London to Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) – trying to work out best way to use my Avios

[tomfromlondon]

When looking up flights the OneWorld part of the flight is often really short so you change in Europe, which would mean I can only use my avios for the short haul.
Ideally I want to use Avios to get me as close as possible and then just pay for the short haul part to ulaanbaatar from there.

Does anyone have any thoughts or tips?

thanks

[Matt]

https://www.flightconnections.com/ is good for working out what’s possible. It looks like your best option would be BA to Beijing and then change to either Air China or MIAT there. It looks like it would involve a change of airport (though if you want a couple of days there using the TWOV that might not be a problem)

[SBIre]

Matt wrote:

https://www.flightconnections.com/ is good for working out what’s possible. It looks like your best option would be BA to Beijing and then change to either Air China or MIAT there. It looks like it would involve a change of airport (though if you want a couple of days there using the TWOV that might not be a problem)

Perfect answer – you can fly from either Beijing airport, and it’s closer and has better avios availability than the other options

[davefl]

I’ve been looking at this route and decided that avios and via China is a poor route from the west. Much easier to go via IST and you can take advantage of a free layover hotel or a free tour if you book the right tickets. Sometimes Avios aren’t the answer.

[JDB]

@tomfromlondon – if you did choose to go via Beijing, it’s well worth spending a few days there if you are interested in history or culture. There’s a huge amount to see and do in the city as well as the Great Wall (although that’s quite time consuming if only there for a short tine).

Beijing isn’t flash – definitely doesn’t look anything like Shanghai which is now not only quite un-Chinese in many ways, but has also bulldozed so much history/historic buildings which were fewer anyway as unlike Nanjing or Xian it hasn’t been the capital.

[tomfromlondon]

Much appreciated! Apologies for the late reply, I had seen the Beijing route and thought that might be the best, also the flight connections site is a new one so very useful!
Ill see if I stay in Beijing and extra 1-2 days as well, Im not going till 2025 but will likely book everything as soon as it becomes availble