Questions and Answers

What airline program for transferring credit card points would anyone recommend for travel on Cathay Pacific from LAX to BKK?

I’m hoping to do that flight in business class, so I searched the Asia Miles site to see how many points I’d need, but it looks like that route is not possible on Asia Miles? Am I missing something? Is there a different program I should be searching?

Please help! Thanks!

AsiaMiles is distance based and that route on CX in Business is 85k one way or 145k round trip. American Express MR and CitiBank TY points both transfer into AsiaMiles but is not instant. You may need to search segment by segment for it to show up. Or it could be that there is no availability. You can also search using BA/J:/QF’s tools to verify space.

American Airlines charges 70k each way for this award but only SPG transfers to AA. Otherwise, you need their co-branded credit cards. Alaska charges 50k each way and you can include a stopover in HKG if you’d like but, like American, only SPG transfers to them. You’d need their co-branded cards otherwise. AS is having a sale on purchased miles though – that could be an option.

A third option is BA Avios. Amex ([I][B]not[/B][/I] 1:1) and Chase UR both transfer to BA but they do pass on high fuel surcharges. However, awards that [I]depart[/I] from HKG do not carry these high charges. I’d only use BA avios as a last, last resort.

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 27359, member: 29″]AsiaMiles is distance based and that route on CX in Business is 85k one way or 145k round trip. American Express MR and CitiBank TY points both transfer into AsiaMiles but is not instant. You may need to search segment by segment for it to show up. Or it could be that there is no availability. You can also search using BA/J:/QF’s tools to verify space.

American Airlines charges 70k each way for this award but only SPG transfers to AA. Otherwise, you need their co-branded credit cards. Alaska charges 50k each way and you can include a stopover in HKG if you’d like but, like American, only SPG transfers to them. You’d need their co-branded cards otherwise. AS is having a sale on purchased miles though – that could be an option.

A third option is BA Avios. Amex ([I][B]not[/B][/I] 1:1) and Chase UR both transfer to BA but they do pass on high fuel surcharges. However, awards that [I]depart[/I] from HKG do not carry these high charges. I’d only use BA avios as a last, last resort.[/QUOTE]

What airlines would you recommend for business class from LAX to BKK? Cathay Pacific isn’t the only airline I’d fly, I’ve just heard great things about them and their business class looks really nice.

I’ve heard that you shouldn’t fly an American airline to Thailand. Would you agree?

I think Korean, Singapore, EVA, China Airlines are all worth considering, for business class, in addition to Cathay and JAL.

It’s not that you [I]shouldnt[/I] fly a US airline to Asia – there are just better products and services in foreign airlines. That being said, there are some options if you want to fly a US carrier:

With American, you’d want to get on one of their flights operated by a 77W, which for now is DFW/LAX-HKG. You’d need to connect to a Cathay flight to BKK.

United’s new Polaris soft product is pretty nice though you’d have to connect in San Francisco and then again in Asia. SFO-HKG will be operated by their brand new 77W with the Polaris seat beginning on March 25th, also a solid option. You’d have to connect to Thai Airways from there.

Delta has decent enough products but nothing exciting. If you go with them, I’d try to get to Taipei and then connect to China Airlines for BKK. Otherwise, their partners in the region are China Eastern and China Southern which I avoid.

[QUOTE=”Lorrie, post: 27357, member: 2859″]

I’m hoping to do that flight in business class, so I searched the Asia Miles site to see how many points I’d need, but it looks like that route is not possible on Asia Miles? Am I missing something? Is there a different program I should be searching?

[/QUOTE]

Asia Miles search engine can be a bit of a pain. Often if you search for a round trip and [I][U]both[/U][/I] legs aren’t available within +/- 3days it errors out. It’s best to search each one way and find available dates, then build a R/T with those days. But as [USER=29]@David W[/USER] states it’s a valid route.

If you ever get an error switch to a single day view from flex dates and you will get a list of flights that are probably sold out but you can use the date drop down list to scroll different individual days.

This is the one-way fare, R/T is 145 which is a good deal.

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[QUOTE=”Lorrie, post: 27360, member: 2859″]What airlines would you recommend for business class from LAX to BKK? Cathay Pacific isn’t the only airline I’d fly, I’ve just heard great things about them and their business class looks really nice.

I’ve heard that you shouldn’t fly an American airline to Thailand. Would you agree?[/QUOTE]

There’s nothing wrong with flying an American airline. American’s flagship 777 is a great flight if you get on it, United’s new Polaris product is getting rave reviews and DeltaOne is quite consistent.

The issue with an American airline is you can’t fly all the way to Bangkok on them, since nobody flies there.

Ha, [USER=29]@David W[/USER] I think you and I were typing the same exact advice at the same time 😎

Great! Thank you for the information! So for the carriers you recommend; Korean, Singapore, EVA, China Airlines; which miles program(s) should I be in for transferring my credit card points to?

I just got the Amex SPG card and intend to get the Chase Sapphire as soon as I meet the SPG minimum spend.

As [USER=1436]@rickyw[/USER] mentioned AA is a great way to go. I’ve noticed there is some availability on this route. At least in August. You have to call AA to get a connection to BKK on CX.
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[QUOTE=”MarkS, post: 27367, member: 2121″]As [USER=1436]@rickyw[/USER] mentioned AA is a great way to go. I’ve noticed there is some availability on this route. At least in August. You have to call AA to get a connection to BKK on CX.
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By AA, do you mean Alaska or American? Lol. Sorry, I’m new!

AA is American Airlines
AK is Alaska Airlines

[USER=2121]@MarkS[/USER] slight typo there – AS is Alaska. AK is one of AirAsia’s codes.

[USER=29]@David W[/USER] of course, AK is the state 🙂

Hi [USER=2859]@Lorrie[/USER] — If you have the SPG cards, it might make more sense to book this through the Alaska Mileage Plan program, as it will be a bit less expensive than American.

Also, before you apply for too many cards make sure to read through the Beginner’s Guide under the “Start Here” menu, just to be safe.

Welcome, and have fun planning!