I am planning a trip from LAX to Asia next Spring 2014 staying 3-4 days in the following destinations in no particular order:
TPE, HKG, SGN, PNH, BKK, KUL, SIN

Does it make sense to travel in a linear route North-South or South-North. I have 110,000 AAdvantage miles and plan to fly biz class on Cathay Pacific.

I also have 50,000 Delta SkyMiles, 55,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles, 60,000 UR and 55,000 Amex MR Points.

What is the best use of miles between all these cities with stopovers.
I prefer to fly biz class accross Pacific, and don't mind flying LCC's (Air Asia, JetStar) in economy around Asia. Also, between SIN-KUL and PNH-SGN I will consider taking bus/train service if its cheaper than LCC's.

Thanks!

Use your AA miles to get to one city and from another city, then Transfer the UR miles to United and you can probably pull off allot of the rest of those cities on * Alliance partners with only a couple of mile cheap tickets with some creative stopovers, forced long connections and open jaws. United miles are pure Gold in SE Asia.

Several of those are very similar large cities. Unless you NEED to be in each one I would probably pare the list down a bit as that is a lot of hopping between places in short amounts of time so you'll be spending a lot of your time in airports and getting to/from airports.

Using your AA miles for CX J class makes sense to me. Yes, I would travel in one direction and avoid jumping back and forth. TPE and HKG are not especially close to the other places (but the 3 hour flight from that part of Asia to SE Asia isn't terrible).

BA Avios can be good for these short hops so you may consider transferring your MR points to BA. They frequently have bonus point transfer offers so I would probably wait and see if anything like that pops up. TPE-HKG for example only costs 4500 Avios in Y on CX. And there are about a million flights per day on that route so finding a seat should be easy. The problem may be finding OneWorld partners with sensible flights between some of those cities.

Of course you can also transfer your UR points to UA and fly *A carriers which are plentiful in that part of the world. But they require more miles than Avios on comparable routes.

Lots of good advice already in the previous replies. But I'd especially second glennaa11's point about your maybe hopping around too much. And I'd take it a step further and suggest that if you do cut back, consider getting out of the cities to check out other destinations in these countries.

Of the cities you've listed, I'd cut out KUL and PNH unless you're going to explore a bit more in Malaysia and Cambodia. I'd leave in HKG, BKK and SIN, but then again I haven't yet been to TPE and SGN.

You're smart to think in terms of CX business class transpacific, as it's great. But I'd suggest you serious consider cashing in your AA miles to fly at least one-way CX in first class, as that's really a special experience and doesn't cost much more mileage-wise than business. And if you can modestly increase either your AA or UR (for BA Avios) balances, perhaps you could fly CX F both ways. I'm not certain, but my impression is also that CX F sometimes has more award availability than CX business, so that might be yet another consideration.

Budget airlines ply cheap non-stop routes between BKK and KUL to most of your Asian destinations. Those flights are usually in the $100 (short, say bKK-SGN) to $150 range, plus baggage fees. Prices may be much less if you book in advance

You can check for LCC deals very easily on Skyscanner. Highly recommended.

I'd use your miles on TPE/HKG legs as those can get expensive. Try and book a trip to BKK via TPE/HKG and get the stopover there. Then fly out of KUL, for instance.

Don't miss a trip to Bali - it's not far from Singapore and you'll enjoy it much more!

This is an itinerary that cries out for checking One World Explorer travel. For starters look at this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...t-faqs-38.html

OWE offers many advantages including up to 16 stopovers on the same ticket and (often) at lower mile cost.

By the way, agree with the skip Singapore, go to Bali. If you seen a very clean very large shopping mall you have seen Singapore's main attraction already,

UA Let's you fly 2 stopovers and open jaw in SE Asia for a little over cost of RT.

So you could fly US-HKG, SIN-HKG-US as two one way (open jaw) with AA. Then fly HKG-TPE-BKK-KUL should price at like 27k UA. Add a train from KUL-SIN and you can get get 5 destinations pretty easily. Another option is a long close to 24 hour layover in SIN, yhe city is pretty small.

