Best Use of United Miles to East Asia

Well, this is not only my favorite region to travel in but SE Asia is the region that will change most for economy flyers and premium cabin lovers Feb 1st. So let’s talk about pre-devaluation booking!

And just a quick note, for the rest of this post, I will refer to SE Asia and North Asia as “Asia” and when I refer to “Central Asia” or something, I will call it just that.

Asia and anywhere in the world = 1 ticket

SE Asia and North Asia is a lax region. You are allowed to combine it with nearly every region of the world except South America.

This means that you can have a stopover in Europe, Africa, somewhere else in Asia or in North America on your way to Asia.*

Or you can make a stopover in Asia on your way to Australia, Oceania, Central Asia or the Middle East.**

*This seems like semantics but it isn’t. The first list, is a list of places which are your stopover when Asia is your destination. Meaning any route combing two stops where the other stop is in one of the bolded regions will be priced as an Asia trip. Plain and simple. If you route through Asia and Europe, you will pay for Asia. Same with Africa. 😉 65,000 miles in economy.

**The second list is a list of places that would be the destination. This means that trips visiting Asia and Australia will essentially be priced as an Australia ticket. In other words, Asia would be your stopover and Australia, again, your destination.

All the concepts for why and how to price out some super generous tickets will be explained in the post explaining The Most Powerful Zones and United Stopovers and Routing Rules post. Both are very advanced posts.

We’ll come back around to this a little later, but the point here is that when booking a trip to Asia you can route through pretty much anywhere. So your options are nearly endless. Which is good, although it means that this post could be really freaking long.

But instead of giving an example of every combinable region, just know that you can combine it with anything except South America. Asia and anywhere in Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, North/South Africa, Europe, Oceania, North America and Hawaii. Some regions make the price higher (the second list above), some don’t (the first list).

 

Routing to Asia

In general there seems to be more availability going Asia via Europe despite it being longer, it’s the same price. But you don’t have to stopover in Europe or some place way out of the way, you can use your stopover in Asia.

And because Asia is so easy to get around in, you should consider using an “open-jaw”. The open-jaw is where you fly into one airport and out of another. On a roundtrip, United allows two open-jaws and one stopover.

Let’s say your destination is Hong Kong, well, you can make it an open-jaw and fly into Hong Kong and out of Bali. Then you can use Avios to fill that gap, as Cathay has regular flights on that route and it’s only 12,500 Avios.

Different ways to connect open-jaws:

British Airways Avios is always a good way to fill the gap created by open-jaws, however there are only two OneWorld hubs in SE Asia – Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. Both are interesting cities and all but if it’s not your destination of choice, well since Avios prices by segment you may have to pay more.

But if you have a short direct like Bangkok to KL, Avios are great.

Discount Airliners are abundant in SE Asia. Rather, flights can just be cheap. Primarily, AirAsia has some super cheap flights especially connecting places like Singapore and Bangkok to other destinations in SE Asia.

Then there’s always land transport. We’ve over-nighted on buses in Asia a number of times. Not at all my favorite experience, but SE Asia is sooo cheap. We’ve bussed 12 hours for less than $10. Of course, it would have been an hour or so flying.

Asia is diverse in many ways. Culturally, our experience in China and Indonesia is very different. I mean, even China is insanely diverse. The highest mountain in the world, the tibet platau/culture, the weird cliffs in Yangshao, the beaches in the SE Asia. Even the tropical Hong Kong is widely different than mainland cities.

So SE Asia is even more diverse. The cultures, the food, the beaches, etc… And SE has a big tourist infrastructure. I say that to say, there are few places you can go, even on a whim, and not get around super easily and safely.

And on an unrelated note, people who tell you to watch for pick pockets and crime in SE Asia are loons. Yes it exists in Bangkok and Saigon… but nothing like Paris or New York. And definitely not like Johannesburg, Lima or Detroit. It’s super safe.

   

Don’t know what that rant was about… But I’m saying, there’s a lot to see in SE Asia, even if you’re unfamiliar with it.

Booking

I would say booking is easy, but lately United has been as fickle as a teenage girl. (Although that could apply to more than just booking).

Here’s how I would book a trip like the one I was talking about:

• Go to United.com
• Check “Award Travel”
• Click “Multiple Destinations”
• Put in your ticket how you want… something like the pic below:

 

Basically, this is a ticket with a stopover in Hong Kong on the way to Bangkok. The destination is split by the open-jaw, so I’d fly into Bangkok and out of Phuket. The open-jaw could easily be filled by a ticket by a flight on Bangkok Airways, Air Asia or that 12 hour bus ride I was talking about to close that gap. :-p

The problem with booking a ticket to SE Asia is generally that availability demands routing through Europe. Which is fine, I guess. But the issue is that United.com is slow, and the award searches time out. Thus, when you have so many segments to search for United.com kind of gives up and gives an error message.

If this happens, you can call in the ticket (unless it’s not a legal routing). It’s a $25 phone booking fee, fyi.

More stopover stuff

I wanted to go over some of the great routes alluded to above.

Of course, there are so many great options, beaches, unique destinations, etc… in SE Asia itself and you could explore that region for a long time. But if you wanted to mix it up, or see more different places, here are some ideas.

The Classic Europe and Asia trip.

You can always stopover in Europe on your way to Asia. This is actually fairly logical if you have to route through Europe anyways. It’s a nice way to break up the long flights. Stop in the alps for a few days or a few weeks.

Oceania

Oceania is barely more expensive than SE Asia. A roundtrip to Oceania is 70,000 instead of 65,000 miles. So if you wanted to see some beautiful islands… not in Asia, this could be fun.

If you can nail the route and are into farflung destinations, unique cultures, and great snorkeling, you could try to see Yap or Palau. It’s on my to do list.

Africa

This is almost too good to be true, but it’s true. A roundtrip to Africa is 80,000 and a roundtrip to SE Asia is 65,000 miles. But when you combine the two and make a stopover in Africa, you still only have to pay for the lower 65,000 amount.

Addis Ababa and Johannesburg are the two African Star Alliance hubs. So there are direct flights to Bangkok and stuff. Cairo as well. So it’s not hard to get from many African destinations to SE Asia with one short connection.

There aren’t a lot of US to Africa direct. A few from east coast to Johannesburg. Joburg (where I am right now) is only 4 hours away from Kruger National Park, and an hour from Pilanesberg but isn’t recommended by anyone I know apparently. Also, it’s a freak ton of flying.

In conclusion

There’s not a lot you can do to shave the price down on a SE Asia ticket… becacuse it’s a great price already. And it’s going up Feb 1, so if you want to book Asia tickets, do it before then. No joke. Roundtrips to SE Asia will be 80k and North Asia will be 70k (instead of 65k as is).

And while it’s a world of possibilities here, I’d recommend using that open-jaw in SE Asia and using Avios or something to fill that gap. Even just to spend a couple of nights in Hong Kong.

As always, any questions about routing rules or whatever, and comment are welcome.