Help booking Nepal
 

Hi All,

Need help trying to book a trip to Nepal this October or November and would like advice on activities and how to best utilize my existing travel points to there. Going to be traveling from Orange County, CA to Kathmandu. Haven’t decided on any itinerary yet while I’m there, I would love to trek through Annapurna if anyone has any suggestions for that then please share. I’m a 30 year old single male who is very active, so I would like to enjoy activities such as hiking, rock-climbing, paragliding etc. I also like to visit large cities and enjoy nightlife, so I would need recommendations for a few nights in Kathmandu as well.

Ideally, I’d like to book my flights and most hotel stays using my existing points. Most of you are more familiar with booking strategies than I am so I figured I’d ask for help. My travel dates can be flexible, it just has to be sometime October and November of this year. Looking to take 2-3 weeks off total. I don’t care what airline I fly but would like to travel business class. Hotels aren’t that important but I would like to try and stay 1-2 nights at a nice resort/high-end property.

Here is my current point balance:

-190,000 United Mileage Plus miles
-180,000 HHonors Hilton Points
-90,000 Starwood Points
-10,000 Marriott Points
-1,000 Hyatt Points
-150,000 AMEX Membership Points
-120,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Any advice from you guys?

Thanks!

For itinerary, you should take a look at our destination forum for Asia, where some essential discussion, such as this master thread on Visa/VOA on Nepal takes place. Also this existing thread may give you some good pointers.

Welcome to FT!

United miles are always good, and for 80K each way you can fly business. I did a quick search and saw a fair amount of business availability on SNA-IAH-IST-KTM. I assume you're willing to fly out of LAX, especially for better routing/pricing? I would look into using BA Avios to fly on CX. LAX-HKG-KTM. Probably the most direct routing you can get. LAX-HKG will be 70K Avios in business (one way) or 105K in first. HKG-KTM would be 10K in economy, 20K in business. So a little pricier at 90K for all business one way, but it's a 1-stop itinerary on a top airline. CX fuel surcharges are very low. I saw $55 total taxes, fees, and surcharges for LAX-HKG. Another advantage of using BA Avios is you can stay in HKG as long as you like each way since you pay for each flight separately. Note that BA is devaluing on 4/28, after which LAX-HKG will cost 105K for business, 140K for first each way. So book before 4/28 to lock in the good pricing.

If you have UA miles, or paying cash, go thru turkey or Bangkok to KTM. For example, you can fly to Istanbul to KTM or Frankfurt to Bangkok to KTM. Avoid flying from Abu dhabi or Bahrain , or the gulf, airlines at any cost. I flew from those and I had my bags missing and arriving on next plane or next day. They have horrible customer support flying from those countries to Nepal because 80% of the passengers on those planes flying to KTM are always Nepali laborers from villages from different parts of Nepal and the airline stuffs ignore their belongings and don't treat them well. I have this happened twice and recently knew someone who never found his bags. I threatened them with complaints if they didn't compensate me and since I was a US passenger with US passport, and i speak nepali they did compensate me but still it wasn't worth the anxiety and trouble. Don't use advantage miles to KTM from USA. I hope you listen to this advice.

It should cost you around 80K UA miles round trip. I would stay at Hyatt in KTM and if you are staying few days in Pokhara, there are many good local guesthouses and hotels in lake side area. You can even book many of those hotels & guesthouses in Pokhara using your UA miles on united.com. Good way to save cash. Just bring and show the print out of your reservation. If your room is not that good, ask politely for better one. Don't change currency at hotels. The currency exchange stores on streets give you better rate. NAMASTE!

You sound fit enough to hike to Everest basecamp or Gokyo Lakes or somewhere similar. I personally would give the Annapurna Circuit a pass.