IF you are looking for award seat to Asia this Summer in Business class
Air Canada just released lots of seat from YVR-NRT using their A330 flat bed business class, then you can connect to pretty much any where in Asia.
Good luck!
3 continents, 6 countries in 30 days-Introduction and Planning
There are so many places I want to go,but getting to some places are not cheap, thanks to frequent flyer/guest programs and great airline alliances, so I can travel to so many places in comfort and cheap.
Back to one month ago, I mentioned my planned trip in May.Now, I’d like to share the process of booking all these awards.
The completed trip will be like this
PVG-FRA-ALA-IST-AMM//AQJ-AMM-JED-DXB-HKG-PVG//PEK-HKG-RUH-AMM-ADD-FRA-LCA//ECN-IST-ALA-DYU-IST-FRA-PVG
all bold cities are places I will enter or at least attempt to enter.
Confusing? 
because they are 5 separate tickets using 3 different airlines miles, so let’s me break them one by one. All award search was done by kvstool
First part and last part, PVG-FRA-ALA//DYU-IST-MUC-PVG, Lufthansa A346 and A 330 First Class, Turkish Air B737 business class and Air China A340 First Class, Using US airways , taxes amount 100+ 50 processing fee. It only took 2 phone calls to get this ticket issued because first agent refused to let me backtracking. I did not have option to try any other airlines first class product on the way back because flight from DYU-IST only operates 2 times per week, Monday and Wednesday, and I needed to find a way connect back to China same day. Also, DYU-IST was the segment I booked as Economy and just moved to Business last week
Then I used BMI miles for ALA-IST-AMM(stopover)-ADD on Turkish Airways B737 Business and BMI A321 Business class. This was a easy one, 1 simple phone call finished booking。BD flight only had economy left, but since I am Gold member, revenue management released business award seat for me. Never been to Africa, always want to be there. Although days spend in ADD(Addis Ababa) will be very short, I don’t want waste a free stopover when using BMI one way award. Tax amount was very strange, I checked with ITA first with Point of Sale Boston, the taxes and fuel were not too high, but when I called to book the ticket, taxes and fuel were a lot higher than I checked. Then I went back to ITA again with POS London, exactly same kinds taxes line by line, but currency was UK AND amount was higher. I knew POS can affect the fare price, but I didn’t how this affected taxes amount. Total taxes include Cash + miles copay were 300+USD
Originally, I planed to tour around Jordan, Syria and Lebanon for around 3 weeks, but now Syria is not stable, so I decided to go back to home in middle of the trip. From middle east to China, the cheapest option of using miles was American Airline, but unlike above tickets, this one took me some checking and calling. I will travel in a single direction in Jordan, which means I will start from Amman and finish in Aqaba. When I called AA to book from AQJ-AMM-JED-HKG-PVG, flight AQJ-AMM was priced in addition to normal Middle East to Asia 2 business class. The explanation I got was there was no published fare btw AQJ-PVG. I then tried something like AMM-BAH-BKK-HKG-PVG and more such as via BOM, DEL, KUL, all came back with same result, 3 segments, correct pricing, 4 segments, miles increase. I mentioned before there are many restrictions with AA, so nothing to argue about it, move on. I eventually settled with AMM-JED-DXB(through flight)-HKG-SHA on Royal Jordanian A320 and Cathay Pacific A330 business class, but too bad, it’s regional A330.6 hours layover in JED, hopefully, I can get a transit pass to exit the immigration. As for AQJ-AMM, I bought a one way from AQJ-AMM for $75 on Royal Jordanian. Taxes were only 30+USD.
Return from China to continue my trip also used AA miles PEK-HKG-RUH-AMM on Dragon Air A330 and Cathay Pacific A330 business class regional and Royal Jordanian A320 in Economy. From Riyadh to Amman there was no way to get business class award(I did some checking) . Unlike above flight, I added a exactly 24 hours connection in Hong Kong and 17.5 hours connections in Riyadh. I picked Riyadh because of final arrival time in Amman to connect to ADD on the same day on BMI flight was perfect. All other options including Bahrain, Delhi, Mumbai and Dubai were not working either because of finally arrival time in Amman or India visa issue. I knew I should try different airlines, but for this one, I just had to stuck with Cathay. Total taxes for these flights were also only 30+ USD
The final part: ADD-FRA-LCA//ECN-IST-ALA on Lufthansa A340-300 and A321 business class and Turkish airline B737 business class using BMI miles. This was an interesting part. Again, I don’t want to waste BMI miles one way stopover, but not too many options. I did not want stopover in Egypt, could not stopover in Europe according to BMI redemption rules, holding PRC passport, so need to find a country visa free and there was no *A flight from ADD continued to Southern Africa until Ethiopia airline joins *A. With so many restrictions, I decided Cyprus, which still part of Europe, but I did not think BMI agent had knowledge where it located. Then my friend suggested me to try to make agent believde Larnaca and Ercan airport were co-terminals. My luck was very good, first agent believed me LCA and ECN were co-terminals and she had no idea where the Cyprus was, so ticket issued, total taxes were 400+USD including cash portion for C+M.
