Figuring out flights to SE Asia from Non Major American City
Feb 24, 2024, 5:54 pm
#16
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: New York, NY
Programs: AA ExPl, DL PM, UA Silver, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium, probably some others
Posts: 4,105
Hey all, still very new to the forum, hopefully this is in the right place - please feel free to redirect me if it's not.
So I've had the dream to visit SE Asia for a while now - and my goal is to get it done before I hit 40 (running low on time.) I've been considering trying to take a month off to do it over the holidays this year since that's probably when it's least disruptive to my work. I live in a mid-sized city (Pittsburgh) which has a decent airport with a couple of international flights, but it hasn't been a hub since like the mid 90s. My goal is to fly into bangkok, hit Thailand, Vietnam, (maybe a quick stop in cambodia), and possibly even end the trip in the philippines and fly back out of Manila (though I could do Thai Islands at the end instead of Palawan - if a round trip is much easier than a multi destination.) The main thing is booking the main legs of international travel so either PIT -> BKK MNL-> PIT or just round trip between PIT and BKK. I've looked at what seem like a ton of of flights, but I'm still trying to figure out how to best optimize this.
I'd mostly likely to try to keep it to one epic flight and the connections in the US and asia as short as possible. I've seen things that fly out of JFK or Detroit and go to Hong Kong, Taipei, or Singapore with a shorter connection to BKK after that. The idea being that one 15-17hr flight sandwiched between two 1-3hr flights is vastly preferable to having to get to the west coast first and take another huge flight, or stop somewhere like germany or the middle east and have two very long international flights. My problem is finding a flight like this that a.) can I actually book out of pittsburgh?. b.) often they have a massive layover (basically the better part of a day) and c.) isn't stupidly expensive (I'm willing to spend quite a bit, and have even considered business class on some options as I've been saving for this for a while, but some prices for less awful flights seem absurdly outrageous and I don't know if I justify the differential. I've basically seen good flights out of JFK that I want (they are a little pricey) but I can never get them if I put PIT in as my initial destitanition. I know Pittsburgh flies to JFK some, and to newark like every 3 seconds basically - so I have considered just trying to get to a major airport on my own and book the international travel out of there. What do people think about the risks/advantages of a centering flight? Is there any kind of agency or website one would recommend to plan this? I'm open to any and all suggestions on this!
Thanks so much!
(p.s. Also I have quite a bit of points on my chase sapphire preferred card - its not going to cover the whole cost of the trip - but it's enough to seriously drop the cost - so any situation in which I could use those is a nice bonus)
So I've had the dream to visit SE Asia for a while now - and my goal is to get it done before I hit 40 (running low on time.) I've been considering trying to take a month off to do it over the holidays this year since that's probably when it's least disruptive to my work. I live in a mid-sized city (Pittsburgh) which has a decent airport with a couple of international flights, but it hasn't been a hub since like the mid 90s. My goal is to fly into bangkok, hit Thailand, Vietnam, (maybe a quick stop in cambodia), and possibly even end the trip in the philippines and fly back out of Manila (though I could do Thai Islands at the end instead of Palawan - if a round trip is much easier than a multi destination.) The main thing is booking the main legs of international travel so either PIT -> BKK MNL-> PIT or just round trip between PIT and BKK. I've looked at what seem like a ton of of flights, but I'm still trying to figure out how to best optimize this.
