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

[Luv2Phuket]

On 6/27/2018 at 17:35, wash747 said:

Just a heads up for using miles on Cathay. It seems that Cathay award space dried up big time (hopefully it’s temporary). It’ll be sucks if Cathay decide to be stingy with seat since Cathay is one of easiest method for american mongers to get to BKK from several major US cities

 

On 6/27/2018 at 19:41, Luv2Phuket said:

Looks like you're right -- I went the full 331 days out, and NOTHING shows up on BA's website for Cathay availability.

There is JAL availability, but not Cathay.  

Of course, that COULD be a BA website issue and not a Cathay issue.  I didn't check the KVS tool.

It wasn't just us -- this blog post from earlier today recognizes the recent issues, but says that Cathay awards are back to normal:

https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2018/07/18/cathay-pacific-business-class-awards-back/

 

[Short]

 

Air Asia is taking advantage of the lack of space on CA and raised their one way rate  to $200.

[Luv2Phuket]

1 hour ago, Short said:

 

Air Asia is taking advantage of the lack of space on CA and raised their one way rate  to $200.

Don't know the date of your travel, but I ran a search on a random date in August and saw that Hong Kong Airlines shows a 4:40 a.m. and a 3:35 a.m. departures from BKK to HKG (both listed at $193 USD).  

Keep in mind that Thai Air Asia leaves from DMK, not BKK, so you're also looking at a longer, more expensive taxi ride.

On the random date that I picked, Emirates surprisingly was the cheapest from BKK-HKG ($180) -- Thai Air Asia had 2 flights that were cheaper, but both left from DMK.

[Biennial]

19 minutes ago, Luv2Phuket said:

 

Keep in mind that Thai Air Asia leaves from DMK, not BKK, so you're also looking at a longer, more expensive taxi ride.

 

I found that taxis to/from DMK are cheaper than BKK, maybe because many Thais use that airport?

[Luv2Phuket]

13 hours ago, Biennial said:

I found that taxis to/from DMK are cheaper than BKK, maybe because many Thais use that airport?

I should have clarified that it is more expensive to go to DMK from Pattaya.  In my experience, the "taxi services" charge 400+ baht more for that run because of the extra distance and extra tolls.

[Luv2Phuket]

On 7/16/2018 at 13:58, Luv2Phuket said:

You snooze, you lose!

Found out over the weekend that there is very little to no chance that I will have business in Seoul, but all of the Saver Awards are now long gone.  I was able to waitlist a BKK-SIN-LAX itinerary.

Still ticketed on my BKK-SIN-ICN-LAX itinerary, which is very acceptable to me (first flight doesn't leave BKK until 20:15, so I can have a nice day before heading to the airport)

 

Lo and behold I got confirmation this morning that BKK-SIN-LAX has opened up! 

On hold with SQ reservations now to change over to it.

I don't really like the one and half hour layover (prefer 2 hours, as I wanted to check out Changi airport) OR leaving BKK 5 hours earlier than originally planned, but I will now get back to LA on Monday at 8 p.m. instead of Tuesday at 6 a.m., which gives me a much better shot at being somewhat productive on Tuesday.

EDIT:

Done!  Flight leaves BKK at around 3:45 p.m.; arrives LAX at around 8 p.m. that evening.  This could be a great option for me going forward, especially since SQ is a transfer partner for Chase UR, Citi TY and AMEX MR.

Anybody know how far out "Book the Cook" opens up?

Not available yet, but I'm still over 4 months out.  I'm going to put a reminder on my calendar for about 30 days before my flight (although I could always just do it when I check in for my LAX-HKG-BKK leg on CX).

 

[skink]

6 hours ago, Luv2Phuket said:

Anybody know how far out "Book the Cook" opens up?

Not available yet, but I'm still over 4 months out.  I'm going to put a reminder on my calendar for about 30 days before my flight (although I could always just do it when I check in for my LAX-HKG-BKK leg on CX).

 

I'm thinking 30 days out it should be loaded. I think the cutoff time is 24 hours before the flight. Lobster Thermidor and Wagyu beef were both really good last time I flew them.

[skink]

Lots of business class award seats available on Cathay Pacific's new SEA-BKK route starting March 31, 2019.

[bouncewithme]

I've been keeping a daily eye on rewards availability on Cathay (via Qantas and BA sites), AA, and everything offered through Alaska partners to try and get home from BKK in November. No luck so far in over a month of looking. United/Star Alliance seems to have the most availability for just about any date you want. So I'll probably be looking to book a 90k "saver" on there via Eva or most likely Asiana. The lack of availability on Cathay sucks, even things a week out have nothing showing whereas less than a year ago there was almost always something that showed.

