A380 Extravaganza: Introduction

I hope there's a day when I can say a $5k+ fare is "very reasonable"

I like how you broke down the trip so we can see exactly how it was put together, I think you said you used a travel agent to book part of this trip? If so how did it benefit you?

Many thanks Ben! Looking forward to it! What kind of a deal did you get for the BA leg LHR to Seattle?

Don't you mean Emirates Suite class as well? Or is that how they describe their suites? Their other non-suite FC seats are nothing to brag about....

Looking forward to it, Ben. Especially to more details about "worse flight ever"!

I really like the breakdown and details of taxes/fees plus miles for the legs. Good detail that makes things more realistic. Great post. Keep up the good work!

With apologies for being dim, I still don't get why you did the Colombo , Sri Lanka/Singapore r/t with the immediate turnaround...How exactly did this make the total trip fare come down? And, since you were there, why not stay for a day or two?

Can't wait to see the whole trip report since we are taking the same route to Maldives next month. LAX-SFO-HKG-SIN-MLE-CMB-DXB-LHR-LAX on SQ/EK/BA all first...

@AC Taht DXB-LHR-LAX is the "conventional" way to best use the low fares. Lucky took it one step further (for little to no added cost) by adding CMB-SIN in as the first flight, thus allowing him TWO showers 😉

I believe we were promised the maldives report after the last one... (i.e., before this one)

@Ari, I know we can route to SIN but my partner won't have none of that since "one shower" is enough. After all, it is more than 30 hours home even it is the "conventional" way.

@ VeryGoodPoints -- Ditto! And this fare wasn't $5K+...

@ Sunny M -- It can be tough to book a complex ex-CMB fare without a travel agent, so I figured that was the best option.

@ blueline7 -- That was included on the ex-CMB fare.

@ wwk5d -- While they are "suites," they're marketed as first class, while Singapore specifically markets the product as "suites class."

@ hsw25 @ BBTBphile -- Thanks!

@ John -- The fare is only valid out of Colombo and not out of Singapore, so I had to position myself in Colombo in order to take advantage of the fare. I had originally planned on spending two nights in Colombo though was ultimately forced to push my trip back by two days, so in this case had to do a direct turn. That being said I have plans to visit Colombo in March.

Looking forward to the report Lucky. Maybe you'll cover this later on, but would be interesting to hear your thoughts on what is a better overall F experience - EK or SQ. Or for that matter, how it compares to your beloved LH.

OK - I may be dense, but I looked in the comments section of the post you linked to and see nothing on ex-Colombo fares.

@Lucky, Is BA somehow a codeshare partner with Emirates ex-CMB? I don't follow...I am familiar with ex CMB fares, but how does purchasing an ex CMB flight translate into an ex CMB flight on two (I thought) unconnected carrier such as BA and EK?

Lucky where did you bank the miles on the paid portion & how many will it be.

@ PL -- That'll be coming with the individual installments, I promise. 🙂

@ Eric -- Whoops, I linked the wrong post. Should be fixed now.

@ blueline7 -- CMB fares are actually published by American. You can fly any of a number of airlines, and one of the few requirements is that the transatlantic flight be American coded (meaning either on American metal or an American codeshare flight).

@ Scott -- Banking the Cathay Pacific and British Airways miles to American, while I'm banking the Emirates miles to Alaska. I believe I earn 150% miles for most of the segments.

Was this a flying "trip" mostly or did you get to rest your head and see some sites as well. I think I see a London stay?

@ Heather -- The primary reason for the trip was to try the various products/airlines, though I spent a couple of days in Singapore, a night in Dubai, and a night in London along the way.

Glad to hear you're actually going to spend some time in Sri Lanka other than the airport.

Ah, I see. At first I thought I was reading the dates wrong lol! Cannot wait to hear about drunk flights. I got a little bit tipsy on my Delta LHR-JFK but didn't feel light and happy unfortunately. I am getting old. Can't handle my champers anymore!

I am also very confused how to ticket CMB to SEA by CX/EK/BA? And why CMB to SIN is business class not First class since these three segments are issued in one ticket?

@ Sean -- There's no first class between Colombo and Singapore on Cathay Pacific, so that's why I flew business class. While the fare is published by American you can fly any of a number of carriers.

I know you're avoiding spelling everything out here and the primary purpose of the trip is to try out different products, but can you explain a little more about how the economics of the trip works out to the point where you and many other would take advantage of the ex-CMB fare over and over again.

Its my understanding that you're only getting about 7CPM on the CMB-SEA legs and you're spending a hack of a lot more miles just positioning yourself there.

@ spkg -- I wouldn't in my wildest dreams justify this as a "mileage run," because there's nothing efficient about redeeming a bunch of miles to position for a mileage run that's not eve good on a cent per mile basis.

That being said, for those of us "addicted" to premium cabin travel, it's tough to beat the value for this when you consider that you can both earn miles and try new products. It's not something I'd do over and over for the heck of it, but I do plan on doing another one on Malaysian once they join OneWorld, since routing on them is an option and I'd like to fly their Airbus 380.

Lucky, as the ex-CMB fares have been discussed in length why can you not tell us what your fare was and how you booked it? These fares are around 2100 USD for a one way. Trouble is often the routing and getting the right carriers. Using Matrix I seem to not be able to get my desired flights (nor do I get "your" flights).

@ KG -- I booked it through a travel agent. If you email I'd be happy to put you in touch with him.

Thanks lucky, will shoot you a mail!

hey lucky, what miles did you use to redeem the emirates first class? and how much?

@ ken -- In this case it was actually a paid ticket, so no miles. That being said the best ways to redeem miles for Emirates would be through Japan Airlines or Alaska. These links have more info on that:
https://onemileatatime.com/alaska-airlines-publishes-emirates-award-chart/
https://onemileatatime.com/reward-programs/airline-rewards/jal-mileage-bank/