Chicago to LA, Singapore, Bangkok, Taipei, Seoul, and Osaka in C on UA,SQ,TG,OZ,NH
Dec 28, 2007, 11:30 am
#16
Join Date: May 2004
Programs: UA Mileage Plus, KLM Flying Dutchman
Posts: 72
Dec 28, 2007, 12:11 pm
#18
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 296
Here are the details of how I booked it...
It's all one Star Alliance business class award to North Asia booked through United using my United miles. In all, it cost me 90,000 miles and $47 in taxes (plus 700 Thai baht, which I had to pay at BKK).
Since I'm in college, I only had one week during which I could take this trip, and that was the week after school got out and before Christmas. I had originally planned on going to PEK for that week to practice my Chinese, but then I decided that Singapore and Taipei would serve the same purpose and offer a bit better climate.
Availability in C class was initially really tough to find, especially on the outbound transpac (USA to SIN). In fact, I held an award itinerary all in coach to SIN and TPE for two days and was about to book it, but then, luckily, I happened upon biz class availability on SQ's LAX-SIN nonstop. That's when I decided to make this trip a bit crazier and stop in lots of countries, since being in biz class would make going without good sleep for the week a lot more palatable.
I spent more than 8 hours on ANA's *A award search tool looking for biz class availability to cool cities in Asia for my layovers. I had spent lots of time in HKG already, so that was out. My preferences were SGN (Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, Vietnam), MNL, and BKK, but given the selection of *A's member airlines, only BKK worked out. My stops in ICN and KIX were not by choice, but they certainly aren't the worst cities to spend some time in.
So, I created a list of the flights I wanted and called up UA again. We brought up my held coach award, and I told the agent I had found C availability. I read off the list of flights, and she booked them one-by-one. It took at least 90 minutes on the phone, because she could only keep the reservation open and changeable for 15 minutes, and the first few times it took more than 15 minutes for her to find all the flights. Finally, on the third or fourth try, she was able to book all my flights in the 15-minute window. Once we had all the flights, I put the reservation on hold. I had 2-3 days to book it.
I called back several times in the next couple of days trying to move the dates and connection cities around a bit and trying to find a C seat from ICN-KIX (which I was ultimately not successful in finding). One of the agents wanted to check with the rate desk about the whole itinerary before she would make a certain change. It took about 30 minutes, and she came back to say that I exceeded the MPM (maximum permitted mileage). I forget exactly what happened after that, but I think there was some sort of routing rule that let me bypass the MPM. I wish I could remember the exact details.
On the last day that I could hold the reservation, September 8, I was visiting a friend at UMich, and we were at the tailgate before the game against Oregon (a sad game). I abstained completely from the keg until I called and ticketed it, since I was so afraid I'd drink a bit too much and forget about it all day. But I remembered, and everything was ticketed in a couple of minutes.
So, most of the work was just finding flights with availability on ANA's *A award tool, and then patiently feeding them to UA reservations agents. (And calling back if they balked.)
It's all one Star Alliance business class award to North Asia booked through United using my United miles. In all, it cost me 90,000 miles and $47 in taxes (plus 700 Thai baht, which I had to pay at BKK).
Since I'm in college, I only had one week during which I could take this trip, and that was the week after school got out and before Christmas. I had originally planned on going to PEK for that week to practice my Chinese, but then I decided that Singapore and Taipei would serve the same purpose and offer a bit better climate.
Availability in C class was initially really tough to find, especially on the outbound transpac (USA to SIN). In fact, I held an award itinerary all in coach to SIN and TPE for two days and was about to book it, but then, luckily, I happened upon biz class availability on SQ's LAX-SIN nonstop. That's when I decided to make this trip a bit crazier and stop in lots of countries, since being in biz class would make going without good sleep for the week a lot more palatable.
I spent more than 8 hours on ANA's *A award search tool looking for biz class availability to cool cities in Asia for my layovers. I had spent lots of time in HKG already, so that was out. My preferences were SGN (Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, Vietnam), MNL, and BKK, but given the selection of *A's member airlines, only BKK worked out. My stops in ICN and KIX were not by choice, but they certainly aren't the worst cities to spend some time in.
So, I created a list of the flights I wanted and called up UA again. We brought up my held coach award, and I told the agent I had found C availability. I read off the list of flights, and she booked them one-by-one. It took at least 90 minutes on the phone, because she could only keep the reservation open and changeable for 15 minutes, and the first few times it took more than 15 minutes for her to find all the flights. Finally, on the third or fourth try, she was able to book all my flights in the 15-minute window. Once we had all the flights, I put the reservation on hold. I had 2-3 days to book it.
I called back several times in the next couple of days trying to move the dates and connection cities around a bit and trying to find a C seat from ICN-KIX (which I was ultimately not successful in finding). One of the agents wanted to check with the rate desk about the whole itinerary before she would make a certain change. It took about 30 minutes, and she came back to say that I exceeded the MPM (maximum permitted mileage). I forget exactly what happened after that, but I think there was some sort of routing rule that let me bypass the MPM. I wish I could remember the exact details.
On the last day that I could hold the reservation, September 8, I was visiting a friend at UMich, and we were at the tailgate before the game against Oregon (a sad game). I abstained completely from the keg until I called and ticketed it, since I was so afraid I'd drink a bit too much and forget about it all day.
But I remembered, and everything was ticketed in a couple of minutes.So, most of the work was just finding flights with availability on ANA's *A award tool, and then patiently feeding them to UA reservations agents. (And calling back if they balked.)
Dec 28, 2007, 12:43 pm
#19
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 296
OK, all photos uploaded! Here they are: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sqs/col...7603566054642/
Dec 29, 2007, 2:47 pm
#20
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: SFO/SAN/Ganado Arizona
Programs: Affilated with the orders of I need to rest, doctor's orders!
Posts: 1,400
Excellent trip report! Wow, I didn't even know you could go to so many amazing places in Asia for only 90K award miles. Sounds like that just might be the way I go next year when visiting Asia. ^
Pray tell me how much was your out of pocket expense for say transportation, and food?
Pray tell me how much was your out of pocket expense for say transportation, and food?
Dec 29, 2007, 2:54 pm
#21
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 296
Excellent trip report! Wow, I didn't even know you could go to so many amazing places in Asia for only 90K award miles. Sounds like that just might be the way I go next year when visiting Asia. ^
Pray tell me how much was your out of pocket expense for say transportation, and food?
Pray tell me how much was your out of pocket expense for say transportation, and food?
That seems like a lot to me, since I'm just a poor college student.
Dec 30, 2007, 3:09 pm
#23
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: SFO/SAN/Ganado Arizona
Programs: Affilated with the orders of I need to rest, doctor's orders!
Posts: 1,400
I was wondering the same when I got home. I added up all of my ATM withdrawals from my bank statement, and when you sum that with the taxes on the award travel, the total is about $180 USD. My first flight was 6 AM on Monday, and my last flight landed at 10 PM Sunday, so that's just about 7 days...so $25 a day.
That seems like a lot to me, since I'm just a poor college student.
That seems like a lot to me, since I'm just a poor college student.
I am trying to recreate the same ITN you did for travel in Apr'08. Right now it isn't going well.
Dec 30, 2007, 5:18 pm
#24
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 296