If you’re a nerd like me then you are enjoying the posts about booking a flight to and from Asia before the AA devaluation. If you aren’t enjoying these posts, then there’s a strong possibility that you don’t read my blog anyway. Still, I thought I would insert that sentence in your honor.
The Trip Report appropriately called The Year of the Monkey hasn’t even got off the ground and already I have four posts on the flight planning including this one. They include:
- Cathay First Booked: Dates TBD, Imagination Required
- Cathay First Booked: Date Determined, Persistence Required
- The Marginal Return of Booking An Added Segment
I left my last post wondering if I was reaching the marginal return on my reservation given the opportunity to add more segments. Just asking that question meant that I had not. Here is what I came up with and I believe, but cannot guarantee, that it will be final. Unless there is a dramatic change, this will be the last post regarding flights on what has become another great #tpolonem booking.
I wanted to go to Jakarta to add it to my Country Count and found it more convenient to do it in the beginning of the trip. From Jakarta I will pay for a ticket to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia and make my way back to Bangkok and Hong Kong. I am also paying for the flight from Kota Kinabalu to Bangkok but am using Avios to go from BKK to HKG. The price for that flight is $150 but I used 7500 Avios + $20 instead. After that, I am adding a wildcard country by going to Sanya, China. That flight retails for $300 but I used 4500 Avios + $15.46 to make the booking. Finally, I will be flying Dragonair Business from Sanya to Hong Kong en route back to NYC on Cathay Business. The DragonAir segment would cost $509 if someone was foolish enough to pay for business class on a flight that short.
There you have it. TPOL is tired now. Goodnight.
I take it there’s no availability HKG-CGK nonstop on CX? The 3 flights seem a bit much, unless you’re just wandering around.
There is a first-class flight nonstop but not available on the date that I needed. It departs at 9:25AM from HKG and gets you right into CGK that afternoon. I’m not in a hurry to get anywhere and will enjoy the lounge time and that quick stop in Bangkok (may not even get a hotel room) before heading off to Jakarta.
Probably more crazy than reasonable but that’s consistent with the push it to the limit vs. marginal return analysis.