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

[Luv2Phuket]

This doesn't help anyone in the USA (unless you take advantage of it for a connection), but Thai is running a promotion heavily discounting award travel to a variety of cities:

https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/50-off-thai-award-tickets-for-select-markets-all-classes/

[Little Evil]

7 minutes ago, Luv2Phuket said:

This doesn't help anyone in the USA (unless you take advantage of it for a connection), but Thai is running a promotion heavily discounting award travel to a variety of cities:

https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/50-off-thai-award-tickets-for-select-markets-all-classes/

This could be interesting, as direct flights from Beijing appear to be cheaper than direct from Hong Kong--something I often overlook. 

[Luv2Phuket]

Just made a foolish -- but thankfully small -- move for an upcoming trip....

AMEX MR offering 20% bonus on transfers to Hilton, which generally is a shitty move.  Under current offer, 1,000 MR gets you 2,400 HHonors.

Thanks to those bastards bumping the required points for 5 nights in Pattaya from 200k to 240k, I find myself about 12k short of 5 free nights.

I only moved 4,000 MR, so it's not like I went overboard.  The 9,600 HHonors points puts me close to the 240k, and spend that I already have put on my Hilton AMEX will get me even closer.

My main motivation was that I can now shelve my Hilton AMEX card and start spending $$$ on some of the damn Visa gift cards I have accumulated!  5555

[Little Evil]

On 11/08/2019 at 00:02, Luv2Phuket said:

Just made a foolish -- but thankfully small -- move for an upcoming trip....

AMEX MR offering 20% bonus on transfers to Hilton, which generally is a shitty move.  Under current offer, 1,000 MR gets you 2,400 HHonors.

Thanks to those bastards bumping the required points for 5 nights in Pattaya from 200k to 240k, I find myself about 12k short of 5 free nights.

I only moved 4,000 MR, so it's not like I went overboard.  The 9,600 HHonors points puts me close to the 240k, and spend that I already have put on my Hilton AMEX will get me even closer.

My main motivation was that I can now shelve my Hilton AMEX card and start spending $$$ on some of the damn Visa gift cards I have accumulated!  5555

I still haven't gotten into the hotel card game yet, but I barely stay at name brand hotels, so I don't know if that would even make sense for me. Seems like when I'm in SE Asia, Japan, China, or anywhere South America, I'm always staying at some local place.  Maybe I need to rethink this strategy, as I'm sure Hilton Patts would be nice. 

The news about HKG is getting me nervous, as that's one of my typical hubs on the way over and back. This next trip is through HND over, but I was trying to get HKG back. Starting to rethink that as well.  Maybe this doesn't affect transfers, only arrivals and departures that process through front door security and immigration. 

[Luv2Phuket]

My understanding is that ALL flights in and out of HKG were cancelled from last evening through this morning.

The situation there may come to a head soon.

My next trip goes through SIN coming in and Tokyo coming back, but my Feb trip comes back through HKG - Cathay first, so I hope this dies down long before then!


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[bgtp]

Well, I’m flying into Hong Kong in a couple of weeks. Then flying out the following week. Gonna be interesting.

[Luv2Phuket]

On 03/08/2019 at 13:14, skink said:

At first I wasn't going to use the Amex Amazon offer as I usually buy Amazon cards from Staples for 5X UR points with a Chase Ink card. However, that method loses out on any extended warranty benefits provided by some credit cards. 

Thanks to a fatal PC crash, I combined the two today!  5555

My PC has been on the edge of crashing for a while and finally appears to have died (despite the past issues, I blame the damn Windows update, as it started flying downhill as soon as I did that!)

I checked to see where i was on the AMEX MR 3 points offer (which is capped at 1500 bonus points or $750 spend), then I went to Office Depot and bought Amazon GCs with my Ink cards to cover the bulk of the rest of the purchase.  No telling how this impacts me on warranty protection, but it should net me a nice chunk of MRs (capped at the 1500 already) and 1,375 URs.

A shitty and expensive day, but at least I got some miles/points out of it....

 

[Luv2Phuket]

Speaking of Amazon, Chase has put new fees in place on the checking account that I use to get funds easily to/from my Mom.