Edited July 23, 2018 by bouncewithme

[Capt Hook]

vancouver yvr to bangkok bkk?

any info re biz class ...is Cathay the best?

[Luv2Phuket]

7 hours ago, bouncewithme said:

I've been keeping a daily eye on rewards availability on Cathay (via Qantas and BA sites), AA, and everything offered through Alaska partners to try and get home from BKK in November. No luck so far in over a month of looking. United/Star Alliance seems to have the most availability for just about any date you want. So I'll probably be looking to book a 90k "saver" on there via Eva or most likely Asiana. The lack of availability on Cathay sucks, even things a week out have nothing showing whereas less than a year ago there was almost always something that showed.

Be careful - a lot of the Star Alliance availability is on Air China (Beijing-based carrier). 

EVA is great (1-2-1 reverse herringbone), and Asiana is good, too (although I haven't flown them in a while).  I would take an 8-hour layover in Seoul or Taipei before I would risk flying Air China.

Just had a friend fly Air China and was bitching on social media about how terrible his experience was.

With the new non-stop SIN-LAX opening up, you may be able to land something on Singapore, assumign you ahve a way to transfer points/miles to them.  
 

7 hours ago, Capt Hook said:

vancouver yvr to bangkok bkk?

any info re biz class ...is Cathay the best?

If you can't find availability in YVR-HKG-BKK, check Seattle using Cathay's new route, assuming it is available when you want to travel.  Rumor has it, award availability should be wide open.

[ProntoP]

Don't think I have time to make use of this for my trip this time around but maybe for my 2nd trip! Also trying to get a good deal/route from YVR to BKK atm for Sept.

Not too sure how the baggage works with these offers using multiple airlines. Will probably have to ask on PA in case anyone knows

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Luv2Phuket]

12 minutes ago, ProntoP said:

Don't think I have time to make use of this for my trip this time around but maybe for my 2nd trip! Also trying to get a good deal/route from YVR to BKK atm for Sept.

Not too sure how the baggage works with these offers using multiple airlines. Will probably have to ask on PA in case anyone knows

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 

If it is all booked on one itinerary, they will check the bag all of the way through, even if it is different airlines.

Even with different itineraries, you may be able to link the reservations and have the bag checked all of the way through if the airlines are on the same alliance. 

Example: on my last trip, I was going to Korea on business.  I booked RT LAX-ICN on Singapore; then booked separate trip/itinerary on Thai RT ICN-BKK (to sneak away for a week).  On the way back, I had about 4 hours in between when my Thai flight landed in Seoul and when my Singapore flight to LAX took off.  Because Thai and Singapore are both Star Alliance, the Thai ticket counter at BKK was able to check my bags all of the way through to LAX, and they were transferred to the Singapore plane in ICN.

[ProntoP]

If it is all booked on one itinerary, they will check the bag all of the way through, even if it is different airlines.
Even with different itineraries, you may be able to link the reservations and have the bag checked all of the way through if the airlines are on the same alliance. 
Example: on my last trip, I was going to Korea on business.  I booked RT LAX-ICN on Singapore; then booked separate trip/itinerary on Thai RT ICN-BKK (to sneak away for a week).  On the way back, I had about 4 hours in between when my Thai flight landed in Seoul and when my Singapore flight to LAX took off.  Because Thai and Singapore are both Star Alliance, the Thai ticket counter at BKK was able to check my bags all of the way through to LAX, and they were transferred to the Singapore plane in ICN.

Thanks for the input! What happens if one leg of the journey has a different airline which isn't part of an alliance?

I've tried changing the dates a bit, but apparently there aren't many other airlines for that portion of the trip.

Basically~ it goes YVR - ICN (layover) - BKK.
In this case Air Canada and Asiana is in the same alliance so it seems fine, but on the return trip...

BKK - TPE (layover) - YVR
China Airlines then Air Canada to YVR. It doesn't seem like China Airlines is part of the star alliance, so I was trying to figure out the exact details since it would suck to pay a hefty amount for lugagge, since the limit would be 1 checked bag or something like that to TPE.

If you would know how that works, please lmk! Been trying to find an answer before finalizing my flight plans.

The other option is to just take China Airlines or China Eastern the entire trip (4 flights) and it's very cheap like (600 CAD total). However, I'm not sure how good they are in terms of service and seat comfort for the long haul since people usually only leave reviews for airlines if they had a negative experience~ hard to get an accurate representation.

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[Luv2Phuket]

I think it depends upon how you book it.

If you are booking the entire itinerary via Air Canada's website, then I would think that your bags are checked all the way through (as it is a single itinerary). 