I'd mostly likely to try to keep it to one epic flight and the connections in the US and asia as short as possible. I've seen things that fly out of JFK or Detroit and go to Hong Kong, Taipei, or Singapore with a shorter connection to BKK after that. The idea being that one 15-17hr flight sandwiched between two 1-3hr flights is vastly preferable to having to get to the west coast first and take another huge flight, or stop somewhere like germany or the middle east and have two very long international flights. My problem is finding a flight like this that a.) can I actually book out of pittsburgh?. b.) often they have a massive layover (basically the better part of a day) and c.) isn't stupidly expensive (I'm willing to spend quite a bit, and have even considered business class on some options as I've been saving for this for a while, but some prices for less awful flights seem absurdly outrageous and I don't know if I justify the differential. I've basically seen good flights out of JFK that I want (they are a little pricey) but I can never get them if I put PIT in as my initial destitanition. I know Pittsburgh flies to JFK some, and to newark like every 3 seconds basically - so I have considered just trying to get to a major airport on my own and book the international travel out of there. What do people think about the risks/advantages of a centering flight? Is there any kind of agency or website one would recommend to plan this? I'm open to any and all suggestions on this!
Thanks so much!
(p.s. Also I have quite a bit of points on my chase sapphire preferred card - its not going to cover the whole cost of the trip - but it's enough to seriously drop the cost - so any situation in which I could use those is a nice bonus)
I'd book one round-trip ticket to and from that US location. That's going to be the cheapest option. You can try open-jaws (eg flying from JFK to BKK and then from MNL to JFK on the flight home), but usually, flights to the same destination are cheaper. Once you have those flights booked, there's lots of low-cost airlines within Asia that can get you to and from where you need to go. You can also use some of your Chase points to transfer to Aeroplan to book cheap flights within Asia for 8,000 miles one-way. You can also include a stopover for 5,000 miles, so you might be able to fly something like HAN->BKK->PNH with a few days in BKK and a few days in PNH for a total of 13,000 miles.
There are points services who will help you use those points most efficiently/effectively for a trip at a flat rate. They might be able to find two one-ways that allow you to book your flight to/from Asia and then flights within Asia without needing to pay much cash out of pocket beyond taxes. You should be able to book all of your flights without maxing out your 250,000 points. Flying over the holidays will make this tougher, but not impossible.
As an example:
On 12/8, you can fly from EWR to PNH through LHR and SIN for 60K Aeroplan miles + $130 CAD. You can fly the LHR-SIN and SIN-PNH flights in business for an additional 27,500 miles + $7 CAD. If you want to have a stopover in SIN, you can add that for 5,000 miles.
On 1/2, you can fly from BKK to JFK through SIN and FRA for 44K Singapore miles + ~$137 USD.
That's 104,000 miles that transfer to Chase partners and about $230 US out of pocket to get to and from Asia.
Feb 24, 2024, 6:10 pm
#17
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,606
If your wife is credit-worthy and does not already have a Chase Sapphire card in her own name, perhaps she can apply for the CSR card, and charge the cost of your trip to it to earn the card's SUB.
Or, perhaps you can apply for the Amex Platinum or the Capital One Venture X. Any one of those three cards comes with Priority Pass lounge access, which would be very nice to have on your trip.
Feb 24, 2024, 6:17 pm
#18
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2024
Posts: 26
There are points services who will help you use those points most efficiently/effectively for a trip at a flat rate. They might be able to find two one-ways that allow you to book your flight to/from Asia and then flights within Asia without needing to pay much cash out of pocket beyond taxes. You should be able to book all of your flights without maxing out your 250,000 points. Flying over the holidays will make this tougher, but not impossible.
Feb 24, 2024, 7:11 pm
#19
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: New York, NY
Programs: AA ExPl, DL PM, UA Silver, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium, probably some others
Posts: 4,105
Feb 24, 2024, 7:37 pm
#21
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: SFO
Posts: 1,754
Transfer you Chase points to UA.
Fly PIT-SIN via SFO or LAX, using Chase point. Spend a couple days in SIN. Buy a cash ticket on a low cost carrier to BKK. Buy all the other flights you want in the region in cash, and wait until you are much closer to the travel dates. Fly home from Manila on a UA award ticket.
UA award tickets have no change fees, so you can buy economy now to lock in your trip, and change it later if you need, or upgrade to Business.
PIT-SIN is 55k miles, 1 stop Nov 29.
MNL-PIT is 55k miles, 1 stop Dec 29.
