Planning & Booking
United 747 Global First San Francisco to Hong Kong
Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Grand Club
Cathay Pacific A330 Business Class Hong Kong to Taipei
W Taipei
Cathay Pacific
W Hong Kong
American Airlines 777-300 ER Flagship First Class Hong Kong to Dallas
We're only 40 days away from our trip and we're pumped. Emily is always slightly bummed in the few days after Christmas (no more presents to open or family to hangout with) so it is great to have a trip to look forward to.
In the scheme of things, this trip was relatively easy to book. There are three award tickets (two one-ways and a roundtrip) and three hotel stays. Not like our last trip where we had five hotel stays including two overnights and four flight segments to get to our first destination! If I had more time, we could make the itinerary MUCH more complicated but I still feel like we got great value from our hard earned miles and points.
Here's how we booked the trip:
Denver to Hong Kong:
Hong Kong is a great destination and there are lots of flight options from the US. United, American, Singapore Airlines, and Cathay Pacific all fly direct to Hong Kong. Ideally, we'd be flying Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong's flag carrier) on at least one of the long haul segments but availability has been challenging to find over the holidays - on all of these carriers.
I was able to find two Global First seats (saver level award) on United's 747 run from San Francisco to Hong Kong. We have a five hour layover in San Francisco, so we'll have plenty of time to check out the new Centurion lounge as well as United's Global First lounge.
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| See the window on the far right next to the nose cone? I'll be looking out that window. |
I was only able to find economy availability on the short hop from Denver the morning of our flight. I'll keep "gardening" to see if first opens up but no big deal if it doesn't. I booked the flight online and was able to select seats for both of us (1K and 2K) in the nose of the 747!
Total Cost: 160,000 United MileagePlus Miles and $11 in taxes and fees
Hong Kong to Taipei
According to Google, there are 39 direct flights between Hong Kong and Taipei each day. Depending on the day, Cathay Pacific operations somewhere between 15 and 20 flights and one or two of those flights will feature their long haul first class configuration. I couldn't make the flights/days work between Hong Kong and Taipei so selected one of the many options in business. On the return, I was able to get an early morning flight with two first class seats. Unfortunately, Cathay made a schedule change last last week so we'll be flying business on the way back as well.
I booked the roundtrip online through my British Airways Executive Club account. I was able to select seats and a special meal for Emily. Pro tip: BA and Cathay use the same booking reference number so you can make changes to your Cathay reservation booked through BA on the Cathay website. Because BA uses a "distance based" award chart and the two islands are so close together, the total cost for two premium cabin round trip flights was really reasonable.
Total Cost: 36,000 British Airways Avios and $145 in taxes and fees
Hong Kong to Denver
I spent a good amount of time searching but ultimately did something I've never done before. I booked an "anytime award" and I'm totally okay with it. We have plenty of miles and using them to see the world is the whole point of playing this game. We'll be flying American's flagship first class to Dallas on their brand new 777-300ER. We then connect to Denver after a three hour layover which we will likely spend in the Centurion lounge.
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| American 777-300 ER |
This process was actually a bit nerve racking as I needed so many American miles and had to wait for a couple of credit card bonuses to post before I could book both tickets. I ended up booking my ticket first and then several weeks later, booked Emily's. Availability held and I was able to book both tickets online and select seats on both segments.
Total Cost: 420,000 AAdvantage miles and $78 in taxes and fees
Hotels:
We wanted to stay on Hong Kong Island during the first part of our trip but there are SO many great options. We looked at the Conrad, JW Marriott, and Grand Hyatt but ultimately opted for the Grand Hyatt. This is Hyatt's flagship hotel in Asia and while the hotel opened 25 years ago, we've read/heard great things from others that have stayed there. The highlight of the hotel is supposed to be the sweeping views of the harbor from the club room. The property requires 25,000 points a night for a standard room but we opted to guarantee a club room for 33,000 points a night. Club rooms are selling for about $565 USD/night and while I normally like to get at least 2 cents per Hyatt point, I didn't want to shell out the cash either:) Hyatt points are easy so we'll stock up in the new year.
In Taipei, we opted for the W at 25,000 SPG points a night. This is supposed to be one of the best W's in the system with phenomenal Platinum treatment.
For our last night in Hong Kong, we're returning to the W where we stayed a couple of years ago on our honeymoon. I was short on SPG points so will pay cash for this night ($360 USD) unless something better opens up.
Total Cost: 99,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points, 75,000 SPG points, and $360
Summary:
For our second long haul trip of the year we are flying/staying in style. We burned 616,000 airline miles and 174,000 hotel points. While that is a lot, our balances remain healthy at 7 figures plus. Our cash expense for all the flights and hotels will be less than $600 for a 9 day trip. Not to mention we'll have club room access and/or free breakfast for all seven hotel nights which will significantly reduce our out of pocket expense.
Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions about the booking process!
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