let’s recap here:
US Airways for PVG-FRA-ALA//DYU-IST-MUC-PVG, Lufthansa A346 and A 330 First Class, Turkish Air B737 business class and Air China A340 First Class
BMI miles for ALA-IST-AMM(stopover)-ADD and ADD-FRA-LCA//ECN-IST-ALA, Turkish Airw ays B737 Business, BMI A321 Business class and Lufthansa A340-300 and A321 business class
AA miles for AMM-JED-HKG-PVG and PEK-HKG-RUH-AMM Dragon Air A330 and Cathay Pacific A330 business class regional and Royal Jordanian A320 in business and Economy
Cash paid for ALA-DYU on Air Astana and AQJ-AMM on Royal Jordain
Total miles used for all tickets: 115,000
Now, let’s go to hotel part, fairly easy and straightforward
Almaty: Hyatt just rebrand to different hotel, so I still have not decided where to stay yet
Amman: Le Meridien, C+P
Petra: Marriott, Cat 1-4 certificate
Riyadh: Marriott, Cat 1-4 certificate
Nicosia: Hilton, standard award redemption
Dushanbe: Hyatt, stay certificate, Classic level.
I hope I did not make you guys fall in sleep while reading!
My next trip, 3 continents, 6 countries in 30 days
After several months planning and modification, the trip has been finalized, but due to current conflict in Syria, I break the trip into 2 parts, with 1 week back to China in btw.
Countries will be visited: Kazakhstan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Cyprus, Tajikistan. In addition, 2 more regions with separate immigration: Hong Kong and North Cyprus.
Airlines will be involved:
Lufthansa A340 first and A 330 First, A 330 and A 321 Business
Air China B747 First
BMI A321 business
Tukish 738 Business, and 1 segment on 738 Economy
Cathay Pacific A330 Business regional
Royal Jordan B737 Business and economy
Air Astana economy
With exception of Air Astana, all tickets were issue with miles, but I will share the booking procedures later.
As for hotels, almost every city I visit have major chains except Pafos, Cyprus, so not a issue.
Some of these countries are not popular, so I will share what I see when I come back. Personally, I think the trip will be more interesting than Tahiti.
Book award with United or Continenal?
Few weeks ago, United and Continental miles can be transferred btw each other without any fees, here are some of my suggestions on which program to use to issue awards.
Benefits of using continental miles to issue the award
1 CO doesn’t block certain partners redemption like United
2 Despite United revised their routing restriction on awards, continental still offers much more flexible routing rule for now
3 CO redemption permits mix of *A and non *A other than Eva, so if you want to enjoy *A with Virgin Atlantic CO is an option.
4 After award issued, CO doesn’t charge any fee(21 days prior to departure) to change the award as long as you keep same origin and destination, routing can be changed. With United, only flights and dates can be changed, routing must stay same.
Benefits of using United miles
1 one way award is permitted for half of R/T
2 no close in ticketing fee.
Personally, I think CO is a better choice because it gives you more flexibility than United, but if you are 1K, I think it’s better off with United.
Recent BMI redemption as Gold member
Not too long ago, we all heard BMI program will NOT be merged to LH Miles and More program any time sooner, a big relief. As a BMI GOLD member for few years, I finally had a chance to redeem a flight on BMI metal recenlty.
The flight I wanted had no more business class award open, but as an unpublished benefit of Gold member, you can ask ICC to set up a reservation in coach with waitlist for business class, then ask them to pass the reservation to revenue management team. Since my booking was over the weekend, RM team did not confirm my seat until Monday. If it’s a normal working day, you can even ask ICC to contact RM team while you are still on the phone.
I won’t release any trip detail now, it’s a trip with 3 awards, multiple countries and continents and it will be one of the most interesting redemption. But before that, heading to Tahiti next Monday
Delta Award, check your ticket carefully even after issued!