Jetstar nonstop SIN - BKK is $69 2.5 hours non stop
BKK-SGN is $77
SGN-MNL is $130
You get the idea.
Fly PIT-SIN via SFO or LAX, using Chase point. Spend a couple days in SIN. Buy a cash ticket on a low cost carrier to BKK. Buy all the other flights you want in the region in cash, and wait until you are much closer to the travel dates. Fly home from Manila on a UA award ticket.
UA award tickets have no change fees, so you can buy economy now to lock in your trip, and change it later if you need, or upgrade to Business.
PIT-SIN is 55k miles, 1 stop Nov 29.
MNL-PIT is 55k miles, 1 stop Dec 29.
Jetstar nonstop SIN - BKK is $69 2.5 hours non stop
BKK-SGN is $77
SGN-MNL is $130
You get the idea.
Feb 24, 2024, 7:52 pm
#22
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2024
Posts: 26
I'd recommend flying separately from PIT to NYC and then leaving from NYC. You're always going to have better prices there because of the sheer amount of competition + volume of NYC flights. The other alternative would be to get to LAX and leave from there for the same reasons.
I'd book one round-trip ticket to and from that US location. That's going to be the cheapest option. You can try open-jaws (eg flying from JFK to BKK and then from MNL to JFK on the flight home), but usually, flights to the same destination are cheaper. Once you have those flights booked, there's lots of low-cost airlines within Asia that can get you to and from where you need to go. You can also use some of your Chase points to transfer to Aeroplan to book cheap flights within Asia for 8,000 miles one-way. You can also include a stopover for 5,000 miles, so you might be able to fly something like HAN->BKK->PNH with a few days in BKK and a few days in PNH for a total of 13,000 miles.
I'd book one round-trip ticket to and from that US location. That's going to be the cheapest option. You can try open-jaws (eg flying from JFK to BKK and then from MNL to JFK on the flight home), but usually, flights to the same destination are cheaper. Once you have those flights booked, there's lots of low-cost airlines within Asia that can get you to and from where you need to go. You can also use some of your Chase points to transfer to Aeroplan to book cheap flights within Asia for 8,000 miles one-way. You can also include a stopover for 5,000 miles, so you might be able to fly something like HAN->BKK->PNH with a few days in BKK and a few days in PNH for a total of 13,000 miles.
Transfer you Chase points to UA.
Fly PIT-SIN via SFO or LAX, using Chase point. Spend a couple days in SIN. Buy a cash ticket on a low cost carrier to BKK. Buy all the other flights you want in the region in cash, and wait until you are much closer to the travel dates. Fly home from Manila on a UA award ticket.
UA award tickets have no change fees, so you can buy economy now to lock in your trip, and change it later if you need, or upgrade to Business.
PIT-SIN is 55k miles, 1 stop Nov 29.
MNL-PIT is 55k miles, 1 stop Dec 29.
Jetstar nonstop SIN - BKK is $69 2.5 hours non stop
BKK-SGN is $77
SGN-MNL is $130
You get the idea.
Fly PIT-SIN via SFO or LAX, using Chase point. Spend a couple days in SIN. Buy a cash ticket on a low cost carrier to BKK. Buy all the other flights you want in the region in cash, and wait until you are much closer to the travel dates. Fly home from Manila on a UA award ticket.
UA award tickets have no change fees, so you can buy economy now to lock in your trip, and change it later if you need, or upgrade to Business.
PIT-SIN is 55k miles, 1 stop Nov 29.
MNL-PIT is 55k miles, 1 stop Dec 29.
Jetstar nonstop SIN - BKK is $69 2.5 hours non stop
BKK-SGN is $77
SGN-MNL is $130
You get the idea.
UPDATE: I can't find prices quite as good (that one date is is 55 - but that's not a date I could do and the cheapest I see in dec is 66k and most are 100k) and of course that's per person. So it would probably be all my miles to book these flights in coach - and I have no idea what upgrading them would cost if that would even be possible...
