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What’s the best option to travel from the UK to Thailand using Avios? I know that there are no direct flights from London. Alternatively, any recommendations for converting amex points?
In my opinion Qatar
As mentioned above. Qatar flies to Phuket, Krabi and Chiangmai, so you don’t have to change at BKK unless you really want to.
Other options are Malaysian and Srilankan. You can also fly BA to India or Singapore and take a short flight to Thailand, if you have the vouchers.
Probably Qatar if you don’t have an Amex/Barclays voucher.
I’m flying BA via Singapore on a Barclays voucher tomorrow – then it’s a short flight to Phuket (Air Asia) and returning to Singapore via Krabi (Scoot).
When I was researching this Qatar had far more Avios availability. I had to lurk on Seatspy for a few weeks waiting for flights to come up.
I have recently booked BHX > DOH > BKK, first leg in Business, second leg in First for 75,000 Avios one way per person. The First option would not be available from London due to the leg distance AFAIK. Q-Suite not guaranteed on the Business leg but I am hopeful.
As mentioned above. Qatar flies to Phuket, Krabi and Chiangmai, so you don’t have to change at BKK unless you really want to.
Other options are Malaysian and Srilankan. You can also fly BA to India or Singapore and take a short flight to Thailand, if you have the vouchers.
And of course Cathay/BA to Hong Kong and then onwards on Cathay (to BKK or HKT), or on a LCC (HK Express, Airasia as well I think). You could also look at Tokyo, but that feels quite a detour.
Which class are you travelling? If business I think I’d prefer a short hop then a long stretch, so either BA via SIN (and onto a low cost carrier) or Finnair via HEL. If economy, I’d probably value the more even split in flying times that Doha offers.
We did Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Phuket last year, flying out to Singapore on a BA redemption (using a Barclaycard upgrade voucher to CW) and back from Phuket on a Qatar business class redemption.
By the time I’d factored in the connection costs and hassle flying back with Qatar was a no-brainer, even though we could have used an Amex 2for1 to fly return with BA. And it was most certainly a better experience.
If you stop in Doha to break the journey you can get very cheap hotel deals as a Qatar Airways stop-over passenger. I can recommend the Souq Waqif hotel by Tivoli.
BA returns to BKK and KL this winter …
Interesting. Bangkok only 3x weekly from Gatwick though.
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