Family trip - where to start?
Mar 10, 23, 11:50 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2022
Posts: 30
Family trip - where to start?
Please let me know which would be the right forum to get some advice.
We are a family of 4 and hoping to go to BKK towards the end of this year for a nice break. I have been busy earning amex points over the past year so that we could go there in style only to find that there is little availability (even when I look out to February) or when there is availability, the points required are way more than we have stashed. I am looking for help finding flights from YuL to BKK with ideally all of us in business but 2 in business and 2 in premium economy would be fine too. I have about 460k MR points and about 360 aeroplan points. Any advice on where to start and how to find seats would be appreciated.
TIA
We are a family of 4 and hoping to go to BKK towards the end of this year for a nice break. I have been busy earning amex points over the past year so that we could go there in style only to find that there is little availability (even when I look out to February) or when there is availability, the points required are way more than we have stashed. I am looking for help finding flights from YuL to BKK with ideally all of us in business but 2 in business and 2 in premium economy would be fine too. I have about 460k MR points and about 360 aeroplan points. Any advice on where to start and how to find seats would be appreciated.
TIA
Mar 11, 23, 7:21 am
#2
Join Date: Feb 2022
Location: LAX
Programs: UA
Posts: 1,165
Only 360 aeroplan points? Hopefully that is a typo? Check out Air Canada's YVR-BKK flight, but award availability is likely to be sparse, and 460k amex + 360(k?) aeroplan points likely won't be enough. You can also look at availability through ANA, routing through NRT.
Mar 12, 23, 8:54 am
#5
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: Houston
Programs: UA, Hyatt Globolist, Marriott Pla, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 32
If your schedule is flexible and don't need to be during christams season, check out ANA for less points for business class. AC is also good option as you can score the one way. Dec-Jan is a high demand to BKK and may be challenging for you to locate saver business class. Singapore Airline can also get you there, but probably hard to clear the waitlist during christmas time.
Mar 12, 23, 2:03 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2022
Posts: 30
Originally Posted by davidcat86
If your schedule is flexible and don't need to be during christams season, check out ANA for less points for business class. AC is also good option as you can score the one way. Dec-Jan is a high demand to BKK and may be challenging for you to locate saver business class. Singapore Airline can also get you there, but probably hard to clear the waitlist during christmas time.
Mar 12, 23, 3:05 pm
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2022
Posts: 30
Originally Posted by angetenar
You can also transfer Amex points to ANA, but ANA only lets you book round trip awards.
Mar 13, 23, 12:33 am
#10
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Santa Monica, CA
Programs: AAPLT 1MM, HHDmd, MBvLTPLT, PCAmb/Dmd, HYT Dis, ALL Gld
Posts: 1,526
Another strategy is getting somewhere in the neighborhood/on the way to BKK and buying a coach ticket for the last leg. Or since you have the seats outbound, looking for awards back from someplace like HKG or TYO (transfer to Asiamiles for Cathay or BA for JAL?) and buying the flight from BKK to there seperate.
For example I started looking a year out for next December (as several of the foreign carriers release awards to their members a year out vs 331 days). Goal was getting to either Vietnam or Taiwan for winter break 2022-23 from LAX.
Found 4 x J on the exact day I wanted to leave on Singapore but did not have enough transferable miles as Biz awards were 100k points+/person. Found 4 x J on Cathay leaving 2 days later at 85k miles/person to either country which would work - but was still short about 60k transferable miles between Chase and Amex for the total needed. Could have bought extra points - but getting to HKG is only 70k/person in J and you can get an onward coach flight pretty cheap - I had enough for that - so booked us to HKG 4 x J for 280k transferred miles to Asiamiles and will decide where we are going later, probably with a 2 night/1 day stay in HKG. Asiamiles also had a bonus for 15% miles back on bank transferred miles - now have 42k Asiamiles to use in the future.
For example I started looking a year out for next December (as several of the foreign carriers release awards to their members a year out vs 331 days). Goal was getting to either Vietnam or Taiwan for winter break 2022-23 from LAX.
Found 4 x J on the exact day I wanted to leave on Singapore but did not have enough transferable miles as Biz awards were 100k points+/person. Found 4 x J on Cathay leaving 2 days later at 85k miles/person to either country which would work - but was still short about 60k transferable miles between Chase and Amex for the total needed. Could have bought extra points - but getting to HKG is only 70k/person in J and you can get an onward coach flight pretty cheap - I had enough for that - so booked us to HKG 4 x J for 280k transferred miles to Asiamiles and will decide where we are going later, probably with a 2 night/1 day stay in HKG. Asiamiles also had a bonus for 15% miles back on bank transferred miles - now have 42k Asiamiles to use in the future.
Mar 13, 23, 6:44 am
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2022
Posts: 30
Originally Posted by dbuckho
Another strategy is getting somewhere in the neighborhood/on the way to BKK and buying a coach ticket for the last leg. Or since you have the seats outbound, looking for awards back from someplace like HKG or TYO (transfer to Asiamiles for Cathay or BA for JAL?) and buying the flight from BKK to there seperate.
For example I started looking a year out for next December (as several of the foreign carriers release awards to their members a year out vs 331 days). Goal was getting to either Vietnam or Taiwan for winter break 2022-23 from LAX.
Found 4 x J on the exact day I wanted to leave on Singapore but did not have enough transferable miles as Biz awards were 100k points+/person. Found 4 x J on Cathay leaving 2 days later at 85k miles/person to either country which would work - but was still short about 60k transferable miles between Chase and Amex for the total needed. Could have bought extra points - but getting to HKG is only 70k/person in J and you can get an onward coach flight pretty cheap - I had enough for that - so booked us to HKG 4 x J for 280k transferred miles to Asiamiles and will decide where we are going later, probably with a 2 night/1 day stay in HKG. Asiamiles also had a bonus for 15% miles back on bank transferred miles - now have 42k Asiamiles to use in the future.
For example I started looking a year out for next December (as several of the foreign carriers release awards to their members a year out vs 331 days). Goal was getting to either Vietnam or Taiwan for winter break 2022-23 from LAX.
Found 4 x J on the exact day I wanted to leave on Singapore but did not have enough transferable miles as Biz awards were 100k points+/person. Found 4 x J on Cathay leaving 2 days later at 85k miles/person to either country which would work - but was still short about 60k transferable miles between Chase and Amex for the total needed. Could have bought extra points - but getting to HKG is only 70k/person in J and you can get an onward coach flight pretty cheap - I had enough for that - so booked us to HKG 4 x J for 280k transferred miles to Asiamiles and will decide where we are going later, probably with a 2 night/1 day stay in HKG. Asiamiles also had a bonus for 15% miles back on bank transferred miles - now have 42k Asiamiles to use in the future.
