Reply To: South East Asia beach holiday

[Go197]

Go197 wrote:

BJ wrote:

At that time of year weather is good most of SE Asia so almost free choice depending on budget, miles, time and acceptance of inconvenience available. The least expensive option is out to Japan and back from Hong Jong as both are Zone 7, while SIN is Zone 8 and costs more avios and cash, and reward availability is also more difficult than HKG. Next issue is that unless you use miles then firect flights from Japan to major SE Asian destinations are very expensive. Exceptions will be Air Asia X and Scoot but in March they will likely be expensive too. Indirect flights can be about half the price of direct bit are obviously more inconvenient. If you have mainly avios then steer clear of CX for regional fliggts within Asia, they were once good value but BA hammered them. If you have amex MR and/or Bonvoy you could convert to Alaska MP (devaluation rumoured); 25k of those gets you one way in business from Japan to SE Asia, including domestic connections within Japan. In might even be worth buying the Alaska miles in a sale. However, I would not recommend buying or transferring into Alaska until your booking window has opened and you can check what availability they have which can be different from that shown on BA.

My recommendation: out to HND back from HKG with avios. Shinkasen from Tokyo to Osaka to allow exploration of both areas. Osaka to Bangkokwith revenue business fare on Air Asia X. Bangkok to Phuket. If booking far in advance use Bangkok Airways as it will be inexpensive, include 20kg checked bag and inflight meals. If later then Air Asia (with hot seat). Phuket to HKG is 22.5 Alaska miles in J IIRC. There are also inexpensive alternatives on Air Asia and HK Express.

There are not many both cheap and easy direct ways from Japan in comfort to SE Asian beaches. An exception if you can get it would be JAL business class to Bali for 25k Alaska miles. DPS to HKG has multiple options but avoid using avios on CX.

Very useful info.

I recently booked Osaka-HongKong-Bangkok in Cathay J one way for 27k Avios and 355GBP.

I’d never look at Alaska. I have now!

22.5k miles and 73USD

So now my question is how do you move Amex MR to Alaska?

I see I can transfer MR to Asia miles where the flight would be 25k miles and approx 165GBP, so also a decent saving.

60k Bonvoy points would give 25k Alaska miles.

Is there a route to Alaska miles from MR? Or did you mean through Bonvoy, which doesn’t exist as an MR transfer partner for me