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Morning all,
A little bit eager here but just wanted some advice on the best way to secure reward seats for BKK, December 2026.
I’ve looked at a few options and detailed some thoughts below. I appreciate this is a very popular route and obtaining seats for that time is going to be near on impossible. Anyone got experience of some ideal routes or best ways to utilise the Avios we have?
Currently have 300k Avios saved and a companion voucher til May 2027.
Option A – using companion voucher for LON to BKK
Option B – 300k Avios flying Qatar, business/first
Option C – 220k Avios with voucher flying to Singapore
Option D – Finnair, looks to be around £7k for return business seatsDon’t forget all the options that exist if booking it as 2 one way trips.
Having just completed this round trip, have a look at Finnair redemptions from Helsinki (not starting in the UK). You take yourself to Helsinki, and from there the price tumbles on redemptions.
As usual with starting your trip elsewhere – you must leave enough time to transit even with disruptions.
We went the night before on the A350 wide body Finnair service, which was excellent (also an avios redemption)As you are booking 2 one ways – The flight back with Finnair can be booked BKK-LHR (with a stop in HEL), and will still have low fees.
However I preferred the Qatar flight times on the return so transferred avios to Qatar and booked the return with them. Again, because it is booked as a one way and not booked as a return leaving the UK – the price tumbles.
Finnair HEL-BKK 62500 avios + £29 (yes, £29!)
Qatar BKK-LHR 75000 avios + £158Prices are per person, in business. But need to add on the cost of getting LHR-HEL. Whilst economy cash booking is an option on this short hop, we felt the business class redemption price of 9600 avios + £133 was a very good option… And it was given the A350!
Note: Booked the finnair redemptions via BA, but booked Qatar ones with Qatar.
You can get a few days earlier availability if you transfer to Finnair, but that wasn’t yet an option back when I booked.
It looks like you’ve got all the options in place and plenty of Avios, just work out where you want to go after Bangkok, then you may end up returning from Singapore or Hong Kong etc.
Open jaw would allow the use of the voucher, but that’s not always the best result.
instad of SIN you may also consider KUL
Remember though that a 2-4-1 can only be used – for the purposes of this trip – on BA metal.
So you could use it on say LHR-SIN or HKG but an onward flight to BKK would need to be a separate booking.
You’ve seemed to not realised that you can use avios on Finnair – either by booking via BA or AY (though for AY you’d need to transfer your avios over)
Above all be flexible on both dates and routing.
Thanks so much all! Some great advice here. I guess one factor would be not wanting the 241 voucher to go to waste. We only have enough avios for this trip and don’t currently have any route to new membership points until January 2027 (when first 24 month hits).
KUL actually looks a better option than SIN as we’d be flying back from Krabi, so this is a shorter flight and more options. So thankyou for the heads up on this – great shout.
Finnair and back with Qatar also looks a splendid option. It looks like it’ll be similar costs to BA 241 BKK/KUL but slightly more Avios.
As I’ve just written on a thread about the Barclays voucher don’t force yourself to use it if it leads to taking less than optimal flights with additional costs to other options that may meet your needs better.
Sometimes losing it is better all round than using it.
You could look at using your 241 to get part way there with BA to Doha for example and then Qatar onwards using Avios (would need to be a separate booking).
In January we’re using a 241 to get to Doha with BA and then heading on to Singapore with Qatar – we’ll be spending a few days in Qatar each way.
You could look at using your 241 to get part way there with BA to Doha for example and then Qatar onwards using Avios (would need to be a separate booking).
In January we’re using a 241 to get to Doha with BA and then heading on to Singapore with Qatar – we’ll be spending a few days in Qatar each way.
I’m not sure this works as it’s quite a lot of Avios and would require a fair bit of cash spend to get to BKK from Qatar. I think options are BKK, KUL and SIN – in that order.
Failing that, out and back with Qatar for 300k avios is a good option whilst killing the voucher.
I’ve been on all 3 on this route multiple times and there’s an argument to be made for all ignoring the cost. The main factor for me is the ability to rest, maybe not sleep but that’s a bonus. So travelling east its usually BA or Finnair as I’m up in the better part of the country and need a connection, west is similar unless I’m coming back from Australia when I prefer Qatar as the first leg is longer again.
The whole experience imo is best in QR, AY, BA in that order but I’d go with what I can get. Ex EU is not my thing but others swear by it, I just want to get from A to B and the total cost of the trip (again imo) is usually very similar with hotels included to remove any connection anxiety.
If your final destination is Krabi, are you planning to fly there? Or get the sleeper train to Trang/Surat Thani?
If the former I would not want a long leg, followed by a long leg, followed by a short haul to Krabi. So that would make Qatar unattractive. There are some surface options by boat from Phuket if you want to fly there from Doha.
Singapore, KL and Bangkok have cheap quick flights to Krabi. I did London – Paris – Singapore – Krabi once and it was fine. Flying with Finnair or Qatar might be cheaper and/or better, but if you use the companion voucher to take the sting out of BA’s fees going straight to Singapore with BA would be my first choice. Who wants to spend any part of a Christmas holiday in Doha airport?
Noted there is a BA voucher at play, but you may find benefit in securing seats at T-360 via QR/AY outweigh BA’s T-355 palpitation-inducing 1am scramble [possibly on consecutive nights & QR/AY seats would have been gone by then].
How does the cancellation charge work with AY, thinking also of going this route next year, tnx.
EUR50, free cancellation within first 24 hours.
If your final destination is Krabi, are you planning to fly there? Or get the sleeper train to Trang/Surat Thani?
If the former I would not want a long leg, followed by a long leg, followed by a short haul to Krabi. So that would make Qatar unattractive. There are some surface options by boat from Phuket if you want to fly there from Doha.
Singapore, KL and Bangkok have cheap quick flights to Krabi. I did London – Paris – Singapore – Krabi once and it was fine. Flying with Finnair or Qatar might be cheaper and/or better, but if you use the companion voucher to take the sting out of BA’s fees going straight to Singapore with BA would be my first choice. Who wants to spend any part of a Christmas holiday in Doha airport?
Itinerary is;
Fly to Bangkok (hopefully direct with BA using 241)
2-3 nights in Bangkok
Fly to Krabi from BKK and boat to Koh Lanta
5 nights in Koh Lanta
Boat back to Krabi
5 nights in Krabi
Fly from Krabi to BBK/KUL/SIN and fly home.To be honest, if we get flights to KUL or SIN instead of BKK, we’ll just start the trip with a couple of nights in those destinations and then fly to BKK. KUL would be second choice over SIN as I’m yet to visit that city.
As someone has mentioned above, the fact the BA flights are direct and will allow for much better rest and we can utilise the voucher – this makes more sense.
Itinerary is;
Fly to Bangkok (hopefully direct with BA using 241)
2-3 nights in Bangkok
Fly to Krabi from BKK and boat to Koh Lanta
5 nights in Koh Lanta
Boat back to Krabi
5 nights in Krabi
Fly from Krabi to BBK/KUL/SIN and fly home.As someone has mentioned above, the fact the BA flights are direct and will allow for much better rest and we can utilise the voucher – this makes more sense.
Sounds like a great trip and an optimised plan! Enjoy … Having done the sleeper Trang -> Bangkok I’d recommend it as a memorable alternative to an instantly forgettable short haul flight. Man in Seat 61 has all the details you need.
Finnair fly from Phuket too, so that’s another option for getting home.
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