Hi there. First post here. I live in Philadelphia and plan to travel Bangkok twice a year ( actually Laos ). Because I am now retired, it is highly likely going to be a yearly routine.

Because of the distance ( exactly halfway around the world ), what Airline should I start using and establish a relationship with for this route?

I am currently on the AA program from my last trip this past April, which is not bad, but they don't cater to the Asian market that much. I currently have around 50K bonus miles with them. I plan on using that this fall and pay for the difference to Asia. After that, my balance would be zero.

It is not that often that I would be staying at major brand hotels either because of the cost, even in Asia. My main goal is to accumulate miles and use them for future free flights.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreaciated.

Which class will you be flying when you pay for your flights? Will you be willing to take short flights to major hubs of different airlines? Such as EWR for CO, ATL for DL, etc.

Economy would be my class ( and not by choice ) because of the affordability. In addition, I am willing to fly anywhere if the savings warrants it. Heck, it takes 24 hrs regardless, but I won't do anything over 30 hrs.

On my last trip to Asia, I was very impressed with Air Asia on some of the few hopper flights in SE Asia. The convenience of not being overcharged for booking one way ( very rare indeed ). Hong Kong is a good target departure location hub onto SE Asia.

Thank you.

IMO, the star alliance is the way to go. Singapore and Thai are great airlines that provide great service across the pacific. You can also fly CO, UA or US across to get to the west coast.

Since CO and UA are merging later this year / early next, you can accumulate on both and they'll eventually be merged into one account.

Air Canada Aeroplan would be the best choice for OP IMHO as (s)he will get *G status for 2 trips to BKK.

I agree *A is excellent in its cover to Asia. Aeroplan is a good choice as noted above. They also require fewer miles for premium class Star Alliance award seats than most of the other Star Alliance partners. They also have a Bank of America co-branded Mastercard for accumulating miles (with a current 15K sign up bonus) and they also accept SPG points on a 1:1 basis plus extra bonus for 20000 points transferred.

If you have Air Canada miles you can fly on Air Canada for less, since they do not have a hub in bkk, business class is only 100K compared to others at 145K

I'm no expert on which program is absolute best, but I am familiar with flying to bangkok on miles, as we have made 4 trips there. We have had decent luck finding availability with american and continental airlines. Continental requires less miles to SE asia than do most airlines. We do however book our dates almost a year ahead. Main thing for us is that we prefer to be on a foreign airline for the long part of the journey. Korean air or japan air are both great. Our experiences with american based airlines not near as catering.

Thanks guys. All of the info are great and so valuable. I am actually getting a headache from finding a cheap flight to Asia and combining with my AA balance. But it looks like Alliance is the way to go.

Regards

Travel safe.