Contemplating a holiday/TP run with the Mrs...
 

Dear all,

As per a previous thread, I would like to visit Chengdu with Mrs MSM.

However, availability on Avios is scarce, and going to Chengdu for 7 days is a little dull (the pandas will be brilliant for 3 days). My OH has never visited HKG so I'd like to tag on a few days there too if possible.

As a result, I have been put to the mindset of doing LHR-DOH-HKG-CTU. I know I could do the trip using OneWorld, and indeed would be willing to pay for it, but how do I go about trying to book?

I have tried using ITA Matrix and genuinely got confused (despite reading the instructions), and ended up with a figure of close to £25,000 which is obviously wrong!

Can anyone help?

Many thanks to all!

If you want to go to HKG and CTU and do it cheaply it will probably be best to look for a cheap return or open jaw, then book a separate oneway/return for HKG-CTU.

This topic has been moved from BA forum to the OW forum as it predominantly involves booking non-BA sectors.

LTN Phobia
Moderator: BA forum

OK, me and my brother pretty much did this trip in June.

We actually flew from Brussels (we took the eurostar there but if you want more TP's you can of course fly)

BRU - DOH - HKG rtn in business £1200 each

We flew Qatar 787 BRU - DOH which is amazing. Then we did Cathay DOH - HKG 777 which was cool.

We ended up taking a cheap internal flight to Chengdu (approx £80) - can't even remember who we flew with, but we couldn't justify the prices with one world carriers.

We netted 560 tier points for the trip. There are slightly smarter ways of doing the trip. If I did it again I would go

BRU (or wherever is cheapest and flying a 787) - DOH - CTU (QR for all sectors)
CTU - HKG (cheap internal flight / or Cathay if the price is OK but you'll only get 10 tier points in economy anyway)
HKG - DOH - BRU (all sectors on QR)

Interesting pricing - the best I could get direct from London, in J, was about £2,500 (LHR-DOH-CTU) or £2,000 (LHR-DOH-HKG). I'd prefer the latter as it would allow us more freedom in CTU. Realistically though, the latter routing meant 7 hours in DOH so I'd pay £2,300 for 2 hours at DOH.

I looked at starting from BRU but the price was circa €2,400 so very little in it by the time you add the fact you need to get to BRU.

I think the best routing, as suggested by yourself and nux is to go to HKG and then take a domestic flight to CTU.

Not sure what dates you are looking at but I just looked at an option for November 2014 for a 9 day stay going out 12 November and back 21 November flying LHR - HKG / CTU - LHR, the fare I got in J was GBP4178.00 total for 2 pax! Note there is a QR sale on which ends tonight just FYI.
Non-stop flights from HKG - CTU come in between US$150 - 310.00 a person

We got that price because of a 2 for 1 sale. It is possible outside of one of these sales though. For example yesterday I booked my friend on a £1267 OSL - DOH - SIN. So there are some good deals to be had. When do you want to go? If I have time I'll have a look for you.

I think we'd like to go sometime in June/July as we already have a trip to Tokyo in April until mid-May.

I'd assume QR would launch a SALE again later this year too as booking by the end of today wont give us enough time to confirm dates with our relevant offices.

only had a quick look but you can do BA DUB - LHR - HKG (A380) £1669
Less TP's but more Avios.

Honestly, I'd wait for a Qatar 2 for 1 sale. You can do better than the above price.

Thanks for checking. I'm hoping QR will launch their 2-for-1 sale before the end of the year, or at least launch a Business/First sale.

they did a 2 for 1 in November last year, so fingers crossed

That's really a good fare. Will look into that also.





BA has fares that can be combined with CX/KA flights

Below can be booked for gbp2030 Fare basis INCEU28

3 BA 441 J 09JUN 2 AMSLHR HK2 1915 1930 *1A/E*
4 BA 027 I 09JUN 2 LHRHKG HK2 5 2155 1640+1 *1A/E*
5 KA 824 I 10JUN 3 HKGCTU HK2 1 1905 2145 *1A/E*
6 KA 821 I 21JUN 7 CTUHKG HK2 1 1345 1625 *1A/E*
7 BA 026 I 28JUN 7 HKGLHR HK2 1 2315 0455+1 *1A/E*
8 BA 428 J 29JUN 5 LHRAMS HK2 5 0650 0910 *1A/E*


And all flights in Business

Hm.

Might I ask how you're getting to and from Japan? Also, what other major travel plans do you have for 2015?

The reason being, given this thread is about tier points and business-class travel options, I wonder if there might be a fit with one of Oneworld's RTW or multi-continent products.

Without getting overly complicated in this thread (there are sticky threads on this board where you can study these products in depth) suffice to say that RTWs and related tickets are priced very differently depending on the country of origin. For example, a three-continent business class RTW ticket originating in the UK (or the Euro zone, pretty similar) is priced at £5471 (plus taxes and fees.) The same ticket bought in Japan is £3767. Both would give you up to sixteen business-class flights (US domestic first class on routes without J) and is good for a year.

So, one (of many) scenarios might be for you to travel to Japan on your existing ticket, then instead of returning home via Asia, buy an RTW ticket there and return via North America, maybe with a short TP run there, given the great potential for massive tier point accumulation using the first-class TPs you'd get on domestic AA flights. Then home across the Atlantic.

Then, later, off you go to China, with or without a stop in the Middle East (or anywhere in Europe, or both) en route, do your Chengdu/Hong Kong thing, then just carry on back to Japan to end the RTW. Use the return portion of your prior outbound Japan ticket to get home.

On a benefit/cost basis, and depending on how eager you are to accumulate TPs, this might be a reasonable way to go, and if you have time, it could also be a great way to visit some places or try different airlines, that you'd otherwise be unable to experience.

Just a thought - I'm always looking for ways to leverage airfare into greater benefit, or to create new travel options.

Thanks for that Dutch (your work on the BA board is legendary!).

Is there any chance of amending the dates to something like

AMS-LHR 23/06
LHR-HKG 23/06
HKG-CTU 24/06
CTU-HKG 28/06 (or 29/06)
HKG-LHR 02/07 (or 03/07)
LHR-AMS 03/07

Would there be a way to use 2 x GUF1 on the fare code?

Many thanks for all of your help!

Hi GardyLoo,

Thanks for the RTW thought.

We are off to Tokyo but I am using an Avios GUF2 which I would quite like to use up (although I do have another 2 of them I can use).

In terms of other travel plans for 2015, the simple answer is none yet aside from Tokyo (round Japan) and then this potential trip.

We may look at a trip end of October/November time next year too but I cannot say where as we haven't put any thought it into it.

M