on the afternoon-evening flight (CX 731, 16.30-21.00) in Y is tolerable since you don't really expect to sleep with a 4 pm departure, and you're well positioned for morning flights around the region on low-cost airlines from DXB/DWC/Sharjah - two years back I did an Avios redemption on CX from HKG to Dubai, stayed at an Ibis, and then did Air Arabia to Shiraz, Iran for $50 USD.

Here are some regional(-ish), lesser-known possibilities that might entice you away if you had around a week (ten days would be better!) off, depending on schedules:

- Medan on Cathay Dragon for Lake Toba, Pulau Weh, Banda Aceh and the beaches of northern/western Sumatra

- Delhi on CX for the historic sights of that city, plus Agra and Rajasthan; also, Chennai for the temple cities of Tamil Nadu like Trichy and Madurai

- S7's flights to Vladivostok (three weekly), Novosibirsk (once weekly on Thursday) and Irkutsk (once weekly on Wednesday); Irkutsk is right near Lake Baikal

- Iran via Doha on QR or via CX + a low-cost airline via Dubai - Iran is an excellent country to visit for amazing scenery and food and wild landscapes and incredibly hospitable; almost anyone can get a visa on arrival

- Kathmandu on KA for trekking!

- Christchurch or Adelaide on CX for quieter sides of New Zealand/Australia - great wine and scenery and relatively little jetlag

Good luck and happy planning!

sxc

elmoufoken

burn point on CX would that still be the case that the most valuable would be JNB? any other route would be much more expensive than this?
for MH, seems like all destination they have would be better to have direct purchase or choose another airline.
Does anyone know if Fiji is eligible?

LupineChemist

IB partner awards work a bit differently than BA partner awards. They are NOT segment based but based on the total distance flown of all the segments, must be round trip, and are non-refundable.

Aside from the obvious directs, some interesting options could be MH connecting in KUL to various points of Malaysia/Indonesia. QR to lots of points in Africa, QF to secondary Australian/NZ cities.

kaka

percysmith

You need to call for those https://milecards.com/1588439049/ibe...-iberia-avios/ .

LupineChemist

I honestly don't know about open jaw, but one thing that does work is it goes by city. So say HND-TPE-NRT is allowed. Just something to keep in mind for cities with multiple airports and finding availability.

spikyone

Has anyone had any luck finding availability or booking via the phone in CX F? Didn't see it as an option online for many routes that are showing available on BA or CX's website.

garykung

Send me a PM and I can tell you what you can book for me with your Avios

(Seriously - people have to stop asking this kind of questions...)

kaka

kaka

kaka

AviationAddict

May I know if availability on BA.com different from that of IB hotline? I saw availability on BA.com but the agent could not find my JAL flight...