Introduction: A Detour Across The Pacific

Can't wait for your Malaysia Airlines Business Suite flight review!
Hope your FA mastered difficult things like 'saying hello' and giving passengers silverware in "First Class"...

—JRL

Just curious what made you choose to use 80K AA miles instead of 55K AS for the QF segment Ben ?

@ hamiltus -- I tried to use Alaska miles, but unfortunately this was one of those instances were they couldn't see Qantas award space, rather annoyingly.

You're crazy but I love it

Really looking forward to it! What's the trip after this one?

@ JB -- Thanks! After this it will be the review of my recent trip to Sri Lanka, where I stayed at Amans and flew Japan Airlines, SriLankan, and KLM.

you work so hard for this blog!! keep up the amazing content!

So since you booked this trip while on another trip, it was quite unplanned. How do you pack your things for this? Do you wash your underwear in the hotel sink?

I´m not sure if it´s a typo or it´s the real name of the lounge: Malaysia Airlines Business Suite Lounge Kuala Lumpur Airport.

@ Carlos -- They've rebranded their first class as business suite, and accordingly have also updated the branding of the lounge, hence the name (unless I'm missing something obvious here).

@ Jim -- Hah, so I always travel with a lot of underwear, since I figure that's the one thing you should change every so often. 😉 As far as the rest of it goes, the reality is that I was wearing airline pajamas almost this entire trip, so this five day detour didn't require much extra clothes.

Wow, very quick trip but excited to read the reviews as I'll be traveling to most of these countries this summer.

is there a reason you didn’t book KUL-NRT-ORD as a single itenary on AA for 110k rather than splitting them up and paying 40k AA and 70k AS?

A little off topic but what's your guys opinion on the best 5 star hotel in Kuala Lumpur? So many cheap options.

Can’t wait for the reports

Fun suggestion and not a criticism– how cool would it be if you posted this trip report intros right after you booked the trip? That way we as readers have weeks to months to look forward to the trip, just as you look forward to it! Also, by posting the intro right away, the readers get to see your logic and maybe we could share some ideas as well. A collaborative effort to trip planning perhaps! Love your blog lucky.

Seems like you also spent a night in Tokyo, based on your 12/16 arrival and 12/17 departure from that city the next morning. Where did you stay?

@ David -- Whoops, good catch. Updating post now.

Lucky, did you book the JL F directly from Alaska's website or do you have to call?

@ Ron -- I booked directly online.

Really looking forward to this review as it's "my turf", so to speak. Excited to hear what you have to say about all the different products 🙂

MH Golden Lounges have Sleeping rooms that you can use, why book a hotel?

@Alonzo: Try Ritz Carlton in KL, one of the Best suites I have stayed at.Location is great too!Breakfast is amazing as long as you don't go around Chinese New Year.

@Lucky, how do you decide which airport hub to return to in the US? Are you maximizing the paid service via flyertalk to know the best miles rate on return, or?

The comments here are hilarious, as always.

Looking forward to this! Just wanted to give you a huge thank you @Ben (Lucky) for keeping up the good work. OMAAT is the only website (across all categories) that I visit every single day, without exception.

Say the Hilton NRT was 2013 were you mentioned more than once about needed renovations. Have this happened? Has Breakfast buffet improved? Traveling minds want to know. I’m staying in May on RTW19 2.0 🙂

@Lucky - QF isn't "stingy" with award space. They reward those with status with preferential availability and there's plenty of availability for members with flexibility.

Lucky - Im sure that you are ahead of game but wanted to make sure that you know Alaska is showing business class on QANTAS from LAX to MEL as I m flying with them in December 😉 Better than AA's 80K!

@lucky how do you typically acquire your aa miles? (besides sign up bonuses)

@ David -- Mostly through actually flying American, through Bank Direct, and through their co-branded credit cards.

@ Ben/Lucky

Any reason you booked the JL flight with Mileage Plan and not Aadvantage? It's only 80k on AA which seems better than using 70k mileage plan miles

@Ben

Are you aware of any other avenues to book a Business Suite using miles? There's zero availability on AA or BA on any date, LHR or NRT. Plenty of pretty steep cash fares available, however.
Many thanks.