For locations like SGN, PHN, visa will probably be needed and 3-4 days is not enough

cant speak to the miles but if youre going to be hopping around SE Asia, stay in Hanoi instead of Saigon and Siem Reap instead of Phnom Penh.

Having recently spent 4 months hopping around SE Asia (used Kuala Lumpur as my base) I would second this opinion. If you have the option look into a Halong Bay "junk" cruise when you are in the Hanoi area.

Your asolute best of use of mile in southeast asia for a trip like that is US airways + BA Avios. US airway's chart in SE asia is a steal. 20k for economy, 30 for business and 40k for first class. If you have the miles, you want to go for first class as you can hit up the A380 on Thai between BKK and HKG, then you can hit up the 777-3 SQ first class from HKG to SIN. US airways allows one stop over or one open Jaw but you can make it better by booking a roundtrip and droping the last leg to create one stopover and one openjaw (this is how you get out of booking award ticket that involve two regions). For example, SIN - BKK(stopover) - HKG - SIN. Drop the SIN segment and you can visit 2 cities in one award ticket. This award is also cheaper because US see this award as a 1 region award. If you fly first class and exit BKK you get a free 1 hour full body massage at the airport (Business class get half an hour shoulder massage). Then use your Avio to fly on CX to nearby cities. You will have to pay a small amount of YQ if you use Avio on CX

Another way to stretch those AA miles is to get one of those AA World Mastercard credit cards. You'll get a 10% redemption discount up to 10,000 miles per calendar year. Correct me if I wrong, but I believe this means you can redeem 100k in calendar year 2013 for 2014 flights and get 10k back, and then redeem another 100k in calendar year 2014 for 2014 flights for another 10k back.

Remember that if you redeem for a round-trip award or even an open-jaw, you could be able to work in stopovers. For example, what if the award is open-jaw, outbound on CX and return on MH? You could get stopovers in HKG on the way to destination #2, and KUL on the way back from some destination #4, all four stops on a single ticket.

A few years ago, I got AA economy award travel SFO-ZRH and CDG-SFO on the return. For SFO-ZRH, I had a three day stopover at LHR. It was an off-season 45k award. With the credit card redemption discount, it came out to 41.5k.

Take a look at the airtimetable website. It lists an interesting collection of Asia airpass programs. Some entail a collection of Low Cost Carriers. Those may be interesting deals. One of the better known programs, which is single-carrier specific is CX's Asia Pass. SQ used to have an Asia Air Pass also, but I'm not so sure anymore. The spot on SQ's website seems to have been abandoned.

There's also mixed-carrier passes like United Airlines/Malaysia Airlines or Air New Zealand/Singapore Airlines. You have no interest in going to India, Australia & NZ do you?

The OP doesn't list any US miles, and the UA chart for SE Asia is arguably better: 35K for C, allows one stopover and TWO open-jaws on a round trip, even on an intra-regional award. Given the short stage length of flights between HKG, SGN, PNH, BKK, KUL, SIN, I'm not sure an F redemption is going to get you all that much more than C (C is only 10K miles more than Y, BTW, which is why it's a great bargain- regional C on an Asian airline is like F+++ on an USA or European airline). And if the OP is happy flying LCCs for short flights... he might not even need that.

Also... HKG isn't in South Asia on the US chart. It's in NORTH Asia (I've used this rule to my advantage before because North America->North Asia is a lot cheaper than North America->South Asia). That increases the cost by quite a lot (60K C, 80K F).

One other thing, OP: your Virgin Atlantic miles can be used for SQ/Singapore Air flights. As can your AMEX MR.

Interesting and informative thread so far. I'm based in KUL and have been mostly looking/using UA miles for my regional travels, plus Avios when I was in Australia. Didn't think about looking at USair miles before.

