profhoff

I just received an invitation to go to speak at an academic conference in Hong Kong in July, 2000. They've offered me a round trip air ticket and four nights accomodations.

My son's been interested lately in the Far East and so, this seems interesting. But I checked out the fares and restricted coach is over $1000, unrestricted coach looks to start at upwards of $2000, and we don't even want to talk about business class.

I was thinking of all three of us going, but this is too expensive.

My questions are: I thought it was supposed to be cheap to go to Hong Kong. Am I doing this wrong? I'm AA Gold and have about 110,00 points, my husband has around 60,000 (but he's not Gold) and my son might have around 10,000 or 15,000.

Does that help us get their cheaper in business class or should I just forget it?

------------------
"Living well is the best revenge"

Carfield

About cheap tickets to Asia, I recommend you using some travel agents, especially those specialized in Asia travel. July is a peak travel season, but the fare will not be released till Feb or March. I will wait for a bit before you do any booking.

Northwest is the cheapest with about $600 (even during Christmas) from the West Coast.
United is alright... around $800. CX is slightly cheaper than UAL... you will want to take CX too because it is one of the oneworld partner. Korean is usually the cheapest with about $500... also JAL, but you will get no miles.

About Business Class, CI and Eva Air offer discounted C class ticket at about $2000 roundtrip. CI has offered $1500RT C class ticket this past season.. I think this fare will show up again in March...

EVA Air -- an AA codeshare partner has a special class in between Business and Y class. It is called the Evergreen Deluxe Class. YOu only need to pay $75 surcharge to upgrade to the deluxe class. You will get a 38 inches legroom and 2-4-2 seating, your own Personal TV monitor, and slightly upgraded meal, but NO MENUS (BAD BAD BAD). The Deluxe Class is great for its price... although I heard report regarding the decline of service on the Deluxe Class. It is still a pretty good bargain.

If you are from the LA area, you can email me and I will give you my travel agent's contact number...

Good Luck!


------------------
Carfield
Menu Scavengers
Inflight food critics
Crazy 8th grade teacher

sggolf

Try a consolidator for HKG travel or cashing in AA miles for tickets on Cathay Pacific, a partner of American's. They usually have discounted coach free tickets like 40K instead of 50-60K? but don't know if July is offered. Also, you might want to check out if AA will connect you to the closest Cathay city like NY to HKG.

UK Stages

i've had great success several times going to hong kong as a courier. you can do this from many major US cities. the cost is usually only a few hundred dollars, more during peak travel times and much less (sometimes free) if they have no one to go. unfortunately, you get to take only carry-on luggage on the outbound flight... but you can often check bags on the return flight.

there's often only one courier from a particular freight company on each flight, so you may not get to travel together with the other members of your family. and on some airlines, you no longer receive mileage credit for courier flights.

but it is something you may wish to consider, depending on the age of your son and how flexible his travel plans can be.

as for companies that do this... now voyager and IBC spring readily to mind; the others escape me at the moment.

Tute84

You could swim!!

freeflyer

You might want to keep an eye on Korean Air's website:
http://www.koreanair.com

They from time to time have really cheap web-only fares from the US to HK and Southeast Asia.

hulagirl

Please note that I am a travel agent. One of the major travel companies that offer tours to Asia offers a four or five night package to Hong Kong at your choice of several first class or deluxe properties including American breakfast daily for less than the price of the airline's regular air fare. They buy in bulk. Please let me know what city you are flying from. i.e. This winter that package is about $700 including airfare, transfers, hotel & breakfast and at least city tour. Other optional tours (inexpensive are purchasable in advance, too.) This is definitely the cheapest and most deluxe way to go if the dates match your conference. Plus, you get actual miles of Northwest airlines plus 2,000 additional miles. This was the rate until March, but summer prices will be out shortly. You can also buy insurance on it, too. I've been to Hong Kong and everyone in Hawaii knows that this is the cheapest & best way to get there.

flyme2

I agree with hulagirl. Northwest World Vacations are available through any travel agency and offer great deals to Hong Kong. Prices including hotels are almost always less than the usual airfare alone...and you get a 2000 mile bonus in addition to your WP miles. Of course, it adds nothing to your Aadvantage account. Perhaps AA has similar vacation packages?

hulagirl

In addition, there are tours that put in other cities. Asia is far cheaper than Europe. There are many wholesalers. Also, in Hong Kong you have to be sure which side of the island your conference is -- i.e. Kowloon or the other side. Some of the deluxe hotels may be a distance away from your conference.
Hope you have a good time!

profhoff

Thanks for all the good info. Because of summer grant issues, I can't commit on this conference for a while, so I'll check back later once my plans are firmed up.