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

[Njaya]

I'm a former road warrior, but my current job doesn't require or pay for any travel. So I don't have much opportunity to build up mileage in a Airline program.

I do take one trip a year to Thailand ex Boston, and last year used Air France Premium Economy which was nice @ $21,00 RT. It was nearly as good as Business Class travel 10 - 20 years ago, and spoiled me enough that I don't want to fly economy any more.

Any ideas on how to get a good fare in Business for an upcoming trip? We always buy 2 seats, and our schedule is super flexible, flying at off peak times is not a problem.

[Little Evil]

9 minutes ago, Njaya said:

I'm a former road warrior, but my current job doesn't require or pay for any travel. So I don't have much opportunity to build up mileage in a Airline program.

I do take one trip a year to Thailand ex Boston, and last year used Air France Premium Economy which was nice @ $21,00 RT. It was nearly as good as Business Class travel 10 - 20 years ago, and spoiled me enough that I don't want to fly economy any more.

Any ideas on how to get a good fare in Business for an upcoming trip? We always buy 2 seats, and our schedule is super flexible, flying at off peak times is not a problem.

If leaving from BOS, then CX is one of the better routes in my opinion.  Leaves at 1:45am to HKG and then a quick 2.5 hours to BKK. I love leaving at that time because you burn useless hours on the flight and land in BKK mid day.  Really helps maximize time on the ground if you don't have the luxury of a long trip. Only problem is that they are often one of the more expensive carriers to BKK if paying cash. $6-8k RT business is common. However...given the intent of this thread, there are other options. For instance:

Sign up for Citi AA plat for 50k AA miles. Use card to buy max AA miles during current promotion for 150k miles plus 85k miles bonus, plus clearing the spend requiring. That is a hefty $4,319.19 after taxes and fees, but I'm assuming you're looking for 2 RT tickets.  So once the credit card bonus drops, you'll have 50k, 150k, 85k, and 2x points for the purchase on the Citi AA for another 8,600 miles. 293,000 miles, if I'm doing my math right. That would be enough for 2 RT business class tickets BOS-BKK (140k each). You'd also get a 10k rebate on the award booking with the card. That works out to about $2,160. per seat. 

The disclaimer, as always, is that the above method only guarantees netting the amount for the award. One still has to find availability and worry about potential future devaluations, so it is always a pinch of a gamble. 

[Njaya]

8 minutes ago, Little Evil said:

If leaving from BOS, then CX is one of the better routes in my opinion.  Leaves at 1:45am to HKG and then a quick 2.5 hours to BKK. I love leaving at that time because you burn useless hours on the flight and land in BKK mid day.  Really helps maximize time on the ground if you don't have the luxury of a long trip. Only problem is that they are often one of the more expensive carriers to BKK if paying cash. $6-8k RT business is common. However...given the intent of this thread, there are other options. For instance:

Sign up for Citi AA plat for 50k AA miles. Use card to buy max AA miles during current promotion for 150k miles plus 85k miles bonus, plus clearing the spend requiring. That is a hefty $4,319.19 after taxes and fees, but I'm assuming you're looking for 2 RT tickets.  So once the credit card bonus drops, you'll have 50k, 150k, 85k, and 2x points for the purchase on the Citi AA for another 8,600 miles. 293,000 miles, if I'm doing my math right. That would be enough for 2 RT business class tickets BOS-BKK (140k each). You'd also get a 10k rebate on the award booking with the card. That works out to about $2,160. per seat. 

The disclaimer, as always, is that the above method only guarantees netting the amount for the award. One still has to find availability and worry about potential future devaluations, so it is always a pinch of a gamble. 

Wow! That sounds like a great way to do it. Can AA miles be used on Japan Airlines for travel? How does AA get you to BKK from BOS?

[Luv2Phuket]

3 minutes ago, Njaya said:

Wow! That sounds like a great way to do it. Can AA miles be used on Japan Airlines for travel? How does AA get you to BKK from BOS?

JAL is a member oneworld, so you can book it with American miles.

JAL is also a partner of Alaska

FWIW, I have flown Cathay Premium Economy.  While it paled in comparison to their business class service (which itself has lost a lot of its luster recently), it was exponentially better than Economy, IMHO

[Little Evil]

11 minutes ago, Njaya said:

Wow! That sounds like a great way to do it. Can AA miles be used on Japan Airlines for travel? How does AA get you to BKK from BOS?

Should have specified that you could use with CX, JL, or AA for that method. I would personally go CX out and either CX or JL on the way back. Both offer 1 stop trips to/from BOS/BKK.

[skink]

For BOS-BKK you could also consider getting both the personal and business AA cards from Citi and Barclays, and maybe personal and business Alaska Air cards from Bank of America. That would give you a nice stash to use on CX/JL.