Mabuk-Thanks, I need to find someone who can get creative and book those destinations with my miles. Which airline do you recommend using UA miles to get best value (BR, SQ, TG).

glen-I won a charity auction for hotel vouchers in HKG, BKK & KUL, I added SIN since its so close, and possibly PNH. I may not go to TPE and SGN. Thanks for the recommendation on redeeming BA Avios on OneWorld partners. Are there any asian partners who do not charge fuel surcharge using Avios. Which would you recomend for flights within Asia (MH, CX).

Thunder-Thanks for the headsup. I will consider CX F, I believe it is 66.5k each way, and 55k in biz. I've been to HKK, BKK, KUL & SIN before, but I will be travelling with gf who hasn't and using hotel certificates in these cities. I would like to add one more city to explore, either TPE, PNH(or Siem Reap for Angkor Wat) or SGN(prob skip).

ryan-Thanks for the info on skyscanner for Asian LCC from BKK & KUL. I will check on availability from LAX-TPE/HKG-BKK on CX. I've been to Bali a few times before with the family, I found the beaches in Hawaii to be superior, I should make another trip and stay in a relaxing hotel. =D

biggest-Very funny on Singapore. It's so close to KUL it's hard not to visit. I hear what you are saying about the malls, I think the gf will appreciate it, time to do more OT. Some other things that interests me is the food, and visting the new resort they built, Marina Bay Sands. I am surprised no one has mentioned MFM-Macao. Is it worth seeing if you've been to Vegas numerous times? I will look at One World Explorer, however I only have 110k AAdvantage miles, is that enough? Thanks.

sprials-Thanks for the heads up on the comprehensive routing! May skip SGN & PHN, still thinking about TPE, maybe MFM.

injera-Thanks, i meant REP instead of PHN to see Angkor Wat. Why Hanoi instead of Saigon.

bazers-I think you answered my question above on why Hanoi instead of Saigon = Halong Bay! I still need to decide which cities to keep, can only travel for max 15 days including air travel! Thanks.

windcloud-Thanks for the advice on the using usairways to fly premium class and bookig open jaw. For SIN-BKK(stoppover)-HKG-SIN RT, is this cheaper than booking OW? I do have 45k US Airway miles now to use as of last week.

Long-Thanks for the heads up on the 10% redemption discount. Does this apply to Citi AAdvantage Visa/Amex cards too? I will look into the open jaw option, is MH biz class any good compared to CX? Thanskf or the recommendation on Airtimetable site, I will look at that. Only have 15 days, wish I could do RTW, still pricing out options to see if these programs are worth it compared to mileage redemptions along with LCC's.

epoymous-I've recently acquired 40k US Air miles so I am able to redeem either program. I hear you on Asin airlines service quality compared to western airlines, night and day. I think I will fly in C on intra-asia flights, maybe even Y. Thanks for the headsup on the regional redemptions. If I can use less miles to fly the better!

Thank you all for your advice, it has prepared me to make better decisions on booking my trip. It is a toss-up between using AAdvantage miles on CX, and UA on SQ. I like the idea of piecing toget 3 OW flights as sprials suggested. Very creative indeed.

farulg-Yes, all the responses have been very informative, I am grateful for this community!

Again, the advice you were given was wrong in important detail. HKG is in North Asia on the US chart.

http://www.usairways.com/pv_obj_cach...wardtravel.pdf

North Asia to South Asia is 40K r/t in Y, 60K in C, 80K in F on US, as you can see in the chart. You do not have enough US miles for a premium class redemption SIN-HKG round-trip if you only have 40-45K miles.

However, if you transfer 35K Chase UR to United, you have enough to book HKG-SIN//KUL-BKK(stop)-HKG. (//=open-jaw) as in intra-South Asia award in C (I've booked a similar award as a CO award: HKG-SIN-DPS-BKK(stop)-HKG). Easy to do an overland segment or use Firefly for SIN-SZB.

Hong Kong is in South Asia for UA, but not US.

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...2012-03-03.pdf

Also, US does not have half price one-way awards. One-way awards cost identical to round-trip awards.