Looking at Air Canada's website, China Air is a non-Star Alliance Codeshare partner: 
https://www.aircanada.com/us/en/aco/home/book/routes-and-partners/star-alliance-and-other-airline-partners.html

That said, it would be advisable to call Air Canada, walk through the itinerary with the phone rep and see if that is the case.

In another thread (I think), a BM had booked RT from Chicago to BKK.  He then booked an entirely unrelated, separate ticket to/from Chicago from his home airport.  In that scenario, I would think that the bags would need to be claimed and re-checked.

It is what I expected I would have to do with my unrelated Thai and Singapore bookings, but I got a great Thai desk agent at check-in at BKK who was able to take care of me.

 

[Luv2Phuket]

Another blog post today on Singapore's new non-stop service to Newark (start in October) and LAX (start in November):

https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2018/07/26/worlds-longest-flight-award-tickets/

He claims award seats are available on the SIN-LAX routes.  It wasn't immediately open when I wanted to book it, but it did free up with a day or two and my waitlist cleared.

The SIN-EWR flight may be of interest to some in the NYC area as a one-stop option into BKK using KrisFlyer miles (since they are a transfer partner for just about EVERYONE!  555).  BRUTALLY long (about 18 hours; 9,500 miles), but there's a bit of novelty to claiming to have flown on the World's longest route. 

I flew the old Thai LAX-BKK non-stop that was about 17 1/2 hours.  Honestly, if they ever started that route up again, I would jump on it.  17 1/2 hours is a long time, but, at least to me, it's better than 14-15 hours, a 2 hour layover and then another 2 1/2 hour flight.

 

[bouncewithme]

On 7/24/2018 at 00:05, ProntoP said:

Thanks for the input! What happens if one leg of the journey has a different airline which isn't part of an alliance?

I've tried changing the dates a bit, but apparently there aren't many other airlines for that portion of the trip.

Basically~ it goes YVR - ICN (layover) - BKK.
In this case Air Canada and Asiana is in the same alliance so it seems fine, but on the return trip...

BKK - TPE (layover) - YVR
China Airlines then Air Canada to YVR. It doesn't seem like China Airlines is part of the star alliance, so I was trying to figure out the exact details since it would suck to pay a hefty amount for lugagge, since the limit would be 1 checked bag or something like that to TPE.

If you would know how that works, please lmk! Been trying to find an answer before finalizing my flight plans.

The other option is to just take China Airlines or China Eastern the entire trip (4 flights) and it's very cheap like (600 CAD total). However, I'm not sure how good they are in terms of service and seat comfort for the long haul since people usually only leave reviews for airlines if they had a negative experience~ hard to get an accurate representation.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 

China Eastern business class is great. Soft and hard product. Only thing i didn’t like with them is connecting in mainland China. Outside of that it was top notch, better than Singapore, ANA, Asiana, Cathay, Delta, and AA I thought. 

[oschkosch]

Maybe interesting for those based ex EU:

Air China (CA) has another weekend special today-sunday. Just booked FRA-PEK-BKK and back with 2 hour stopovers in PEK each way at a total price of 1303 Euro in business class. Flight dates are 16.12 departure in FRA and back on 06.01. Therefore an extremely good price for high/peak season!

 

Booking Class is R, so it's 125% for miles and more accrual.

 

The special is also possible departing Dusseldorf and Munich, but I didn't find anything ex Dusseldorf and Munich is too far away from where I am based.

 

Gesendet von meinem SM-G950F mit Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

[wash747]

19 hours ago, Luv2Phuket said:

Another blog post today on Singapore's new non-stop service to Newark (start in October) and LAX (start in November):

https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2018/07/26/worlds-longest-flight-award-tickets/

He claims award seats are available on the SIN-LAX routes.  It wasn't immediately open when I wanted to book it, but it did free up with a day or two and my waitlist cleared.

The SIN-EWR flight may be of interest to some in the NYC area as a one-stop option into BKK using KrisFlyer miles (since they are a transfer partner for just about EVERYONE!  555).  BRUTALLY long (about 18 hours; 9,500 miles), but there's a bit of novelty to claiming to have flown on the World's longest route. 

I flew the old Thai LAX-BKK non-stop that was about 17 1/2 hours.  Honestly, if they ever started that route up again, I would jump on it.  17 1/2 hours is a long time, but, at least to me, it's better than 14-15 hours, a 2 hour layover and then another 2 1/2 hour flight.

 

I grabbed a seat for SIN-EWR next year, and I figure it's better to redeem points on BKK-SIN-EWR than EWR-SIN-BKK because I am able to catch SQ 15:30 PM flight at swampy then nice 3-4 hour chill at SQ lounge before catching world's longest flight to Newark then start my day due to 6 AM arrival.