One thing to consider if you don't actively get a lot of credit cards is that some banks have started to clamp down lately. For example, Chase won't issue a lot of their cards if you've gotten more than 5 new cards in the past 2 years. So before the OW cards you could get Chase personal and biz United cards. And Chase Ink biz/Sapphire personal for Ultimate Rewards points that could transfer to United (for Star Alliance options out of BOS) or transfer to Singapore or Air France/KLM.

[joeaf]

14 hours ago, Njaya said:

Wow! That sounds like a great way to do it. Can AA miles be used on Japan Airlines for travel? How does AA get you to BKK from BOS?

Using the AA MileSAAver option, it will take 70k AA miles to fly biz class (1-way) from BOS-BKK (Asia Region 2) w/1stop on either JL or CX.  On JL, you depart around 12 noon flying BOS-NRT-BKK and arrive around midnight.  On CX you depart after 1AM flying BOS-HKG-BKK and arrive around 12 noon.  CX uses 777W aircraft and offers First class from BOS (110k AA miles 1-way), but JL uses 789 aircraft and only has biz class from BOS.

Edited August 16, 2018 by joeaf

[Little Evil]

27 minutes ago, joeaf said:

Using the AA MileSAAver option, it will take 70k AA miles to fly biz class (1-way) from BOS-BKK (Asia Region 2) w/1stop on either JL or CX.  On JL, you depart around 12 noon flying BOS-NRT-BKK and arrive around midnight.  On CX you depart after 1AM flying BOS-HKG-BKK and arrive around 12 noon.  CX uses 777W aircraft and offers First class from BOS (110k AA miles 1-way), but JL uses 789 aircraft and only has biz class from BOS.

There are also flight length considerations. CX would be roughly 15hrs, then 2.5 hrs.  JL is like 12 hrs, then 5.5 hrs. Personally, I prefer CX's time table. I don't know why, but I find this 5.5 hour flight to be brutal. Maybe because I know I shouldn't sleep on it because you don't want to wake up at midnight at your destination, so you're just stuck awake for over 5 hours. By that point, you've watch everything worth watching on the IFE and are starting to run out of things to keep yourself amused. 

[skink]

https://loyaltylobby.com/2018/08/16/airfare-of-the-day-china-southern-airlines-business-class-san-francisco-ca-sfo-usa-to-bangkok-bkk-thailand-from-2380-round-trip/

Technically over $2k but it's possible the value of the miles accrued could make it seem like $2k to some. 

[Luv2Phuket]

51 minutes ago, skink said:

https://loyaltylobby.com/2018/08/16/airfare-of-the-day-china-southern-airlines-business-class-san-francisco-ca-sfo-usa-to-bangkok-bkk-thailand-from-2380-round-trip/

Technically over $2k but it's possible the value of the miles accrued could make it seem like $2k to some. 

That is a really great deal!

I have flown China Southern's A380 from LAX-BKK (and once into China), and their business class was fine, IMHO - not at the level of some other airlines, but certainly not bad.  I'm not sure if the SFO route is on an A380.

FWIW, here's a review: https://thefittraveller.com/china-southern-business-class-review/

Tying this back to the posts above, when I flew China Southern, I credited the miles to Korean, but I think you can credit them to Delta, too (but no bump in % for business class with either Korean or Delta)

[Little Evil]

I'd take that China Southern deal all day long if I were West Coast. 

[Njaya]

1 hour ago, Luv2Phuket said:

 I'm not sure if the SFO route is on an A380.

 

Per the link it's a 787, and as it's SFO to Wuhan, I doubt they'd have the traffic to fill an A380

[Njaya]

21 minutes ago, Little Evil said:

I'd take that China Southern deal all day long if I were West Coast. 

I've seen similar deals with Air China ex JFK, when they are doing a sale. I've been tempted but getting to JFK is a bit of a hassle so never tried it.

Edited August 16, 2018 by Njaya

[tenpro]

20 minutes ago, Njaya said:

I've seen similar deals with Air China ex JFK, when they are doing a sale. I've been tempted but getting to JFK is a bit of a hassle so never tried it.

I believe you can get JFK-PEK-BKK fares on Air China J for ~$2.5k round trip right now

[skink]

6 hours ago, Luv2Phuket said:

....Tying this back to the posts above, when I flew China Southern, I credited the miles to Korean, but I think you can credit them to Delta, too (but no bump in % for business class with either Korean or Delta)

Delta, Korean, and most of the Sky Team would earn 15,846 miles. The only non Chinese airline to earn a higher rate would be Aeromexico at 25,504.

[skink]

I was busy packing and missed this one:  https://www.secretflying.com/posts/error-fare-business-class-from-los-angeles-to-shanghai-china-for-only-568-roundtrip-lie-flat-seats/ 

No telling if they will actually honor it for those who were able to book.

[wdogg]

I booked one of those tickets this morning.  I thought of this thread but can't exactly log in from work.  I was so distracted at work I didn't even think to book 2 or 3 of these tickets.  

I'll probably end up cancelling my CX J ticket that I booked on miles and getting the AA mileage back for a $150 cancellation fee that may or may not be covered under Sapphire Reserve.  I'll find out pretty soon since my trip is early September. 

