Long Haul Business Class for under $2K (Long Post)

[bgtp]

11 hours ago, Luv2Phuket said:

Check it thru Alaska or BA - it may be ghost availability.

I’d also check via JAL. I’ve seen ghost JAL awards on BA before. You need to join JAL’s program in order to access their award availability. @Little Evil have you tried it without the Jet Blue segment? I wouldn’t think that’s the issue but you never know. All Jet Blue flights are available for awards in their program where each point simply has a cash value like Southwest. But I don’t know how their availability for partners works. 

[jerkmcgerk]

On 10/05/2023 at 13:43, Luv2Phuket said:

I have yet to find a decent way to book PE with AA miles. 555

VERY curious to hear your thoughts on JAL PE.  Based on my research, it appears to be similar to domestic first, with decent width and the most legroom of any PE product I could find (40+ inch pitch, IIRC).  I think it also is 3-3-3, so an aisle seat in the center section could be good to set up a "don't crawl over me" situation.

I'm DYING to get back, but other trips have relegated me to August (+ I don't want to take too many trips and fuck up my current position, even though I work remotely).

The WORST part is that I am spending a fucking arm and a leg to go to a Hall of Fame induction for friend in June -- what I'm dropping on flight, transport & hotel could have gotten me to Thailand and back!  555

I've flown JAL PE and it's far better than American domestics first/business class. Serious reclining seat with a kick out foot stand and good food/drinks.

[jerkmcgerk]

18 minutes ago, bgtp said:

I’d also check via JAL. I’ve seen ghost JAL awards on BA before. You need to join JAL’s program in order to access their award availability. @Little Evil have you tried it without the Jet Blue segment? I wouldn’t think that’s the issue but you never know. All Jet Blue flights are available for awards in their program where each point simply has a cash value like Southwest. But I don’t know how their availability for partners works. 

For redemptions, specifically via Alaska, i've found that any flights that have two airlines are basically ghost availability. If you can find flights that are one airline then usually it's legit.

[jerkmcgerk]

So just wanted to share some fun updates. I was in Thailand in April, and booked a last minute ticket there, business class (first time from USA to Asia). I found waiting until the day or two before allows for amazing deals to be found, especially paired with pointme which allows you to search every reward program for deals. So I ultimately paid 87.5k for business on Lufthansa and Thai Airways on the Aeroplan portal (Amex transfer).

Now for the way back, I was a bit more tense because the strategy was risky, but it paid off once again. I found a killer deal for 110k points, which was BKK->USA, where Thai Airways was actually First Class and the 2nd leg was United Business Class (Polaris). This was a killer deal in my eyes and I was thrilled to finally check out an international first class flight!

 

My ranking of the flights I took:

#1) Thai Airways First Class

What an experience, from check-in where they greet you in a private area and have a employee escort you thru the airport. They brought me thru security and to the lounge where the food was exquisite and made to order. I had a Pad Thai, it was the best I ever had.

The flight itself was nice, with incredible service and a beautiful plane interior. Seats were super comfy, lie down, great movie selection. I watched Dumb & Dumber and couldn't stop laughing. Food was immaculate, had some lobster dish, caviar as an appetizer, it was really way outside of my normal lifestyle so quite the treat. To top it all off, when I was checking in, they told me there were some issues with the dinner table/tray, so they gave me $500 USD in baht (cash) right there at check in. The table worked perfectly fine though and they didn't ask for the money back. 

#2) Thai Airways Business Class 

I was really impressed with the cabin and seat. The food was pretty good as well. Honestly, it is my favorite business class I've been in so far!

#3) Lufthansa Business Class

This felt like a really old plane but the lay down seat was worth it. Service was pretty good but food was just average.

#4) United Polaris Business Class

This seat wasn't too bad, but honestly the service and food were awful. It felt like I was on a domestic US flight service wise. The food stuck out as truly terrible, as I had a cheeseburger that tasted like it could have been from 7/11...  The laydown seat and movie selection was the highlight for the flight. The lounge in London was quite pretty which a nice view but the food sucked.

In closing, I really haven't had any business class experience (let alone first class) experience internationally, so this past trip was quite the whirl wind. I'm scheduled to go back to Thailand next month and fly Q-Suites and JAL Business (both booked with points a few months ago), but I may cancel as my April trip was not planned and I don't have quite the same itch. We'll see but wanted to share all the experiences. If you can wait until the last minute for flights, I highly recommend it.