It's better than EWR-SIN-BKK because you will arrive BKK after 9 PM or so.  I hope SQ will give free or cheap wifi plan, or i'll downlaod like 10 movies for whole flight 555

[Short]

On 7/26/2018 at 14:31, Luv2Phuket said:

Another blog post today on Singapore's new non-stop service to Newark (start in October) and LAX (start in November):

https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2018/07/26/worlds-longest-flight-award-tickets/

He claims award seats are available on the SIN-LAX routes.  It wasn't immediately open when I wanted to book it, but it did free up with a day or two and my waitlist cleared.

The SIN-EWR flight may be of interest to some in the NYC area as a one-stop option into BKK using KrisFlyer miles (since they are a transfer partner for just about EVERYONE!  555).  BRUTALLY long (about 18 hours; 9,500 miles), but there's a bit of novelty to claiming to have flown on the World's longest route. 

I flew the old Thai LAX-BKK non-stop that was about 17 1/2 hours.  Honestly, if they ever started that route up again, I would jump on it.  17 1/2 hours is a long time, but, at least to me, it's better than 14-15 hours, a 2 hour layover and then another 2 1/2 hour flight.

 

Did the LAX-BKK flight.   It was 19.5 hours after you add the two hours we sat at LAX after boarding for them to fix an engine problem.   Was in premium economy and since my mind was already made up to ignore the time, the delay didn't bother me.

[Short]

So I discovered that the price of business on HK Air  is the same as coach on Cathay between BKK and HK.

 

Question, does HK Air give business passengers priority through immigration both departing and arriving?

Edited July 28, 2018 by Short

[Luv2Phuket]

2 hours ago, Short said:

So I discovered that the price of business on HK Air  is the same as coach on Cathay between BKK and HK.

 

Question, does HK Air give business passengers priority through immigration both departing and arriving?

I don't see any reason why they would not - they're an International carrier (not just around Asia -- they fly HKG-LAX) with business class service.

Here's a review from last year of the lounge in HKG and business class service on a flight from HKG-BKK:
https://thepointsguy.com/2017/08/hong-kong-airlines-flight-review/

Looks fine to me - IIRC, Cathay is often 2-2-2 in business on that route.  I just always try to get in the center section - even non a 2 1/2 hour flight, I don't want somebody to need to crawl over me.

[Luv2Phuket]

Time consuming -- and at times, frustrating -- process, but I get a GREAT feeling when I lock in my room reservations for an upcoming Pattaya trip!

It has taken me a couple of hours to map all of this out (mainly due to a couple of my own screw-ups!), but here is a summary of my 2 upcoming trips:

November - first night at Grand Hyatt Erawan Plaza on free night certificate from Chase cc); 4 paid nights at InterContinental (4th night refunded via Citi Prestige card); 4 more nights at Intercontinental on points, but the 4th night of points should be refunded under new IHG credit card that I just received PLUS I should be able to stack that with a 10% rebate from my OTHER IHG card - that should take it from 140,000 IHG points to only 94,500 IHG points.

So I end up with 3 fully paid nights; 2 free nights; and 4 nights at 23,625 IHG points each

February - first 2 nights at InterContinental in Bangkok using Ambassador free weekend night certificate (pay for 1st night; get 2nd night free); 5 nights on points at Hilton Pattaya (5th night free); 1 night at Hilton on a free weekend night certificate from AMEX; 2 paid nights at Hilton (BUT AMEX credit card nets me a $250 credit, which -- even at the absurd rates in February -- equates to a free night + some)

So for that trip, I end up with only 2 paid nights; 3 free nights; and 5 nights at 40,000 HiltonHonors points each

 

[skink]

12 minutes ago, Luv2Phuket said:

....4 more nights at Intercontinental on points, but the 4th night of points should be refunded under new IHG credit card....

I think the 4th night free should show when you are booking. For example, if they say 120k points for 3 nights at that IC and you change it to 4 nights it should still say 120k.

 

[Luv2Phuket]

41 minutes ago, skink said:

I think the 4th night free should show when you are booking. For example, if they say 120k points for 3 nights at that IC and you change it to 4 nights it should still say 120k.

 

You're right!  I assumed it was a rebate-type of thing, but the terms/conditions says:
For each standard room Reward Night stay of 4 or more nights, every 4th night is free. Applies only to 4 or more consecutive nights within the same Reward Night point redemption room stay at the same property. With this benefit, eligible members will be charged the Reward Night point redemption rate for the first 3 nights, and 0 points for the 4th night of the stay, as applicable. 

Thanks!  I gotta call IHG to fix this!  It may be that the card isn't showing in my account yet (I just got it in the mail yesterday).  At .5 cents each, the 35,000 points works out to $175 -- well worth a call!