Last edited by chgoeditor; Feb 25, 2024 at 1:12 pm Reason: Merging consecutive posts
Feb 25, 2024, 9:54 am
#23
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: BWIADCA
Posts: 1,902
What's your budget? Nov-Dec you can easily do PIT-JFK-DOH-BKK and back for under $1500 rt. All that on 1 ticket. The Doha flight to BKK I think is around 6 hours, same as Narita to Bangkok. You would split your trip 1 hour, 12 hours and 6 hours, same as going via ORD and Taipei.
Bangkok is a good place to start your SE Asia touring. Hundreds of destinations within your interest and flights are pretty cheap.
I usually do fly to other countries when I'm in Thailand. (BKK or DMK) BKK - Saigon - BKK was $80 round trip with bags. BKK - Bali/Jakarta - BKK round trip (two separate flights BKK-CGK-BKK and BKK-DPS-BKK) for under $100. Same for BKK-Singapore or BKK-Phnom Penh. Manila flights are probably the most expensive out of the bunch, for around $200RT.
Or you can base yourself at Kuala Lumpur and fly from there. It's up to you.
One thing that I would strongly suggest is to buy ticket on one PNR for your PIT-Asia-PIT flight and separate flights (cash or points) for your intra Asia flights.
Have fun in my favorite part of the world
Bangkok is a good place to start your SE Asia touring. Hundreds of destinations within your interest and flights are pretty cheap.
I usually do fly to other countries when I'm in Thailand. (BKK or DMK) BKK - Saigon - BKK was $80 round trip with bags. BKK - Bali/Jakarta - BKK round trip (two separate flights BKK-CGK-BKK and BKK-DPS-BKK) for under $100. Same for BKK-Singapore or BKK-Phnom Penh. Manila flights are probably the most expensive out of the bunch, for around $200RT.
Or you can base yourself at Kuala Lumpur and fly from there. It's up to you.
One thing that I would strongly suggest is to buy ticket on one PNR for your PIT-Asia-PIT flight and separate flights (cash or points) for your intra Asia flights.
Have fun in my favorite part of the world
Feb 25, 2024, 10:26 am
#24
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2024
Posts: 26
What's your budget? Nov-Dec you can easily do PIT-JFK-DOH-BKK and back for under $1500 rt. All that on 1 ticket. The Doha flight to BKK I think is around 6 hours, same as Narita to Bangkok. You would split your trip 1 hour, 12 hours and 6 hours, same as going via ORD and Taipei.
Bangkok is a good place to start your SE Asia touring. Hundreds of destinations within your interest and flights are pretty cheap.
I usually do fly to other countries when I'm in Thailand. (BKK or DMK) BKK - Saigon - BKK was $80 round trip with bags. BKK - Bali/Jakarta - BKK round trip (two separate flights BKK-CGK-BKK and BKK-DPS-BKK) for under $100. Same for BKK-Singapore or BKK-Phnom Penh. Manila flights are probably the most expensive out of the bunch, for around $200RT.
Or you can base yourself at Kuala Lumpur and fly from there. It's up to you.
One thing that I would strongly suggest is to buy ticket on one PNR for your PIT-Asia-PIT flight and separate flights (cash or points) for your intra Asia flights.
Have fun in my favorite part of the world
Bangkok is a good place to start your SE Asia touring. Hundreds of destinations within your interest and flights are pretty cheap.
I usually do fly to other countries when I'm in Thailand. (BKK or DMK) BKK - Saigon - BKK was $80 round trip with bags. BKK - Bali/Jakarta - BKK round trip (two separate flights BKK-CGK-BKK and BKK-DPS-BKK) for under $100. Same for BKK-Singapore or BKK-Phnom Penh. Manila flights are probably the most expensive out of the bunch, for around $200RT.
Or you can base yourself at Kuala Lumpur and fly from there. It's up to you.
