sj22

You can book 1 ticket on United using UA points, and 1 ticked on United using Aeroplan (MR transfer). Yes, you might pay for some fuel surcharge, but it might be worth it for you, depending on how much it is.

Reisen

So, good news and bad news.

The good news is, Awardwallet was off on their balance for my wife's United account, and she actually has 180k points. Additionally, I got us both Ink cards, so that will add some more UR points once we receive the cards and hit the spend bonus.

The bad news is, the couple we're visiting in Bangkok just announced that she's pregnant, and she's coming back to the states for the holidays (right before Thanksgiving), and then going on maternity leave until she has the baby. That means we have to move the trip up to some time before Thanksgiving.

Anyone have any thoughts on availability on shorter notice (ie 4-5 months out)? I spent a few hours searching last night, and man, it's a lot of work trying to find availability on partner airlines. Both Delta and United's call centers were absolutely useless, Delta's especially.

The best I'm doing right now is business-first on United to Dubai, then Business on Thai to BKK. I'll do that if necessary, but would really prefer first, if possible.

Am I too far out at this point, and should wait for availability to open up? We can't book a week or two out, but might be able to book 6-8 weeks out.

I'm royally pi$$ed that I have all these Delta points between us (up to 400k if we were to transfer MR points, even with no bonus) and they seem pretty worthless. I'm new to this world and had no idea Delta wouldn't let you use their points to book first class on partners...

Reisen

Hmm, could transfer MR points to Krisflyer to get there on SQ in business, but I'd be looking at $800+ in fees, and that's just the outbound. I think that's a no-go.

Paiteaw

Would you prefer to leave from your home ?
You could go on United from IAD-FRA then FRA-BKK on TG
or IAD-NRT-BKK on ANA & TG
Ex. JFK I would look for OZ or NH, then on to BKK.
No need to worry about high fees & taxes on these routes.

explorer84

Yes. I know, many ppl have posted about award travel to Thai. I have read them and tried to map out my travel. Still trying to figure out the alliances and redemption on other airlines. Hotel not a problem.

My stats:
Travel out of S. Fla. (FLL or MIA)
Travel to: BKK
Travel dates: 11/21-12/1

What I and wifey have, approx:
Amex MRs: Me- 200k; her - 140k
URs: Me - 120k; her - 100k
United: Me: 115k; her - 3k
AA: Me - 55k her - 100k
SPG Me - 0; her - 30k

My thoughts, two one-way tix:

There:
MIA to CDG (potential layover?)
CDG to BKK
--book on United?
United MIA to CDG
Thai Airways from CDG to BKK
Question: Can I change airlines like this?
Thinking one-way award travel using my United miles
Hopefully F class all the way.

Back:
BKK to HKG
HKG to LAX
LAX to FLL
Thinking one-way with oneworld (AA miles)
with Cathay Pacific, Business class

We thought this would be cool because it would let us "travel around the world" and going to CDG is only one stop. Though, we are not adverse to just doing roundtrip through CDG.

I am aware of Thai Airways' limited award tickets, but sometimes they open up right after the other.

Also, thinking with the United one-way I am still entitled to an additional leg? may use it from FLL/MIA to some place else down the road.

Thoughts? Please don't rape me.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

My understanding is that UA does not permit free stopovers on its one-way awards.

For BKK to LAX, you might also be able to route via KUL on MH, or via TYO on JL.

atxtravel

First of all, you should learn how to use Matrix for figuring out possible routing and to see what flights even exist.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

you can narrow by alliance, among other things. Select "advanced codes" and enter "/alliances star-alliance"


First thing you'll see is there's no direct MIA to CDG flights on Star Alliance. The quickest route will be through FRA or ZRH.

Do the same for oneworld, and then any non-allied airlines you might want to fly.

Use this tool, it'll save you from chasing nonexistent flights.

Stubtify

Some tips:

UA does not allow one ways to have a stopover.

AA won't allow you a stopover anywhere but LAX on the return itinerary you have listed (the first NA city you enter is your NA Gateway).

You can mix and match carriers within the alliace, so UA/TG/OZ/NH is ok as long as you don't break stopover/24hr connection rules. Also AA/Ba/CX etc, all valid.

You have plenty of United miles and UR Points to make this happen (240k needed for 2 in Business).

