lonman

doing a thanksgiving trip. have the option of five carriers that on expedia price through fares to other destinations via tokyo. all can do coach, but who wants to on a trip that long, so here are my choices and my dilemma. this trip will begin either in nyc or lax

aa - am striving for exec plat, and have enough miles to upgrade, but only get miles to nrt, not to hkg or sin

cx - can do coach in h to get miles, but no upgrade possibilities to either hkg or sin

co - should have enough miles on nw to upgrade to sin, but no availability to hkg. am striving for nw platinum.

dl - can do coach, but still have two vaild swu's to upgrade to nrt. no miles past nrt. am gold, but was planning to abandon them based on this year's ff changes.

nw - cheapest ticket by far(less $200-400US), but no upgrade possibilities. am striving for nw platinum.

1. what is the best coach option?
2. what is the best of the three upgrade options?

please rank choices if you like(and have the time). thanks so much for your help in advance.



[This message has been edited by lonman (edited 10-25-2000).]

fallinasleep

If you had to fly coach (with no upgrade possibility), then I would fly CX hands down to Asia. Good service, seat back videos and odds are good that you'll get an exit row. CX miles qualify for AA and you should (hopefully) be able to reach exec plat (although the JFK to HKG via YVR nets only 8000K one way since it's one flight number) that way.

Another option that is popular ex-Asia (not sure if possible ex USA) is to fly AA to NRT and then connect onto CX to HKG. AA offers this option in HKG to fill those seats and the fare is often lower than CX or UA direct. I think they offer it as a Q fare.

I have not flown NW in ages and never internationally but I can't imagine their coach service being any better than UA across the pacific and UA stinks in coach on transpac flights... But you got the upgrade possibility and would be able to reach platinum on NW... tough call... I would rather have exec plat on AA than plat on NW though. Better redemption opptys on AA IMHO.

silver

CO in BF to SIN sounds fine, but AA upgraded to NRT and CX to HKG in coach sounds doable too... NRT-HKG is usually around 3.5 to 4 hours so shouldn't be too much pain...

HK-UMICH

1. AA do offer fare to HKG ex-USA, I booked this twice from an agent in LA. (My fare is M class since I stay in HKG for 4 months)

2. Since AA use 777 (flagship) for trans-pacific (e.g.ORD-NRT and NRT-SJC), the coach is not that bad, of course you can use mile to upgrade as an EXP.

3. For NRT-HKG, my "bad" agent put me in NW although I requested CX or JL (Fters in CX board mentioned AA allow OW carrier or actually any carrier for NRT-HKG connection for the ticket).

4. No doubt CX will provide best service, but you need to make sure CX's connection is of eligible fare class to earn miles other I would say try JL (earn miles but not Q-miles) or NW. JL has far far better service than NW, or you can try UG your NRT-HKG segment.

5. CX is real good, but that depends on you want miles or you want better coach!

Hope this help!

doc

What a difference a year makes!
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum35/HTML/000235.html

With ALL WP miles & Bonuses!

lonman

i know, i was on it last year. my friends are waiting for this to come up again. plus we got a $300 voucher in a wbc promo offer.

as if it will happen again.

[This message has been edited by lonman (edited 10-26-2000).]

kilane_royalist

NW's coach service to Asia is much better than United's. My advice? Fly AA to Tokyo with the upgrade and then NW from NRT to China on China Airlines Metal (miles count for NW)

SeoulGold

Northwest is a partner with Air China (Mainland China's carrier), not China Airlines (Taiwan's carrier). You can earn NW mileage on Air China flights from NRT to PRC destinations.