Help with booking to SEAsia
 

Hi all,

I have an upcoming trip to Phnom Penh I need to book on a skyteam airline in order to earn MQM with Delta. I'm having trouble finding fare classes on partner's sites -- KE and AF (to make sure that I earn MQMs). Any advice or experience?

Also, anyone know the rules of earning DL MQMs on SQ?

Thanks in advance.

This page will give you all the MQM earning details for DL partners. SQ was an RDM-earning only partner. I doubt that has changed, so don't expect MQMs there.

Good luck!

NW will get you to BKK. A better bet than AF and KE as there are more restricted mileage-earning faresfor those 2.

take nwa to bkk and then hop over on bangkok airways, you will love the service...........

Does anyone know what, if any perks, are available for a Delta Platinum (Elite Plus) on a NW ticket, which will probably -- unfortunately -- be the lowest fare on which one can earn DL MQM available?

Thanks for the thoughts...

- Preferred seating. Grab seats 29AB/HJ on the 332, or row 35 on the 744 (exits).

- Lounge access on intl ST trips for E+. The NW WorldClubs at NRT are pretty nice.

- Priority baggage handing.

- Good shot at operational upgrades (if your flight is oversold). I received op-ups on three NW transpacs this year (with tickets booked in K class). It's pretty easy to choose dates/flights that have high likelihood of being oversold.

Would you care to elaborate? Which dates, which flights? In 5 years of extensive TPAC flying I have yet to be the recipient of an op-up and I am
PE, last year 200k EQM. What am I missing?

disagree about op-ups for DL elite+
 

As a DL elite plus flyer, you probably will not even be noticed for an operational upgrade. As a NW plat and gold, I like JPDX have gotten a number of them. The last was in November traveling with my Gold level wife out of PDX. They were oversold by 7 in coach, I volunteered to let them let us sit in business class and we received boarding passes for that class. Guess you could call this a Platinum companion trans-pac upgrade.

Other than this point, I agree totally with JPDX. (Well, maybe not about the seats since this is a hidden benefit-if you are in one of my seats, you have to move.) LOL

The closest that you can get to PNH on SkyTeam is Bangkok. You can get to SGN on AF, but the lowest fares now only earn 25% eqm. It is cheaper to fly BKK-PNH on AirAsia than any other routing. Another approach is to route thru SIN on NW and use someone like Tiger to get to PNH. This yields more eqm than BKK but means a longer flight from the SIN than from BKK..

Only CZ, China Southern, in skyteam reaches PNH. However, you have to pay for a high fare class to earn MQM on DL.

KE to PNH
 

Although you could fly to BKK on KE or NW and the take a Bangkok Airways flight to Phnom Pehn, the KE flights arrive in BKK late in the day which would require overnighting in Bangkok.

Why not just take KE from the USA to Phnom Pehn?? You would get reliable service on well maintained aircraft and Delta MQM's and base miles. I haven't checked, but you might even fly KE metal on a Delta ticket, via the codeshare. Why not call Delta or KE and book the trip? I suspect that taking the entire trip on one carrier is less expensive than transiting via Bangkok and buying a ticket on Asia's Boutique Airline, Bangkok Airways

KE 689 flies from ICN to PNH daily, departing Seoul at 7 PM and arriving at 10:55. You could easily connect to this flight from JFL by taking KE 82. You'd leave NYC at 12:40 and arrive ICN at 5:10 the next afternoon. Go to the KE lounge after arriving ICN, take a shower, check your email and grab a snack and head out to the gate for the flight to Cambodia, about a 5 hour flight.

It's going to be quite hard to get full EQMs on a route direct to PNH, without spending a ton of money for Skyteam. A flight to BKK or SIN would probably be the cheapest, via NW. Then buy a flight to PNH on Air Asia, or other Asian low cost carrier. Just watch out for the international date line change, and low baggage allowances they have.

Here are my suggestions if you want a mileage run in order of DL preference,

1) consider NYC-ATL-SLC-LAX-HNL-ICN-KUL, all on DL/KE codeshares and get a LCC flight into PNH (be forewarned of AirAsia's incremental cost charges). Normally, I'd say go thru SIN, but (1) DL's codeshare uses AF via CDG.

2) fly NYC-MEM-DTW-SEA-HNL-NRT-SIN and a LCC flight to PNH. Keep in mind of the weak USD. The exchange rate of USD to SGD isn't as great as USD to MYR (hence, I prefer option 1). So, the SIN-PNH segment will be skyhigh.

3) run into CAN (NW9 goes HNL-NRT-CAN), overnight and catch a CZ flight into PNH next morning. The hotel and transit visa costs on the China side may negate the savings of flying into SIN.

You can transit in China for 24 hours without a visa. I just did this Sunday and its no problem at all, though if you're going in coach I'd avoid CZ at all costs.

I agree with other posters above... fly into KUL, SIN, or BKK and buy your own ticket from there.

Its not a daily schedule, but if the dates for for you then JetStar from SIN is actually going to be cheaper than AirAsia from KUL, even with the favorable exchange rate in Malaysia. Both require dealing with the LCC terminal which means clearing immigration and taking a bus/train to the other terminal.

Either one will allow you to stay in the transit hotel if you want since you exit your flight directly into the terminal, its not like other airports where you have to clear security first to get back into the airport.

Just using some sample dates, the Bangkok Airways flight from BKK looks to be by far the most expensive of the 3. I don't know if BKK uses an LCC terminal or not, nor do I know how easy it is to transfer in BKK. BKK does have a cash departure tax which I assume you have to pay if you leave the airside part of the terminal.
EDIT: Just noticed Thai AirAsia also flys BKK-PHN, its a lot cheaper than the Bangkok Airways flight.

I thought that the cash departure tax wsa going away with the move to the new airport :confused:

According to the posters on Fodors.com, the departure tax is now paid in advance in your ticket, so there is no paying at departure.