One thing that I would strongly suggest is to buy ticket on one PNR for your PIT-Asia-PIT flight and separate flights (cash or points) for your intra Asia flights.
Have fun in my favorite part of the world
Feb 25, 2024, 10:42 am
#25
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: SFO
Posts: 1,754
Okay I'll have to look into this!
UPDATE: I can't find prices quite as good (that one date is is 55 - but that's not a date I could do and the cheapest I see in dec is 66k and most are 100k) and of course that's per person. So it would probably be all my miles to book these flights in coach - and I have no idea what upgrading them would cost if that would even be possible...
UPDATE: I can't find prices quite as good (that one date is is 55 - but that's not a date I could do and the cheapest I see in dec is 66k and most are 100k) and of course that's per person. So it would probably be all my miles to book these flights in coach - and I have no idea what upgrading them would cost if that would even be possible...
Spend some time in the United forum to get an idea of what’s possible.
Keep your flights to 1 stop or less, don't screw around with positioning flights inside the States, and remember you are trying to fly in December where the weather is unpredictable. Avoid the east coast airports.
Feb 25, 2024, 10:56 am
#26
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2024
Posts: 26
Get the free no fee Chase United card to unlock the lowest fares. UA offers cash upgrades, as well as free changes, so if a better deal comes along, in any fare class, you can just switch to it.
Spend some time in the United forum to get an idea of what’s possible.
Keep your flights to 1 stop or less, don't screw around with positioning flights inside the States, and remember you are trying to fly in December where the weather is unpredictable. Avoid the east coast airports.
Spend some time in the United forum to get an idea of what’s possible.
Keep your flights to 1 stop or less, don't screw around with positioning flights inside the States, and remember you are trying to fly in December where the weather is unpredictable. Avoid the east coast airports.
Feb 25, 2024, 11:24 am
#27
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: SFO
Posts: 1,754
One Stop or less, choose your first destination in Asia as a place that has a non-stop from SFO or LAX. Like, PIT-SFO-SIN. This avoids positioning flights, and multi stop itineraries
Mar 1, 2024, 1:54 pm
#28
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,417
Yeah that's it :facepalm
Dang okay...I think I payed my fee again last month like a sucker...thought I doubt they'd give me anything...since I've not paid a dime of interest as of yet...I have thought about seeing if they'd upgrade me to the reserve so I can I get a bit more credit on my miles for this trip...
Dang okay...I think I payed my fee again last month like a sucker...thought I doubt they'd give me anything...since I've not paid a dime of interest as of yet...I have thought about seeing if they'd upgrade me to the reserve so I can I get a bit more credit on my miles for this trip...
ADDED: I saw your post about the $10K and $15K fares. A RT ticket would be much cheaper. If you're paying with money, do not buy two one-way tickets for international travel. Many airline programs price OW award tickets to be half as many miles as RT, but doing this when you're using money forces the ticket into an extremely high fare class.
Last edited by MSPeconomist; Mar 1, 2024 at 2:00 pm
Mar 4, 2024, 10:45 pm
#29
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2024
Posts: 26
Since you mention the (Delta) Reserve card from AmEx, I'm wondering whether you have a Delta AmEx Plat credit card or the more expensive unaffiliated regular AmEx charge card? They're very different. You need the NON-Delta card to use IAP to save on premium cabin fares (IME typically about 15% but it varies).
ADDED: I saw your post about the $10K and $15K fares. A RT ticket would be much cheaper. If you're paying with money, do not buy two one-way tickets for international travel. Many airline programs price OW award tickets to be half as many miles as RT, but doing this when you're using money forces the ticket into an extremely high fare class.
ADDED: I saw your post about the $10K and $15K fares. A RT ticket would be much cheaper. If you're paying with money, do not buy two one-way tickets for international travel. Many airline programs price OW award tickets to be half as many miles as RT, but doing this when you're using money forces the ticket into an extremely high fare class.