January trip to Thailand

[Kirkie]

Hi all – just researching a possible trip to Thailand and wanted to canvas opinions on the best ways of (a) obtaining and (b) potentially using reward points. Here’s my details:

– BA Silver (currently 90,000 Avios and 380 Tier points) and Hilton Platinum (270,000 points)
– (The flight to Thailand will be timed to be just before my Tier point collection year end in Jan)
– I’ll likely be doing c10 BA domestic flights before that time – so looking at 120 Tier points to retain Silver
– Have 1 x companion voucher (I’m going myself, though) and 1 x cabin upgrade voucher… but BA reward flights don’t seem to be available.
– Amex Platinum (64,000 Amex points) and BA Amex, Barclaycard BA MasterCard
– Flying from London, probably January 2025, likely for 10-14 days
– Probably doing 1 (or maybe 2) internal trips once there

So far, thoughts are a 1 change flight through Doha… but the transfer time is an hour and 10 mins, which seems exceptionally tight. Hiltons in Bangkok seem pretty plentiful so can get redemptions there. Unsure yet about other locations/resorts in Thailand at this stage. Likely will pay BA Amex to get the points (although I then would need to buy travel insurance as my platinum card would otherwise have that). May book hotels too through BA holidays… would this be worth it?

Thoughts and suggestions welcome! TIA.

[The real Swiss Tony]

Lots to unpack there but to start…

If you are intending to redeem points, you can just ignore the whole debate about the Silver card. It’s an irrelevance short of being able to book seats in advance but as you say, BA isn’t available anyway.

QR fly five times a day from Doha to Bangkok so if you were to miss the connection, they will sort you out.

Hiltons in BKK may be plentiful, but so are hotel offers so this might not be a good use of your points. Do check the likes of luxury escape & secret escapes for what they are offering (admittedly it’s peak travel season)

[The real Swiss Tony]

(just realised you may be planning to fly economy, in which case obviously the Silver card does have value…)

[MrWhite]

Just checking your maths – you need 600TPs for silver, you’ve stated you have 380, plus 120 to go = 500TPs.

Gaining silver will allow seat selection and lounge access in T4 for QR (assuming you’re flying economy)

I’ve flown Qatar with a c.1 hour transfer and had no problems previously (it’s no guarantee though!)

Booking with BAH would be beneficial a) for the low deposit b) booking 5 or more nights to get the double TP

[Kirkie]

Cheers for the suggestions so far – more welcome.
Just to clarify, I’m BA Silver already (and looking to hit 600TPs by 8 Jan to keep it for 2025), and I’ve a AmEx platinum, so hopefully can use some lounges at Heathrow / Gatwick, Doha (or other connections), and BKK?
Hotels – several people have told me that Good hotels are pretty cheap – so I may well buy these rather than use Avios / Hilton points to redeem. I’ve already made Hilton Diamond status for 2025, so any Hilton stays will obviously be going towards earning that in 2025 (for 2026) – Assuming I keep my job, then that shouldn’t be an issue. Hilton points earned through that go towards “free” city break stays away….

[John]

If you’re already BA Silver, at present you have two concurrent TP collection years from 9 Jan 2024 to 8 Jan 2025 and 1 Apr 2024 to 31 Mar 2025, so it may not be strictly necessary to get 600 TPs by 8 Jan 2025 if you are intent on renewing.

Your real deadline is 28 Feb 2025 if you have flights in March 2025 where you will want to use the status (or want to select seats for future flights during March 2025), otherwise if you are OK with being bronze for a bit you don’t have to renew until 31 March