 

[skink]

I woke up to great news that Amex might be adding Korean Air as a MR transfer partner. 

[skink]

https://loyaltylobby.com/2018/08/17/airfare-of-the-day-malaysia-airlines-business-class-bangkok-bkk-thailand-to-tokyo-nrt-japan-from-829-round-trip/

I've looked in the past at a couple award redemptions that don't go beyond Japan or only a good deal for redemptions from North America to Japan. I figured I'd use other miles for Japan to Thailand but this might be a good option, and I could credit the miles earned to top off a dormant account without burning Starpoints. 

[skink]

On 8/17/2018 at 11:50, wdogg said:

I booked one of those tickets this morning.  I thought of this thread but can't exactly log in from work.  I was so distracted at work I didn't even think to book 2 or 3 of these tickets.  

I'll probably end up cancelling my CX J ticket that I booked on miles and getting the AA mileage back for a $150 cancellation fee that may or may not be covered under Sapphire Reserve.  I'll find out pretty soon since my trip is early September. 

 

It looks like Hong Kong Airlines is ticketing those. You got an awesome deal. 

[wdogg]

I'm still kicking myself for not buying a second ticket!!  Human nature I guess. 

[Luv2Phuket]

On 8/17/2018 at 03:21, skink said:

I woke up to great news that Amex might be adding Korean Air as a MR transfer partner. 

It appears that AMEX has denied this rumor, as noted in this (interesting) blog post about how many miles to transfer to KE before the 8/24 deadline:

https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2018/08/18/how-many-points-should-you-transfer-to-korean-before-chase-loses-them-as-a-partner-next-week/

I have used my SkyPass credit card to nudge my Korean account to just over 26,000 miles (when the ":credit card miles" post next month).

My current debate is whether to move 69,000 UR to bring me to the 95,000 required for Korean first (off peak) OR to move some lower amount, factoring in my ability to get 1:1 on Skypass CC spend and the potential to transfer points from Marriott (which effectively remains the same as before - 60,000 Marriott points nets 15,000 point bonus on 3:1 transfer, so 60,000 = 25,000 miles)

I WAS leaning towards transferring 44,000 UR and then using Marriott to get me to the 95,000, but I'm now thinking that the Marriott/former SPG points are MOIRE valuable to me, because I have MORE transfer partners for them (given that the transfer of programs is in process, I cannot access my Marriott or SPG accounts today).  Now thinking "69,000 it is!"

Any of you working through this issue right now?  If so, where/how did you come out?

[Little Evil]

15 hours ago, Luv2Phuket said:

It appears that AMEX has denied this rumor, as noted in this (interesting) blog post about how many miles to transfer to KE before the 8/24 deadline:

https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2018/08/18/how-many-points-should-you-transfer-to-korean-before-chase-loses-them-as-a-partner-next-week/

I have used my SkyPass credit card to nudge my Korean account to just over 26,000 miles (when the ":credit card miles" post next month).

My current debate is whether to move 69,000 UR to bring me to the 95,000 required for Korean first (off peak) OR to move some lower amount, factoring in my ability to get 1:1 on Skypass CC spend and the potential to transfer points from Marriott (which effectively remains the same as before - 60,000 Marriott points nets 15,000 point bonus on 3:1 transfer, so 60,000 = 25,000 miles)

I WAS leaning towards transferring 44,000 UR and then using Marriott to get me to the 95,000, but I'm now thinking that the Marriott/former SPG points are MOIRE valuable to me, because I have MORE transfer partners for them (given that the transfer of programs is in process, I cannot access my Marriott or SPG accounts today).  Now thinking "69,000 it is!"

Any of you working through this issue right now?  If so, where/how did you come out?

Could it be argued that you could get more value from redeeming Marriott points for hotel stays though? I'm a completely novice on hotel points, but from my brief research, the transfers don't seem like a great return unless you are just trying to top off.  But I suppose that's all relative to how fast you can stack them up, so each person will be different on that end. 

I think Delta and Alaska Air flights can be credited to Korean, so there's that too if you happen to be taking any paid flights soon on those carriers. 

[Luv2Phuket]

United's online shopping portal is offering 50 miles per dollar spent at magazines.com today

I already get too damn many magazines, but this looks to me like a way to get United miles for 2 cents each (actually a little cheaper if use a miles-earning card for the purchase) with the magazine effectively tossed in for free

I am going to snoop around and see if they have anything that interests me....

[Little Evil]

Alaska Air targeted mystery miles sale. One of the gambling ones where you can get anywhere from 30-50% bonus miles. I drew 50% bonus. Just bought some AA miles, so not sure if I'll buy this, but not bad. 

That would be $1,100 for 40k + 20k bonus, good for one way J USA to BKK, or $1,265 for 70,500 miles for one way F if you get the 50% bonus.

 

Edited August 20, 2018 by Little Evil