iztok

I would like to take my wife to Phuket, Thailand with perhaps couple of days stop in Singapore sometime end of the year (flexible on time).

I am not sure if originating from CLT I should do transpac or transatl flight? (I never done transpac in life.)

Ideally I would like to experience SQ in first and perhaps some other non-USA based carriers. If TransAtl I wouldn't mind doing return on LH so I could experience FC terminal in FRA. (I assume that going Westbound from CLT and do transpac and returning through Europe would not count as South Asia trip but as round the world? But if my assumption is wrong this would be my preferred way.)

So with lack of my experience on award travel and even travel so far (I did CLT-Europe some but nothing past that) I could use any help. (Using DM miles for award tickets.)

So I am looking for suggestions on routings and carriers would be appreciated.

twa777

I've made two trips to Thailand using DM, and both were great experiences.

The first trip was a few years back. We flew from Roanoke to Charlotte to Los Angeles on US Airways, and then from Los Angeles to Bangkok via Osaka on Thai Airways, both in first class. We did some traveling on our own through Asia, so the return trip was Tokyo to Los Angeles on All Nippon (ANA), and then again on US Airways back to Charlotte and Roanoke.

The second trip was last year in business class. We few from Roanoke to Chicago on United, then to Stockholm on SAS. We had a layover of about 12 hours so we took a sightseeing trip into the city for the day, and then continued on to Bangkok again on SAS. The return trip was on ANA through Tokyo to Chicago, and then United back to Roanoke, so we got to make a trip around-the-world while just booking a trip to Asia. However, I believe getting a routing like that for a South Asia ticket is somewhat at the discretion of the reservation office.

Both trips were fantastic experiences and I have nothing but good things to say about both trips. Personally, I recommend flying non-US airlines for trips like this because it does give a flavor of the other countries. In particular, making the first trip to Thailand on Thai Airways really gave us a feel of the country from the time we left Los Angeles.

For routings, you may just need to be flexible and take what options are available. We were very lucky to get the routing on the first trip as easily as we did, and I think ticket availability has tightened up since then. For the second trip we booked about eleven months in advance, gave the reservation agent about a one month window to search in, and that was one of the few routings they could find for us. I'm not sure if it's any more difficult to book tickets to Phuket than to Bangkok; you may find you do better just getting award tickets to Bangkok and then purchase your own tickets on from there. Besides, Bangkok is a wonderful city and well worth a stopover for at least a short while.

First-class may also be hard to come by, especially as some airlines have dropped first-class altogether on at least some routes. However, modern business class service is pretty darn nice, often with lay-flat (or near-flat) beds there too. It's not still not as personalized or super-premium as first class, but still quite comfortable and spacious and worth considering as an option. Also, the winter season is the most popular time to go to Thailand which will make tickets harder to come by then; however, there's a reason for that as that's when the weather makes a visit there the most pleasant.

Two other things:

1) the reservation agents don't have great facilities to "look" for frequent flier ticket availability. Check other threads in this forum for information on using the ANA website to find potential availability on your own, and then call US Airways and hope they can book the same flights for you.

2) getting award tickets like this is often a factor of reaching a good agent who's willing to take the time to help you, who knows likely ticket availability, and who might call a manager to make an exception to a rule if necessary. My personal experience has been that I've found the most helpful agents when I call on weekend afternoons. However, at least try to avoid calling when some storm or other event is likely to have agents busy with other problems, and be willing to call back later if the agent you get doesn't seem helpful.

Best of luck, and I hope you can get the reservations you want. It should be a great trip!

spin88

several words of advise, ANA tool, ANA tool, ANA tool... multiple threads on the UA board, but bottom line is you can see what is available on *A Sign up.

No agent will ever be able to look as carefully as you can using the ANA tool..., and then once you find what works, call and see. I most recently scorred three C seats and two Y seats on the same planes SFO-HKG, HKG-NRT, NRT-SFO with about an hours work. I have always found what I need.

A few problems... SQ at this point never releases F seats for awards... A few scattered claims they do, but no one reputable has ever reported getting one. You used to be able to get SQ C class, but they are not offering it, except inter-asia on the new W configuration planes. Basically everything out of the US is zerroed out.

As to who else to fly...

TG from LAX, very hard to get, good luck... otherwise its UA (a few F seats scattered, mostly C - but the pacific flights on the 744s are new config, very nice, as nice of a seat at SQ's old C), NH or Asiana. Word of warning, Asiana's availability is not usually findable on the ANA tool, so back to square one (you have to call and have them check). OZ is a BF configuration and quite nice, service and food is good trans-PAC, ditto TG, once you are in Asia, its not quite the same level of service. I think ANA probably has the best F of them all, if you can get it... there new C is also very nice.