The reason I am saying is, there are possibility where you confirmed on certain segments but the actual ticket left those segments. Sounds strange right?
I booked a complicated award trip for someone involves DL,MU,MH and VN from East coast to Asia. The ticket was issued back in early Feb. Today, I got a email from him saying the MH segment was not even on the email confirmation he received. I was shocked and checked Delta.com, yes! if was there under reservation, but It was NOT there under ticket number!!!
I picked the phone to call Delta right the way, the first few agents and supervisor refused to admit the mistake, what they were saying to me was I added MH segments after ticket was issued!!!(they can see the record of change) Because segments were never been calculated, they now require additional 70K for those two segments.
Eventually, I found one re issue desk agent who was willing to admit mistake. she could see the ticket was issued AFTER MH segments were added, and reissued everything without collecting a fee or additional miles.
How to check tickets and segments? After ticket issued, next to the ticket number, there is a “detail” you can click on, match every segments to the reservation, then you will be fine!
My “Schedule change” method for Delta award has been working pretty well!
Few months ago, I talked about using “schedule change” to make your itinerary better for Delta awards, it has been working exceptional well lately. What I am trying to say is if your flight is far way, grab whatever is there to construct award in low level, then wait for schedule change.
1 Last month, I issued a ticket from NRT-ATL via JFK for Oct, but one of passenger was on wheelchair, so they really wanted direct flight, but ATL-NRT cost 350,000 miles in business class, so I grabbed connecting flight. Then schedule change occurred, I really had no idea what the change was, just want to give a try. The agent changed them NRT-ATL direct flight right the way after verifying schedule changes(I still don’t know how long was the change)
2 I issued a ticket from MSP-EWR-AMS(stopover)-ARN, return ARN-AMS-DTW-RDU, with low business award miles and DTW-RDU is economy. Today, I saw the schedule change on MSP-EWR and return DTW-RDU, again, I did not know what change was. Called Delta, they verify the changes and rebook ticket from MSP-AMS-MSP direct in business class!!
3 The third one was not working so well, the agent refused to change the flight because the “schedule change” was too small, about 10 mins, fairly enough. I am not too worry because one domestic flight is only few minutes away from minimum connection time and I am pretty sure there will be more schedule change coming up with the trip is 5 months away.
Remember, if your trip is far away, grab whatever you have first!
Some additional Delta award level btw Non US Travel
I talked some redemption chart for Non US travel in my previous post, I just found out few more and post here now.
Europe to Middle East 40K in Econ/60K in business
Europe to Central Asia/India 70K in Economy/80K in business
Asia to Mexico and Caribbean is same as Asia to US
Asia to Northern South America, 100K in Economy, 150K in Business
Asia to Southern South America, 120K in Economy, 160K in business
Asia to India, 40K economy, 80K business
Again, above are just standard miles btw regions, since there is no such chart exists, Delta can tell whatever amount they want.
Does American Airline have similar award pricing system like Delta?
We all know that Delta award pricing are fully computerized, computer will automatically calculate number of miles required based on origin, destination and routing. How about other airlines?
Based on my experience, American Airline is another airline using similar system. Last year, I tried to book award PVG-NRT-PPT, which was the most direct routing and it’s published routing. However the AA system calculated as 2 awards Asia 2-Asia 1+Asia 1+South Pacific. I guess it’s because I routed via higher zone. Then, I tried PVG-HKG-AKL-PPT, this time it calculated as Asia 2-South Pacific, then within South Pacific.
After some disscusion on FT, I tried PVG-HKG-SYD-AKL-PPT, this time was told only 1 award Asia 2-South Pacific.
I also tried above trip by adding PPT-IPC, now it counted as 2 award again.Every time, I was trying to argue with agent, rate desk, supervisor, all they told was “sorry, computer does the job, we only put flight together”
Just yesterday, I saw a post on FT, someone redeemed LAX-PPT-AKL on TN with no stopovers, the computer counted as two awards again. So Delta is not the only one, AA does the same except much better domestic award availability than Delta.
How about US, UA and CO?
Again, based on my experience, their system doesn’t calculate amount of miles automatically based on city or routing. There should be a place for agent to put in region, then computer calculating required miles based the agents’ input. That’s why we all heard many crazy routing when using US or CO miles, even UA.
update: Gary confirmed that CO is fully computerized, I am surprised to see they did not program the routing restrictions.
