That’s what I thought about the different letter codes. I wasn’t sure they applied to award tickets. Thanks for clearing that up.

Yes i I was referring to flying ANA metal. I don’t think I have enough points for star alliance awards as it priced out to 272K I doubt I will be able to earn 27K in a little under 60 days without opening a card which I don’t want to do.

I did did see some options of flying EVA airways to TPE and then connecting to Bali. The cost of the connecting flight to Bali is double what CGK, SIN, or KUL. I have enough points to do ORD- TPE. Is EVA a better experience ? Any real reason to fly EVA over ANA ? The mileage cost to TPE is lower but the connecting leg is double in cash.

Eva (BR) is an amazing airline and a great business class. It is not ideal for couples that wish to talk during a flight but it is a great seat and experience in service. The seats are set for a good amount of privacy but a couple could stand together in a pod and chat quietly with a glass of chmpnge or coffee during the flight. The PJs and amenity kits are above standard of most other business class products. The one place BR lacks is in lounges at TPE. But luckily the SQ lounges at TPE saves that siatuation. Flying out of SF on BR in J also gets Polaris lounge chess at SFO which is quite a nice experience. Also flying out of SFO there are thee daily BR flights which helps maximize award seats potential.

NHs staggered may be better for a couple warning. More interaction as some of the middle paired sets just have a divider are to look around to see the seat mate.

Id go BR and use them to get to Mainland China, the Philippines or Hong Kong (all the same award zone as Taiwan) for a few days and then get to Bali on a revenue ticket or on CX if out of HK.

Edit: BR also flies out of IAH which makes for good Star Alliance connections on UA from the Caribbean.

when I was pricing the cash cost of tickets from different airports in Asia. HKG was very expensive to Bali. Around $1000 in J. I thought about MNL priced it out and it’s not bad as a backup. Where in China ? Tried a couple and the cash costs were upwards of 1000

I came across a thread about using Virgin Atlantic miles to book ANA ? Is this a possibility? Most of the replies only seemed to fly into NRT/HND with no mention of connections?

tried to use the VA award search and it doesn’t even take CGK,DPS,TPE for airport codes ?

For the HKG-DPS flight look at a BA, an Amex MR transfer partner, award ticket on CX (Cathay Pacific) as BA awards are distance based on how many miles it will require making them a very good use of BA Avios.

VS points can be used to book NH flights but withy many restrictions and hoops to jump through. It is a better value when flying F, when F is available both ways, but can be again a big headache if you don’t know the process and rules and be ready for the risks involved.

You may be making this harder than it needs to be.which can be good as you’re doing this ahead of time and can learn.

I probably am making it harder then it needs to be, but this is something I definitely want to learn about. Trying to learn as much as possible about it and have some back up plans in case my ideal routing isn’t available as we need to fly out within a 2-3 day span.

I have miles in Citi, Chase, and Delta (141K) along with Amex, but the balances in each of those programs is only around 70K. So anything I can learn can be used towards future tickets when those balances have increased.

When I saw the Virgin Atlantic booking thread, they talked about flying F. There’s a lot of good knowledge contained in them, but they aren’t the easiest to understand and things aren’t always fully explained. What are the headaches, risks etc ?

Thank you you for continuing to answer questions. It’s been a big help to be able to do research and then get some questions answered.

VS has great pricing for NH First class, but the biggest two catches are (1) you can only book round trip and (2) pricing is only for non-stop flights. While the round trip restriction may sound trivial since you do indeed need round trip, it causes difficulty in that you have to find F available in both directions on your desired dates, so you can’t just do one way at half the price and book the return on a different airline/award. The non-stop caveat is also annoying since you can only book, say, ORD-NRT and back. To connect onwards to DPS will require separate awards for which VS has average pricing (70k round trip business TYO-DPS). So while ORD-TYO in F RT for 120k is a fantastic deal, ORD-TYO-DPS in F/J RT for 190k is less exciting (though still below average pricing). Some of the hoops: have to call VS to book, carrier imposed surcharges do apply but should be in the low hundreds, may not be able to get instant availability confirmation by phone agent, may or may not be able to get agent to hold award while you transfer, if all goes well will be traveling on separate tickets still (risk at TYO connection).

For ANA J, I think it’ll be cheaper using ANA miles.