IAH to HKT

trying to book award tickets for my wife and I over Christmas break for a week or so anytime between 12/22 and 1/4/2014.

I found one award flight on UA with 65k points one way for both of us which leave me with 80 UL points that are left to get us back but i am not finding anything on UA (saver award). I have 30k on BA and 20k amex MR points . I am trying to get ideas on what routes or ways i can use a combination to get us back to IAH.

thanks for your help

This is a very busy travel time. I got my tickets to hkt but booked 11 months out. Try hkt to Beijing to tokyo to iah and see if you can piece something together. That's my route except to nyc. My flights are already gone but i am flying back Jan 1 from Tokyo. You may get lucky Jan 2 or Dec 31. Good luck!

This is on united.

You can also go via Europe. You should be able to get plenty of TG availability from various gateways in Europe to BKK/HKT.

I would also see if you can get availability on CA from PEK to IAH.

Thank you all for the feed back - I am finding flights out of PEK with award tickets so far. i need to get from HKT to PEK on another award flight though i am trying to see if BA has any flights or partners there.

i am still a noob on abbriviations, whats CA?

Thanks !

Air China

Air China.

Thanks ! ya that makes sense air china.
i found award tickets PEK to IAH via JFK ...that could work with my miles i just need to get to coordinate HKT to PEK ...i have 20 MR and 30k Avois that i could combine on BA but i havn't looked at that leg yet.

i need to explore via europe too but from the looks of it CA is what may work with my current UL/United miles.

There seems to be surprisingly good availability from HKT to BKK/PEK/TPE/HKG at the end of Dec and beginning of Jan on the UA site.

yeah found plenty from PEK to IAH...my problem as it sits now is getting from HKT to PEK on points...i only have around 155k points that can go to on United. 65k to get from IAH to HKT on 12/23..then PEK award i am looking at is 65k from PEK to IAH on 1/3 ( for two people). That leaves me the HKT to PEK segment and i was able to find a seperate booking on UA HKT to PEK on 1/1/2014 that gets there 11 pm on 1/1/2014 so that leaves me a day and half in PEK..the flights i saw on 1/3 will get me there later in 1/3 to miss the PEK ->IAH segement which leaves me to leave 10 am 1/1/2014 and spend a day and half to catch my flight from PEK.

my concerns - i have atm 150ish points all together i can probably get to the complete miles in a month to get 160k miles for all tickets which leaves me on edge to see award tickets gone ( should i book the ones i am concern off at this time? IAH to HTK and PEK IAH?

concern 2 - staying in PEK..never been there and my wife is not a US citizen so would need a visa for her to stay for day and half there.

cocnern 3. the PEK IAH segment is goign via JFK and have to switch to LGA within 2 hours is that enough time?

so maybe this is doable but some additional work as i stated above. any help and advise on my concerns about would be appreciative.

THanks !

You can stay in China up to 72 hours with out a visa. See this thread in the China forum ...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...visa-twov.html

Thanks for this info , yeah i am a US citizen so i can stay up to 72 hours but Mrs. JD will still have to have a visa - she holds a Jordanian passport ( not part of the 45 countries listed for the 72 hour visa free). would that be hard to get? i would hate to buy tickets now and try to get visa later and find that she can't enter PEK.

Thanks so far !

Chinese visas are not hard to get for US citizens. I have no idea about Jordanian citizens.

Here is another thread in the China forum ...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...need-know.html

I would suggest posting there. There are several ambassadors in the forum who are very knowledgeable and extremely helpful.

Good luck with your award trip!!

kinda funny but i JUST posted a new thread there isn't it fun exploring a new trip and all the pain that comes with it ? !!

I hope this works, it'll be nice to visit china ..never been ( i am half chinese as well). which is another question i probably need to ask lol my dad is chinese /american will i have any issues in PEK?!!!

I think you misunderstand how these things work.

A UA saver economy costs 32.5k one-way from IAH to HKT per person. A trip from HKT to IAH one-way also costs 32.5k. Sometimes, the computer program cannot find flights all the way from HKT to IAH. However, if you find flights from HKT to PEK and PEK to IAH and call the UA center and have them book it for you, the entire one-way trip from HKT to IAH will be priced at 32.5k (i.e. not as two separate trips) as long as your layover in PEK is less than 24 hours. Of course, this means you will have to pay the $25 fee for reserving over the phone, but I think it's totally worth it in this case.

Also, if you book a round trip, you are allowed one free stop over of >24 hours. So you can book this as a IAH-HKT round trip with a stopover in HKT on the way back. That way, you'll only be charged 65k miles per person for the entire trip.

Not enough time. Personally, I'd want at least 4 hours if I had to do JFK-LGA. I think you should find another route to take because it is very annoying to have to transfer from JFK to LGA after an ultra long haul international flight.