Delta and Korean Airline, China Eastern and China Air Blackout date
We all heard about *net blocking when using UA miles for some of their partners, Delta does a similar thing to Korean Airline, but unlike *Net, which will have less blocking toward the end of each month, Delta just never releases more than one KE business class seat per each trans Pacific flight. In very rare occasion, you may get lucky finding the second seat( after you grab the first one long time ago)when getting very very very close to departure date, but this should never be counted for.
The reason is simple, KE is too generous on premium cabin award seat, it’s not Delta doesn’t want to pay KE, it’s delta doesn’t want too many people using low award business class to Asia. Korean airline flies to LAX(4), SFO, SEA,YVR, DFW,JFK(2),ATL(2), IAD, ORD and YYZ, the networks are too strong and more than enough for anyone in USA to connect via one of above gateway to Asia with low award miles.
Now, let me explain Blackout date.see below for real KE/CI/MU blackout by region , but Delta just blackout all. recently, they “enhanced” their system again, before you can still issue the ticket as long as it’s not real blackout to the region and agent forget to check, but now, their system is programed not able to issue the ticket as long as there is blackout date.(I just tried TODAY)
You may wonder AF and KLM has decent award space on trans Atlantic, why didn’t Delta just block them? The reason is simple, they can not because they are join venture.
Blackout date for Korean Air
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Blackout for China Eastern
|
BLACKOUT DATES FOR CHINA EASTERN AIRLINES FLIGHTS |
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Routes |
the Year of 2010 |
the Year of 2011 |
|
| Wholly Within China Mainland |
06FEB~13FEB,19FEB~28FEB, 26SEP~02OCT,06OCT~08OCT |
25JAN～2FEB，7FEB～16FEB，26SEP～2OCT，6OCT～8OCT | |
| Hong Kong/Macao | From China |
— |
— |
| To China |
— |
— |
|
| Tai Wan | From China | 03FEB~13FEB,27APR~01MAY, 17SEP~19SEP,28SEP~01OCT |
— |
| To China | 16FEB~26FEB, 04MAY~08MAY, 23SEP~25SEP,04OCT~06OCT |
— |
|
| Japan | From China |
— |
1FEB～3FEB，1OCT～3OCT |
| To China |
— |
1JAN～2JAN，29APR～3MAY | |
| Korea | From China |
— |
1FEB～2FEB，13SEP～15SEP，29SEP～30SEP |
| To China |
— |
3FEB～10FEB，10SEP～11SEP，7OCT～8OCT | |
| Southeast Asia | From China |
— |
1FEB～4FEB，29SEP～2OCT |
| To China |
— |
6FEB～10FEB，4OCT～7OCT | |
Blackout for China Air
| Area | Period | |
 |
||
| From Asia to North America |
JUN. 25 to AUG. 31 | a week before the Chinese Lunar New Year to the fourth day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. |
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| DEC. 20 to JAN. 4 | ||
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| From North America to Asia |
JUN. 1 to JUL. 31 | a week before the Chinese Lunar New Year to the fourth day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. |
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| DEC. 10 to JAN. 4 | ||
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| Between Asia and Europe | JUL. 1 to AUG. 20 | a week before the Chinese Lunar New Year to the fourth day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. |
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| DEC. 11 to DEC. 27 (Depart from AMS only) |
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| Between Asia and Australia /New Zealand |
JUN. 25 to AUG. 15 | a week before the Chinese Lunar New Year to the fourth day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. |
More thought on award to OZ/NZ,Tahiti and Maldive
View from the wing talked about award from US to OZ/NZ, Tahiti and Maldive, I want to add a little bit my own advice.
The easiest program to go to OZ/NZ are CO/US because both programs allow routing via Asia and Thai airways have plenty of seats to these areas.
AA is a little bit limited because of routing on Qantas or Air Tahiti or Air Pacific via Nadi, seats are limited。 however, if you want to pay some extra miles, you can use AA one world redemption, which can be route via Asia, but award are distance based
Delta also permits routing via Asia, have you thought about using China Southern, china Eastern, China Airline, Malaysia airline, also Air Tahiti routing via NRT to PPT, Tahiti? let’s ignore Korean Air because you can not find 2 seats in business class across Pacific at same time, Delta blocks the seat(like *net blocking)
As for Maldive, Male, the easiest way to get there is to Sri Lanka, Colombo, then buy a cheap ticket to Male, Colombo is partner Central Asia for most programs. Personally, I don’t think Male is worth a trip all the way from US.
