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Booking premium mileage award travel on United Airlines to Asia can be daunting. Lacking significant competition, fares are sky high and so is demand for free seats and upgrades. Thus, when United recently announced the launch of a new Los Angeles-Hong Kong daily non-stop, we were optimistic about what new veins of gold we might find as we began mining for the availability of mileage seats.
United's published First and Business Class fares to Hong Kong are, as expected, astronomical: Business Class is $5,456, while First Class is a platinum-card-draining $25,134. Nonetheless, we uncovered how, using United's Mileage Plus program, you can fly more comfortably and save enough to book a harbor view room at the Peninsula or Ritz-Carlton for a month or longer. I'll get to that in a minute.
New route announcements often present opportunities for the alert traveler to score free mileage award seats and upgrades, but sometimes availability is conspicuously absent. We expected to find at least a few Business and First Class seats that could be booked as Saver Awards, but were disappointed to find exactly zero.
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Fortunately, our enthusiasm was restored by the fact that Business and First Class upgrades are plentiful (as of today).
The cheapest and easiest escape route from coach is to buy the lowest-priced upgradeable economy ticket (H-fare) at $1,634 and use 60,000 miles for an upgrade to Business Class seats. Remember: If you don't have the miles, you can buy them for about $1,650, for a total of $3,284-saving $2,200 from the published fare!
If you want to fly First Class (maybe your Gulfstream is getting detailed), you'll be at least somewhat interested to learn that you can save 64% if you purchase an upgradeable Business Class fare at $7,289 and use 60,000 miles to upgrade. Your final savings will be $16,195 (see hotel tip above).
Though the price gap between United Airlines' Business and First Class fares to Hong Kong is huge, it can reflect what you get for your luxury-travel dollar, relatively speaking. United's First Class Suite pods are, if not state-of-the-art, at least competitive among Mass Market Carriers, offering many entertainment options and legitimate potential for sleep. United's Business Class seats on B747s that cover the Los Angeles-Hong Kong run, however, seem closer in quality to what some carriers are offering in Premium Economy.
A remedy for that is in the works. All United's overseas aircraft are being refurbished, with special attention being paid to Business Class, bringing long-awaited lie-flat seats.
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US Airways regardless of there Emails still drops the ball. My wife missed a first segment Roc-Bos, Medical Emer,12hrs after flight time, called spoke to Reserv and was told ,Sorry you must buy New ticket or forget the flying, but apply for refund with letter.(took bus)Still thought she had a return but on the return,found out no ticket! She bought new ticket paid $345 for 1 way Bos-Roc and never received a refund. It took 7 mths to get a refusal letter. She has 7x rnd this yr alone on the same flight but The rule is if you miss and call after you loose everything. (Total cost 1 wy Bos to Roc $645-- ). They just do not care!
Could somebody tell me what is the cheapest way of getting to Sydney via Hong Kong from The UK travelling in the Club class or the Upper Class. I got a companion ticket from both Virgin Atlantic and BA. BA flights seem all gone. We want to go on the 28th March 2009 and return from Sydney on the 14th April 2009, stopping in HK for 4 days!!! I got enough miles for the BA flight to HK, But no 'miles flights'.
We have over 120K miles each on American, and we are planning on traveling to Beijing from St. Louis in fall of 2009. What is the best strategy to get up front? I can do STL-PVG on American, but I'd rather not. Cathay Pacific seems to be the only carrier we can take to PEK.
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