madbrain

I have traveled many times to asia but never with points. I'm not a frequent flyer, usually once a year or less.

Due to recent Chase CSP promotions, I find myself with about 130,000 Chase UR points. I should have 100,000 more UR coming in a couple of months from my CSR (just completed the minimum spend). Maybe another 100,000 UR if my husband's CSR is approved (still pending).

My husband and I are looking to take a trip to Asia either around Thanksgiving or Xmas . At least 10 days, max probably 18 days. The only destination that is for certain is Saigon (SGN).

We're open to also visiting other cities in Asia such as Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei.

Cities we have already visited before and probably don't want to do on this trip : Hong Kong, Bangkok, Phuket, Manila, Da Nang, Ha Noi.

I also have 20,000 AA miles but I know that probably won't help much as it's too little for any award.

I know that there is no nonstop flight to Saigon from either SJC/SFO/OAK. In the past we have typically flown through Taipei on China airlines, but there was no stopover allowed as far as I can tell. Does anyone know if there is an itinerary from the bay area to Saigon that would allow a stopover ?

Chase UR points unfortunately can't be transferred to China airlines (or Delta) to book this flight.

Is there a better way for us to redeem the Chase UR points at 1.5 cents per point on my CSR towards booking the flights for cash ?

guv1976

UR points can be transferred to Korean, and then redeemed on Korean or any other Sky Team airline, including China Airlines and Delta.

UR points can also be transferred to United or Singapore, and redeemed for travel on Star Alliance airlines.

Be sure to compare redemption rates and surcharges, if any, before transferring any points. And make sure that the award seats you desire are, in fact, available before transferring points.

If you are looking to fly Economy Class, you might find that redeeming your UR points for cash tickets will yield better value than transferring those points to an FFP and redeeming for award tickets.

madbrain

Thanks for the tip about Korean , I will look into that.

I'm definitely looking to fly Economy class, unless Business or 1st is the same price or less.

Ignoring the points/award issue, do you have any pointers for me in terms of more flexible routing / carrier allowing stopovers ?

For our last trip we had to book 1-way segments because all the airlines were different.
SFO-HKG United
HKG-REP HK Express
REP-SGN Vietnam Airlines
SGN-TPE-SFO China airlines

It cost about $1500 total per person. Was impossible to book together.

caimaster

The main question is are you looking for premium cabin travel or economy? Like guv1976 mentioned, use your point to book cash ticket will yield the best value as most SE Asia tickets are really cheap right now.

Singapore allows 1 stopover on RT tickets and $100 more per additional stopovers.

So a possible routing can be:
SFO -SIN(stopover)-KUL(open Jaw) - SQ Krisflyer
KUL - SGN (Malaysia Air - BA Avios)
SGN - SIN - ICN/NRT(stopover) - LAX - SQ Krisflyer
LAX - SFO (AA - BA Avios)

Something like this will run you 136,000 KF miles per person in business and many short haul flights within Asia can be had with BA Avios between 4500 to 9000 miles for economy.

madbrain

I'm looking for economy .

Thanks, I will look into this option . I'm not completely clear on your 3rd line, though. Seems like too many flights on one line. Did you mean fly first from SGN-SIN, SIN-ICN then ICN-LAX, or SGN-SIN, SIN-ICN, ICN-NRT, then NRT-LAX ?

Also, how many separate bookings would you have to do for the above ? One on on Singapore, and one on BA ?

madbrain

OK, I looked. A simple round trip SFO-ICN is 70k miles + $146 for most dates I checked (except the specific day that I wanted that was blacked out, of course).
Same ticket cash is $850, even on the blacked out date. So the value is only about 1 cent per mile, much less than the 1.5 cent per mile towards travel expense on the CSR.

I didn't get into pricing more complex routes, but it seems transferring the UR to Korean doesn't make sense in this case in this case - it results in lower value per point, and some blackout dates.

OK, I tried one.
SFO-ICN 11/23 and ICN-SGN 11/28 is $476 on Korean on orbitz. Can be booked through Chase for 31700 UR points with the CSR .
Same flight/same dates on Korean is 42500 miles plus $84. So, even less than 1 cent per point value.