I don't use the account for much beyond that, so keeping a $5,000 minimum balance didn't make much sense, BUT the $6 monthly fee is waived with 5 debit card transactions per statement cycle.

Last night, I came up with a foolproof plan to easily get my 5 transactions -- I would go onto Amazon and reload my gift card account $1 each, five separate times, using my debit card.

Well.....meet "the fool"!  55555

I am using my new laptop (not to be confused with my new desktop, which is on its way), and it auto-logged me into the Amazon "business" account that I never use, as opposed to my personal account. 

Crap!  NOW I gotta remember to go back and use that account to cash out the damn $5 on something.....sigh....

[bgtp]

5 hours ago, Luv2Phuket said:

Speaking of Amazon, Chase has put new fees in place on the checking account that I use to get funds easily to/from my Mom.

I don't use the account for much beyond that, so keeping a $5,000 minimum balance didn't make much sense, BUT the $6 monthly fee is waived with 5 debit card transactions per statement cycle.

Why do you need a separate checking account just for that?  My mom has a Chase checking account and its fees are waived because she has one direct deposit per month (social security). We made it a joint account. She is the primary account holder and I’m the secondary. So, I now have full access to this account when I log onto Chase under my name. I have my own no-fee Bank of America checking account which is the account I use mostly. This is the checking account I have been using to pay my Chase credit cards for years, so it was already linked to my Chase profile. Transferring between the two checking accounts is simple when I’m logged onto Chase.

I don’t know where your mom banks, but you may find it simpler to make your mom’s main account a joint one. Of course, this doesn’t work if you are simply using this account by giving the associated ATM card to your Thai girlfriend mom to access funds and not transferring money between accounts. I guess it also wouldn’t work if your mom’s account is already joint with someone else, but you could make your mom joint on one of your account as another option. Didn’t mean to make it sound complicated, because it’s not. After my father passed away, we made myself joint on all my mom’s accounts and it really simplified things. Good thing she trusts me 555.

[Luv2Phuket]

I keep my personal accounts at a local California bank (UBOC), because it is close to my home and easy to work with.

My Mom is pretty damn stubborn.  She closed her Chase account, rather than change one of her 3 monthly direct deposits to Chase from Wells Fargo.

She's even more stubborn about not letting me pay for the slightest thing for her -- if I order a $10 book for her on Amazon for her book club, she insists on depositing a $10 check into my account.  If the book is $7.99, she'll round it up to $10, even though I tell her not to worry about it.

I maintain a couple of online accounts for her savings, so I could easily get it from them whenever, but she would freak out (even though she has no idea what the precise balances are).

It's easier to just along with her quirks and let her deposit the $10 into the joint Chase account that I set up (and yes, she does it with a check instead of just putting $10 cash in!  55555)

Doing 5 Amazon reloads each month is an easy way to appease her....assuming I don't fuck it up like did this time!  5555

[Luv2Phuket]

On 03/08/2019 at 13:52, skink said:

They might have cracked down on buying those with a Staples gift card. 

I buy Visa gift cards from Staples with a credit card whenever they go on sale. Including tomorrow when they'll have fee-free $200 Visa GCs.

After your post, I now try to check the weekly Staples ads -- it looks like the $200 Visa GCs are "on sale" (i.e., no fee) again this week!

I have too many Visa and M/C GCs right now (been on sale at Vons for less than face value after discount), but I can't pass up adding 1,000 Chase URs.

I need to get something for a friend's daughter's Sweet 16 party, and I was thinking that a $50 Amazon GC might be a good idea.  I can grab it at the same same time and run those URs up to 1,250.

[Aloneinthedark]

CX updated biz class ... wow.... I tried this the other night on a long haul EWR-HKG and I was pleasantly surprised !!! Nice new TV’s and nice new IFE with touch screens!!

The service and food were mediocre though .... I do love ordering that cheeseburger snack mid flight though, it’s always tasty !!

 

[Aloneinthedark]

Too bad SG significantly devalued  their saver award redemptions for biz class.... real bummer!

[Aloneinthedark]

Phuket and Little Evil , how would u compare SG to CX? I would fly SG over CX 9/10. Would u agree??

Edited September 3, 2019 by Aloneinthedark

[basket case]

Phuket and Little Evil , how would u compare SG to CX? I would fly SG over CX 9/10. Would u agree??