I've booked about 10 times to BKK from SFO, you either change in NRT (UA or NH), INC (UA or OZ), HKG (UA, SQ flight never has any availablity), or now a few UA connections out of Beijing or Shanghai. You can also change via SFO on UA to Teipei and KIX (connecting to a TG flight).

Once you get to Asia, a TG flight to BKK is quite easy to get on redemption. Its getting over that is the problem. (And I've never tried the via Europe route, for you its probably about as far, if you can get redemptions, I assume it would have to be Austrian, LH or SAS who go there).

Whether they will issue an award to take you all the way to Phuket I don't know. try the ANA tool to BKK, then try to add on to the flights you found. But if not, the flight down there is something like $150 RT from BKK, and if you have never been, spend a few days in BKK, its an interesting place...

good luck and enjoy LOS, getting there in C or J will not spoil the trip

iztok

Called CP line last evening and agent found me possible routing.

CLT-LAX on US
LAX-BKK-HKT on TG
HKT-ICN-LAX on OZ
LAX-CLT on US

Pretty good. Just no stop over in ICN or BKK. Not sure which one should I stop for couple of days, perhaps both.

Now I am 18k miles short.

I need to get my MR points transferred ASAP and see if I can move BKK-HKT down two days and HKT-ICN two days so we can see BKK and ICN.

All above is in FC. I never flew any routes (except domestic) in FC in my life let alone any Asian airlines. Thoughts?

gleff

I've never had difficulty finding (1) F award seat on SQ at a time. They release them pretty far out, 9-11 months, and then again particularly close to flightt ime. Then you'd have to wait for a second seat to open up. So if you're really set on SQ, the strategies have been (1) book 1 F and 1 C award on the same plane, hope a second F seat opens, or (2) book 1 F seat apiece on 2 different routes, you double your chance that a second F seat could open, or (3) accumulate SQ miles and book 1 seat with US miles and the second with SQ miles since SQ does open more than 1 at a time for their own members.

However, SQ has been moving their 747 flights (the only ones where F redemption is currently permitted by partners) to 77W aircraft with the new F and thus no partner redemptions. SFO flights have gone 77W. LAX-NRT-SIN is slated to go 77W (and you'd have to search LAX-SIN as a single flight # to find availability, they release a whole bunch fewer awards LAX-NRT). That leaves JFK-FRA-SIN which has been much harder to find availability on than the historically much easier LAX-NRT-SIN flight, SQ 11.

If you're using Dividend Miles you should take note of the different award levels between different destinations in Asia. HKG is a whole lot cheaper in miles than SIN. So that may influence your decision of redemption destination, and cause you to consider purchasing some cheap intra-Asia flights on Low Cost Carriers -- but if you have the miles to do redemption all the way, go for it!! On the whole intra-Asian availability is pretty good

If you're looking for the best availability transpacific in F you'll find it with Asiana. OZ is pretty good JFK-ICN and ORD-ICN, or at least decent, though they don't operate those flights daily. Availability is absolutely unbeatable LAX-ICN with 2 F seats available most days... Of course you have to get to LAX early enough to connec tto that departure! Service is great and mostly their new seats.

I highly recommend F. And when you take your return flight I highly suggest a first class departure out of BKK, the ground service there is IMHO best in the world and there's nothing like an hour long Thai massage prior to being taken to your flight by buggy

How about flying CLT to an Asiana gateway (ORD/JFK/LAX) and then onward ot ICN in OZ F. If it were only 1 person I'd suggest connecting to a city with good SQ availability, eg PVG (ICN-PVG in OZ F, then PVG-SIN in SQ F) but again they'll generally only release 1 F seat at a time. THough you COULD do that and hope for a 2nd F seat, otherwise sit together in C. LX still flies SIN-BKK in F though there are perpetual rumors of that flight going away, otherwise TG and SQ only flight SIN-BKK with 2-cabin equipment these days.

For the return, TG operates F service BKK-HKG/PVG/PEK/NRT. I've found PVG to be the most available for 2 F seats. Then you could continue the next day PVG-ICN in F, followed by your OZ return to the US.

The way to find all this availability is indeed the ANA website, sign up for an account and search for star alliance awards. Note that it only finds a limited # of routings and only single connections so you need to search flight-by-flight. The best tips on using the website can be found in the bmi forum where there's a great FAQ. Feel free to PM me as well, or even shoot me some dates and I can offer you a sample itinerary

gleff

Sorry, looks like I opened the thread a long time ago and typed my reply long after you updated your situation!

LAX-BKK is 2-cabin, so business class not first, the only flight in there that's international 3 class is ICN-LAX.

Shoot me your dates and I'll send you a possible itinerary