The benefit of two one ways are that you won't have to touch the UR points, would just need a few more AA miles in your account and could split the AA return between you and her acct. Potential negatives of 2x one ways are: cannot stopover anywhere on the UA ticket, max 24 hour connection. Also cannot stop anywhere but the NA gateway on the ticket home. Also if you should need to cancel or make changes you'd be looking at higher costs because you'll have the change fees from UA, and the AA change fees for the two different PNRs.

I really recommend using this: http://arm.64hosts.com/ to help with routing.

Edit to add: PM me for more help if you're stuck.

World2Travel

Hello,

I'm a newbie to Flyertalk and I am looking for some advice. I would like to travel to Thailand in mid-November for a much needed vacation. I am hoping to do an open jaw and fly into Chang Mai and out of Phuket (or do the reverse). I plan to see Bangkok as well. I also hope to have a stopver (under 24 hrs okay) on the way. I haven't done much international travel and I have never been to Asia. I have some flexibility and I am traveling alone, so these miles are for one coach ticket.

UA - 11K
US - 88K
AA - 67K
Avios - 68K
UR - 54K
MR - 77K

I'm not sure if I have any choice, but to use USAirways miles for a coach ticket (80K miles) and possibly stop in Zurich or Istanbul, if possible for a few hours. If I keep the stopover under 24 hours, I believe it will be allowed. Do you think it would be better/more availability to try to earn enough to fly on AA (I would only need 3K more for coach)?

I am working toward building up more miles, so I can fly business class for future intl flights.

Thank you so much for any advice you can give me!

benzemalyonnais

Well, with 90k miles you can redeem your US Airways miles for a business class to China - 24 hour layover allowed en route, as well as one stop in a Star Alliance hub. Then from a big city like Hong Kong, it's quite easy to get to BKK.

You could: Buy a fairly affordable ticket, use Avios, do an open jaw UA award with your UR points (like HKG-BKK-HKT, CNX-BKK-HKG) and connect it with another affordable internal flight, Buy the remaining 32,000 miles you'd need for it all in business class right now during US' 100% promotion, transfer the MR points Aeroplan and do the same thing as with UA, etc.

Lots of options.

You can easily do this with your US miles (for 120k): BOS-city with LX availability to Europe in business class-ZRH (24 hours, although the LX flight leaves at night so this might need to be 12 hours) -BKK (Stopover for as long as you want) - HKT. The only issue will be finding a flight over to ZRH, because Swiss isn't the easiest to find (though not impossible). During the BKK stopover, I'd buy flights up to CNX, or take the overnight train.

sj22

We did something similar with Boston-JFK-Shanghai-Phuket and return Phuket-Delhi (cash), DEL-Zurich-Boston.

All on UA except Boston-JFK on avios. If you combine your UA and UR, you should pretty much be all set to book two one ways.

uszkanni

Check into redeeming two separate one way awards, using separate FF programs and possibly on different airlines. You could possibly fly in F each way if you find the right combination of flights and are willing to pay some fees. And assuming you can find availability.

There are a lot of variables but consider MR->BA and then check into one-way fares on CX and BA. BA charges high fees whether you actually fly on CX or BA metal; check those carefully.

You don't have quite enough AAdvantage miles for an F ticket on CX but maybe enough for J. AAdvantage miles used for CX F redemption is, IMO, the best deal out there - Low redemption costs and only about $75 in fees. And CX F is great. Check out how many miles it takes and see if you can accumulate them quickly.

Check each FF program to see if they can be used for one-way fares, how many miles are required and any fees charged (note that fees are not always the same in each direction).

Note the flight times and classes of service in each leg. For example, CX has one long leg to HKG and a short, 2.5 hr, connection to BKK. The HKG-BKK leg is typically handled by older, rather poor short haul aircraft but it's a very short flight. So you get one long really nice leg in F and a short, rather poor one in J. Other airlines/routings will have their own tradeoffs. The FT threads for each airline and the airline alliances contain a wealth of information.

If you can swing F then choose Asian carriers over US based ones. The Asian carriers like CX and SQ are far superior to the likes of AA or UA.

Hope this helps some.

BostonFlyer1624

I'd fly F on CX (using AA miles) to BKK, then take a LCC intra-Thailand.

MaineFlyer16

You could fly the dreamliner on JL to NRT from BOS then on to BKK. I heard business class wasn't that great on it (not fully lie seats) but it may be worth it to experience the plane, plus not having to connect at JFK is always a plus.

Lomapaseo

Just what is this US 100% promotion and how do I get it ?