For what class of service?

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[Aloneinthedark]

1 minute ago, basket case said:

For what class of service?

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Biz / J

Edited September 3, 2019 by Aloneinthedark

[basket case]

In business, I find CX and SQ comparable, but different.

The "hard product" seats are VERY different. SQ's seat is unique to SQ.... it does not recline e to fully flat, but instead folds out to fully flat. The seat is also VERY wide. Too wide for some. Also, except for the bulkhead seats, the foot hole is narrow, and you end up sleeping at an odd angle. Some find it off putting, but others it does not matter. That said, bulkhead seats have a huge foot area, and they are in very high demand.

CX uses a Cirrus reverse herringbone seat that most people praise as comfortable, though I personally find the arm rest with the tray table uncomfortable. The seat reclines to fully angled flat.

CX does have an edge on their regional business class, as all of the seats are fully flat. SQ flies mostly A330's with the old angled flat seats. They do fly a 787-10 once a day with a very nice lie flat seat.

There are tons of youtube videos on both. Have a look.

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[Aloneinthedark]

Nice informed  comparison, cheers!

[basket case]

Both have among the best business class seats, and my criticisms are nitpicking. Both are, however, a notch or 2 below Qatar's QSuites, IMO.



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[Luv2Phuket]

A new option for travel from the USA to Bangkok:  Singapore has started non-stops from Seattle to Changhi.  From there, it's a short hop to BKK (and SIN-BKK seems to have quite a few choices, timewise)

https://thepointsguy.com/news/singapore-airlines-is-now-flying-nonstop-from-seattle-to-singapore/

[bouncewithme]

Well guys, it’s nearing time for my annual trip (November). Every year seems to bring new twists and changes in the points/miles game. Last year at this time, I could find CX availability and at least get to HKG. This year that seems to not be an option. 

I have the following rewards: Citi TY 72k, Chase UR 44k, Alaska 75k, 30k AA miles (willing to buy more during a promo). Any suggestions from our resident pros on my best option to book J biz class west coast USA to ANYWHERE in Asia as a drop off point or connection to BKK or MNL? 

Edited September 8, 2019 by bouncewithme

[briguy]

You can book Hainan business class to Asia using your Alaska miles, 50,000 one way or Japan Airlines for 65,000 one way.  On the way back, maybe turn the Citi miles into Ethiad Guest miles for flights on American. Should be around 50,000 miles. You can also turn them into Singapore KrisFlyer miles to fly on Singapore Airlines or other Star Alliance carriers, but you may not have enough Citi miles to do business class.

Edit: Just realized you already have some AA miles. You could transfer the Citi miles to Cathay's Asia Miles program and use them for an AA flight, along with the AA miles you already have.

Edited September 9, 2019 by briguy

[briguy]

2 hours ago, briguy said:

Just realized you already have some AA miles. You could transfer the Citi miles to Cathay's Asia Miles program and use them for an AA flight, along with the AA miles you already have.

Please disregard this. Of course you can't mix the AA miles with another airline's miles. My mistake! Although you can transfer the Citi miles to Cathay and use them for an AA flight.

[Luv2Phuket]

Please disregard this. Of course you can't mix the AA miles with another airline's miles. My mistake! Although you can transfer the Citi miles to Cathay and use them for an AA flight.

But the charts for Asia Miles reportedly are very bad for long haul flights


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[Luv2Phuket]

Sorry - on Tapatalk, so not easy to multi-quote.

EVA is a transfer partner of Citi TY - 75,000 for one way biz class.

My only issue is that booking them doesn’t seem so easy.

Check United’s booking portal to see if you can find availability with EVA, then look into the transfer.

As noted, all transfer to Singapore, but availability in November likely will not be very good. You can waitlist, but you would need to transfer points necessary to book, with no assurance of actually getting a seat.

Any Marriott Bonvoy points? They transfer at 60,000 Bonvoy to 25,000 miles with a TON of airlines.

You have to use ExpertFlyer to find availability, but AA miles can be redeemed on China Southern now.

JAL availability has been surprisingly good when I looked lately,

Ideally, you will want to mix and match to maximize.




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