Hlbebe11

Hello,

Question #1
Can I fly United and earn preferred miles on my Dividend Miles account? If not can I earn preferred miles on any other airline since US Airways doesn't fly to Asia?

Question #2
What airline is best to fly economy from LAX-BKK? If we stop over in Beijing for 7.5 hours what can we do and where can we shower? Should we choose a longer stop over instead and visit the Great Wall of China? The return flight on Air China has a 14 hour stop over in Beijing but it gets in at midnight and departs at 2pm the next day. How does the 72 hour visa work in China and what do we do with our luggage while there for 7.5 hours?

Question #3
Should we visit Bangkok or Phuket for longer, we are planing on meeting friends in Phuket while we are there.

Question #4
Accommodations in Phuket and Bangkok.

History
A college friend of mine and I (two 30 yr. old females) are planing a trip to Bangkok from Los Angeles. I have been a preferred customer of US Airways over the past seven years and a couple months ago I lost my preferred status. I am also a US Airways Master Card holder... I missed the 10K bonus preferred miles when you spend $25,000 by $1,200. I currently have 89,000 miles with US Airways. My travel companion doesn't have miles.

Thanks!

dsquared37

1. Make sure your TG flights are in fares Q and higher. Cheaper fares (W or V) do not earn miles on international flights.

4. With so many places to stay it really comes down to what you desire to do and your price point.

Welcome to FT.

glennaa11

Lots of info about Chinese visa issues in the China forum. Your China-specific questions are better answered over there too.

If you want to use US miles for your ticket and need a few more to top up your account you can easily buy them.

Lots of threads here about hotels. Bangkok is full of nice hotels at a variety of price points. Agoda.com and Asiasooms.com have discount rates.

I'm not sure any airline has very comfortable economy class for such a long haul. So I would pick whichever schedule works best for you. And of course if you want to use miles it will depend on who has availability when you want to go.

I have not been to Phuket other than to go through the airport. I'm not really much of a beach person anyway so I wouldn't spend any time there. So it really depends on what your interests are.

CrazyInteg

For economy I would recommend an airline that has personal video players with on demand video. I don't travel with an ipad or whatever, so I rely on the movies that the airline shows for my entertainment.

From a brief glance at SeatGuru, AirChina's 777 and Asiana's 777 & A320 gain you an extra inch or two of legroom.

Hlbebe11

Thanks for the tips... any chance anyone knows how to see what class a fare is on Orbitz? As of right now it seems Air China is the best choice... What about travels insurance, thoughts on that?

glennaa11

I typically only buy insurance if I am going somewhere that has poor medical care facilities that might require airlift/evac. Then I get a policy with high limit medical evac coverage.

Use a site like insuremytrip.com or squaremouth.com to compare policies and coverages.

Most policies also cover things like trip interruption and lost luggage up to a certain amount. Some credit cards also offer some amount of coverage as well so it might be worth looking at the benefits associated with any cards you have.

If you are pre-paying for a lot of things like hotels and tours it could also be worthwhile.

For medical issues check you own health care policy to see what it covers while you travel. For mine I pay out of pocket if anything happens and they will reimburse if I file a claim with proper documentation. Healthcare is usually a lot cheaper in other countries. Thailand is certainly on that list. Generally very good, modern care at reasonable cost.

I don't know about Orbitz. You may want to look at the travel tools forum for that answer. The ITA Matrix search will show you fare classes. http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

lin821

FWIW, questions about Orbitz are being discussed in our Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies Forum, not Travel Tools Forum.