[Luv2Phuket]

12 hours ago, jerkmcgerk said:

So just wanted to share some fun updates. I was in Thailand in April, and booked a last minute ticket there, business class (first time from USA to Asia). I found waiting until the day or two before allows for amazing deals to be found, especially paired with pointme which allows you to search every reward program for deals. So I ultimately paid 87.5k for business on Lufthansa and Thai Airways on the Aeroplan portal (Amex transfer).

Now for the way back, I was a bit more tense because the strategy was risky, but it paid off once again. I found a killer deal for 110k points, which was BKK->USA, where Thai Airways was actually First Class and the 2nd leg was United Business Class (Polaris). This was a killer deal in my eyes and I was thrilled to finally check out an international first class flight!

 

For a long time, my strategy has been to get flights booked, then see if I can get a "better" one as the flight dates approach.  The "downside" is usually only a $50 or $75 cancellation/mileage redeposit fee.

This is especially true after I get "loved up" in Pattaya! 555  I often look for a last minute change to extend my trip a few days, but have had very little success (although I typically am traveling during high season).

I don't think I would be willing to risk going "points commando" with no booked return flight.

I need to check out pointsme (and to join a bunch of other airlines/options).

[Little Evil]

Points PSA: Citibank via AA is offering a new targeted checking account bonus with some rather low hanging fruit. 60K miles after 90 days of opening, provided you jump thru these hoops:

• 2 direct deposits totaling $1,000 or more (Zelle, Venmo and Paypal might work)
• Qualifying purchases via debit card of $1,000 or more
• Account must remain open to receive miles (90 days after opening)

Seems like easy points, but still a hassle to open up new banking accounts. And if you do the bare minimum in funding, the account will eventually come with fees, so I'm weighing how much I want 60K free AA miles. On the fence. Check your emails and spam if interested, as I think it's an invite offer.

https://frequentmiler.com/new-citi-checking-offers-for-up-to-60k-aadvantage-miles-targeted/

 

[travelling_man]

@Luv2Phuket

Did I miss the memo??  

Business class, round trip, Bangkok to Houston on United and Thai.

My reservation is reporting BAGGAGE FEES for checked baggage.

I'm tripping out.  I lost my Platinum status this year because this is the first year that minimum flight segments applied to me.  In the past I was exempt from the flight segments.

So is this right?  No status, flying business, and paying for baggage???  

 

I have been reading and I can see where the change to require cardholders to honor the flight segments changed; but I can't see where a change to baggage occurred.

Edited May 27, 2023 by travelling_man

[forqalso]

In February, flying out of San Francisco on China Airlines in coach, I got two checked bags free, then when my carry-on was over weight they checked that one free as well. I think the first two were standard and they gave the third free because of my gold club status.

[Luv2Phuket]

Wow....never seen that!

Is it an award ticket?  A saver fare?

I would call United and ask "WTF?"

 

[travelling_man]

9 hours ago, Luv2Phuket said:

Wow....never seen that!

Is it an award ticket?  A saver fare?

I would call United and ask "WTF?"

 

It is an award ticket, but I've never seen this on award tickets EVER.

[Luv2Phuket]

11 minutes ago, travelling_man said:

It is an award ticket, but I've never seen this on award tickets EVER.

Me either. 

I got KILLED by United for baggage charges on my positioning flight (but most came back in credit card annual reimbursements).

 

[HimBadMan]

On 15/05/2023 at 07:29, Little Evil said:

That supposed JAL F availability via AA's program I posted about last week....maybe not true. I actually tried to book something and it seems to always throw a "We're sorry but at least one of the flights or fares you chose is no longer available." error. You then look up the flights again and it shows up again. Called in and the first agent I spoke to couldn't figure it out either. Ghost availability? Last seat issue?  My itinerary would start or end in Boston, so I'd have a short Jet Blue flight BOS to JFK. Could that be it? I tried both outbound and inbound trips on multiple days. Anyone get that error before? 

Will try calling again, but I thought I'd check in with the brain trust first before wasting time. 

This "phantom" award availability is pissing me off.   Looking for my flight back for Sept and it's beyond annoying to continue to see these show up..

Also equally annoying is the unbelievable or lack of award space on CX via AA miles..  cannot recall the last time I saw award space on CX via AA.  Definitely pre covid 

[Luv2Phuket]

I've got a NEW pet peeve with AA....

I'm searching for award tickets to my "gateway" cities, LAX, SFO, SEA, even DFW or SAN.....

Awards pop up for first availability, and I get excited.  For example, I see it is BKK-HND-SFO-LAX.  So I think "great! I'll snag it to SFO!"  But when I search to SFO, that ticket does NOT come up, but one does that is BKK-HND-LAX-SFO.

It keeps showing award space only with the "extra" stop.  If I still lived by LAX, no sweat, but adding the extra leg and THEN tacking on a 4th flight to get home is a solid "no go" for me.

