Cheapest way to do 4 leg Asia trip

[JohnnyM]

Wife's sister is in Thailand for a year. We are trying to plan a trip for next April. We also want to hit Hong Kong for a few days and Tokyo for a few days. What is the cheapest way to look for the airfare? Can we use miles for one-way travel? Most awards are RT. We would like to probably use a lot of miles rather than paying through the nose.

Ideally we go:

LAX - BKK
BKK - HKG
HKG - NRT
NRT - LAX

Any suggestions?

 

[JohnnyYuma]

I looked around at a few options. Looks like AA has flights that cover all destinations for you. I would think they can fix you an something using your miles. The flights from LAX go through NRT and/or HKG, so you could probably do a stop-over type deal. If you have a friend that works for AA, try bummig some reduced fare, standby passes. I did that going from DFW to Maui last year and the fare was about $200rt.

 

[iamtigerwoods]

Given the length of the flight from the West Coast to Asia(Tokyo, Taipei, Hong Kong), I might look at the most comfortable flight vs the cheapest. I have flown both American and Singapore coach over to Asia and can tell you that Singapore and/or Cathay would be worth every $$ extra you have to pay. American to Tokyo is an absolute nightmare, as the in-flight technology sucks, the service sucks, food sucks and the seats are crammer together.

 

[iamtigerwoods]

once you are in Asia, look into AirAsia, Tiger Air, Nippon, Phuket Air, etc..all are discount airlines in the same model as SW..

 

[JohnnyM]

thanks for the suggestions. i actually did RT from LAX to Tokyo last summer on AA. everything you said about it was exactly true on my flights, although i made it ok...so anything better is just extra comfort for me!

hell on the way there i was in the middle of the middle section next to a family with two kids under 3 and on the other side a teenage kid who literally never got out of his seat...even when i had to climb over him to get to the bathroom (he was awake, just wouldn't stand up).

the wife and I went to Italy last fall and went business class so i have to talk her down from that now.

 

[iplaydrums]

Check out the Cathay Pacific ALL Asia Pass here:The Link

Starting at $1199, includes Economy airfare from JFK/LAX/SFO to Hong Kong plus 21 consecutive days of travel up to four other destinations. It's a pretty good deal.