A couple of years ago, Ashlee and I booked our first big trip using points and miles to fly to Southeast Asia.
A friend of mine who had just moved to Singapore for work, put the destination on our radar. Having extremely limited knowledge about this part of world, I knew we’d be in for an experience.
A friend of mine who had just moved to Singapore for work, put the destination on our radar. Having extremely limited knowledge about this part of world, I knew we’d be in for an experience.
At the time, I was new to redeeming points and miles and overwhelmed putting together a trip halfway around the world.
From our research, we opted for earning American Airlines (acquired US Airways) miles from the Citi/AAdvantage Platinum Select card. With its sign up bonus alone, we’d secure the remaining miles we needed.
At the time, American Airlines required 70,000 miles for a round-trip partner award ticket to fly to Southeast Asia. We called AA and the agent booked Cathay Pacific flights that matched our departure and return dates into Bangkok and out of Singapore.
Similar to my Europe blog post, below I recreated how I would maximize points and miles if I were to book the trip today. I assumed flights will be departing from the East Coast.
When you book your trip, keep in mind that you have a multitude of departure cities to choose from. Here are 5 redemptions I would recommend:
1. Fly Cathay Pacific Using Alaska Miles
Alaska Airlines requires the least amount of miles at 60,000 round-trip when you are flying its partner Cathay Pacific.
Alaska allows you to have 1 stopover (staying at a destination more than 24 hours after landing) on a one-way international award and 2 open-jaws (departing from a different city than the one you landed in).
Cathay Pacific flies non-stop from the following U.S. cities to Hong Kong (HKG):
- Boston (BOS)
- Chicago (ORD)
- Los Angeles (LAX)
- New York (JFK)
- San Francisco (SFO)
- Washington (IAD)
You can search for Cathay Pacific availability on the British Airways or Qantas website. When you find an award seat, call Alaska Airlines at 800-252-7522 to book the award ticket.
2. Fly ANA Using ANA Miles
ANA is the next lowest redemption at 65,000 miles round-trip flying from the East Coast to Southeast Asia.
Similar to Alaska Airlines, ANA allows 1 stopover and 2 open jaws opening up creative itineraries.
ANA is a great option because you can transfer points from both Amex Membership Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest.
The downside to this redemption is that you must book a round-trip ticket.
ANA flies non-stop from the following U.S. cities to Japan:
- Chicago (ORD) to Narita (NRT), Haneda (HND)
- Houston (IAH) to Narita
- Los Angeles (LAX) to Narita, Haneda
- New York (JFK) to Narita, Haneda
- San Francisco (SFO) to Narita
- San Jose (SJC) to Narita
- Seattle (SEA) to Narita
- Washington (IAD) to Narita
You can search for ANA award availability on the ANA website, which is where you will also book the award ticket.
3. Fly Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlines Using American Miles
American Airlines is the program we used to fly Cathay Pacific for 75,000 miles round-trip on our trip to Southeast Asia.
The program does not allow a stopover but you can book open jaws.
The reason you can open-jaw is because the redemptions can be booked as a series of one-way flights.
When you use American miles to fly Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlines, American Airlines does not add fuel surcharges reducing your out-of-pocket spend.
Japan Airlines flies non-stop from the following U.S. cities to Japan:
- Boston (BOS) to Narita
- Chicago (ORD) to Narita
- Dallas (DFW) to Narita
- Los Angeles (LAX) to Narita
- San Diego (SAN) to Narita
- New York to Haneda
- San Francisco to Haneda
You can search for Cathay Pacific of Japan Airlines award availability on the British Airways or Qantas website. When you find availability, call American Airlines at 800-433-7300 to book the award ticket.
Conclusion
I also evaluated using Japan Airlines miles to Emirates, Qatar Airways, Finnair, Cathay Pacific, China Eastern, Air France, and Royal Jordanian. The downside with these redemptions is that you will pay heavy fuel surcharges on each of the airlines outside of Cathay Pacific.
As an aside, I called Japan Airlines award booking desk multiple times where wait times exceeded 45 minutes.
Similar to Europe, researching and putting together options to fly to Southeast Asia was a lot of fun and brought me up the curve on options I should have considered.
Have you used points and miles to fly to Southeast Asia? If yes, please let me know in the comments or by sending me an email.