FWIW, I also signed up for points.me -- like it's search functionality, but don't like that it only allowed me to enter 6 credit card/airline programs.

[HimBadMan]

54 minutes ago, Luv2Phuket said:

I've got a NEW pet peeve with AA....

I'm searching for award tickets to my "gateway" cities, LAX, SFO, SEA, even DFW or SAN.....

Awards pop up for first availability, and I get excited.  For example, I see it is BKK-HND-SFO-LAX.  So I think "great! I'll snag it to SFO!"  But when I search to SFO, that ticket does NOT come up, but one does that is BKK-HND-LAX-SFO.

It keeps showing award space only with the "extra" stop.  If I still lived by LAX, no sweat, but adding the extra leg and THEN tacking on a 4th flight to get home is a solid "no go" for me.

FWIW, I also signed up for points.me -- like it's search functionality, but don't like that it only allowed me to enter 6 credit card/airline programs.

Yeah..  I noticed that too.   I'm pretty confident it's part of this award glitch that they are having because it makes no sense.   There is 0 logic behind that.   It has to be a glitch (I keep telling myself that ). Haha

[smithzac91]

4 hours ago, Luv2Phuket said:

I've got a NEW pet peeve with AA....

I'm searching for award tickets to my "gateway" cities, LAX, SFO, SEA, even DFW or SAN.....

Awards pop up for first availability, and I get excited.  For example, I see it is BKK-HND-SFO-LAX.  So I think "great! I'll snag it to SFO!"  But when I search to SFO, that ticket does NOT come up, but one does that is BKK-HND-LAX-SFO.

It keeps showing award space only with the "extra" stop.  If I still lived by LAX, no sweat, but adding the extra leg and THEN tacking on a 4th flight to get home is a solid "no go" for me.

FWIW, I also signed up for points.me -- like it's search functionality, but don't like that it only allowed me to enter 6 credit card/airline programs.

I've been on the phone with them for the past couple of days. I try to "build" a trip with them. If I find a reward that goes from BKK-HND-DFW-ATL on the website, I call and get them to look up the flights individually. When they get to the DFW-ATL portion I ask them to scratch it and change it to DFW-HOU. Four different agents have not been able to do it so far, so maybe it's not possible. I'm not willing to throw that fourth leg in there yet as a separate award either. 

 

I finally saw availability from IAH-BKK this morning and hopped right back on the phone with them. The site wouldn't let me book it even though it was there for over 4 hours. When I was talking to the agent they couldn't see the flight combination or anything similar. Very frustrating like you guys have talked about on here. 

 

Looks like I may just end up paying full fare for business this year. It's not gonna be cheap but my other option is probably just staying home. 

 

Thanks for the updates. Looks like the miles game is pretty shitty for most of us at the moment. 

[Hotlanta]

Anyone familiar with Bask Bank? basically instead of a high interest savings account, it awards AAdvantage Airline Miles instead.  If I hold $15k in the account, I would get around 30,000 miles per year.  Not sure what a round trip from SFO to BKK costs as far as miles, but im assuming 120k-180k?   

Anyone tried this? 

[Luv2Phuket]

19 minutes ago, Hotlanta said:

Anyone familiar with Bask Bank? basically instead of a high interest savings account, it awards AAdvantage Airline Miles instead.  If I hold $15k in the account, I would get around 30,000 miles per year.  Not sure what a round trip from SFO to BKK costs as far as miles, but im assuming 120k-180k?   

Anyone tried this? 

Bloggers seem to like Bask.

I signed up for Bask a while back to get bonus miles, but ended up dropping it.  I can't recall much about it, but cash was a lot tighter for me then.  Because I previously had an account, I assume that I am ineligible to do it again now and get whatever the bonus is. 

Generally speaking, AA awards on partner carriers remain about 70k each way in business class; 110k each way in first.

[Hotlanta]

2 hours ago, Luv2Phuket said:

Bloggers seem to like Bask.

I signed up for Bask a while back to get bonus miles, but ended up dropping it.  I can't recall much about it, but cash was a lot tighter for me then.  Because I previously had an account, I assume that I am ineligible to do it again now and get whatever the bonus is. 

Generally speaking, AA awards on partner carriers remain about 70k each way in business class; 110k each way in first.

I dont knows if I am searching wrong but I just checked AA's award flights from SFO to BKK Business, one way and also round trip.. There is like 1 date available in the next 3 months.  Is it always this bad?  Economy seems to be available for 37k miles, but anything higher class is virtually empty?  I dont want to throw money into AAdvantage if i cant travel on my desired date.

[HimBadMan]

3 minutes ago, Hotlanta said:

I dont knows if I am searching wrong but I just checked AA's award flights from SFO to BKK Business, one way and also round trip.. There is like 1 date available in the next 3 months.  Is it always this bad?  Economy seems to be available for 37k miles, but anything higher class is virtually empty?  I dont want to throw money into AAdvantage if i cant travel on my desired date.

Yes.  This has been quite common for 2022 and now 2023..   airfares are still high and travel demand has not slowed down hence limited award availability. Also airlines fucking customers by devaluating miles during this time..     Maybe after summer high season we see a break ?   But very doubtful.    You may find one here and there but will need to search once or twice a day and have some luck.      

[travelling_man]

5 hours ago, Hotlanta said:

Anyone familiar with Bask Bank? basically instead of a high interest savings account, it awards AAdvantage Airline Miles instead.  

One of my friends is using Bask, and thinks this savings account is the best thing ever.  

I don't see the value personally ... 

Quote

Opening a Bask Bank Mileage Savings Account won't make sense for everyone. For one, you'll still owe tax on those miles the same way you would on every dollar paid out in interest. And while AAdvantage miles can be incredibly valuable, they're still much harder to use than the typical interest you'd earn in a standard savings account – especially when rising interest rates have driven those payouts even higher.

I'd rather take the high yield savings accounts (4.8%+) or the 30-day rolling CDs (5.10%+) .... to me, that is currently more valuable ... and that is saying something, as I am "TEAM MILEAGE/REWARDS".  

Edited May 29, 2023 by travelling_man

[travelling_man]

On 27/05/2023 at 21:31, travelling_man said:

Business class, round trip, Bangkok to Houston on United and Thai.

This reward ticket was 500,000 miles per person.  It is not the greatest route, but is acceptable.  It is an important trip, which is why I am willing to accept this and not lose my mind.

When I ran the cash price, it was $10,231USD ... even though there were plenty of other routes/connections at $5627USD round trip that were available (but weren't available as rewards!).

So ... my mileage was either worth $.02 each or $.01 each depending on which price you want to calculate with.

For those of you booking reward tickets, what is your mileage worth after your reservation is made?

[HimBadMan]

10 minutes ago, travelling_man said:

One of my friends is using Bask, and thinks this savings account is the best thing ever.  

I don't see the value personally ... 

I'd rather take the high yield savings accounts (4.8%+) or the 30-day rolling CDs (5.10%+) .... to me, that is currently more valuable ... and that is saying something, as I am "TEAM MILEAGE/REWARDS".  

Yeah it's mostly travel bloggers who are trying to sell bask and get an affiliated sale.

With miles getting devalued without notice and with the limited availability give me 5% on my cash any day 

[jmukh]

I also don't believe Bask counts toward AA status, or it might be worth parking some cash there for indefinite status.

Originally, my progression plan now that I'm back under 5/24 was to start picking up United and AA business cards next. Given the devaluations across the board, I'm focusing on earning miles to hold in transferable currencies (Chase, AA, Capital One) instead. I have some Alaska miles I need to spend down if Asia availability ever opens up, some in JetBlue that might be an option again if they resume Medellin flights eventually, and some in Avianca that might get spent down on Europe trips (assuming I remember to make an annual transfer to keep them alive). 

I'd previously done a few checking / savings account signup bonuses for cash instead of looking at interest rates, but now that they've risen fairly significantly, I may also park some cash for a % return instead of points. I'd still want to make sure I'm replenishing points at least fast enough to cover one business class trip per year.

[bgtp]

1 hour ago, HimBadMan said:

Yeah it's mostly travel bloggers who are trying to sell bask and get an affiliated sale.

With miles getting devalued without notice and with the limited availability give me 5% on my cash any day 

Agree. I even put the majority of my spend on no annual fee cash back cards as any points I would earn are worth less than the cash back, barring any bonus incentives. I typically like to have a trip booked plus enough miles for my next one. Any more than that and those miles would simply be ‘dead money’ since I could have had cash rather than miles that are becoming increasingly more difficult to use. I know we’re all hopeful limited availability is a temporary post-Covid issue, but who knows. The devaluations seem never ending, too.

Kind of depressing to think about. Think I’ll go hit a massage joint here in Bangkok to cheer myself up.

[Hotlanta]

I usually take Eva Air out of San Francisco, but this time I might try Japan Airlines.  They have a bidding system to go from Economy/Prem Economy to Business Class.  I dont know how available that bidding system is for my route, however.  But if I am paying cash for Business, this may be the best way?  Better than shelling out $5600.

Edited May 29, 2023 by Hotlanta