Not sure where you're based, Alaska only makes sense if you're US based due to their award terminating/origin rules. Even though there's the devaluation coming up, AA still gets my vote.

I'm planning a trip to Vancouver next year (either in May or Oct-Nov 2017) using Enrich to redeem OW flight. Checked the distance and will require zone 6 redemption for J class of 144,000miles per pax (2 pax) return.

I'm currently torn between two airline (JAL and CX). JAL currently runs Sky Suite from KUL to NRT but uses Shell Neo from NRT to YVR. From what i see, availability for redemption is also much more widely available. So far no news of them changing the seats to SkySuite for YVR route right?

CX runs regional J class from KUL to HKG and the lie flat J class from HKG to YVR. Would love to get on this flight but availability is hard to get. Most of the dates i've checked are on waitlist (even for flights 8 months down the road).

I'm currently still short of about 100k enrich which i target should reach by Oct this year as have several large purchases coming up. This means i can only book the flights in Oct. Any idea when is the best time to snag a CX award flight based on my travel period?

Hope sifus here can assist. Already done most of my research and shortlisted this two flights. Is there any other route to get to Vancouver under OW?

Okay, so AS is out (Couple months a year in the US but don't originate there)

Did my calculations here- with AA I'm barely touching Platinum (OW Sapphire), while with BA I'd reach Sapphire much faster and 70% to OW Emerald, which is pretty close and doable with another biz trip.

Do you think the status is worth the worse award chart?

You need to figure out your future plans, if you're planning more revenue flights in the future BA would make more sense given that you'd have status which gives you a leg up if you have future BA flights. Upgrading on BA from premium economy to business is reasonably easy with Avios miles from what I understand.

If you're planning more redemption flights, AA despite the devaluation to me makes more sense for me, partly because of the zone based redemption rather than distance based, partly because of their partnership with EY but again that's me.

I'm flying far less these days compared to before so most of my OneWorld flights used to go to AA. Now that I've burned almost all my AA miles though I have to figure out what I want to do in the future.

I think you do know that CX does release last minute award space. I poked around the next few weeks and see a handful of J seats available, definitely not what I'd call plentiful.

Angle flat isn't so bad I almost did JL J SAN-NRT on the JL 788, but switched to CX J before the flight. Have flown KUL-DOH (QR), KUL-ICN (KE), KUL-PEK (MH) on angle flats and I slept well enough.

The other alternative if you really want the sky suites is to try KUL-NRT-SFO/DFW/IAD/LAX and take a connecting flight. SFO-YVR is probably the least painful option. This would work on CX and JL.

This post has been edited by tishaban: Mar 4 2016, 04:27 PM

Addition another transit point is kinda out of the question. Spending 20+ hours in the air is the maximum i can take. Not to mention the missus might slaughter me midflight.

Guess i'll have to keep my travel plans flexible and wait for last minute CX award space release. based on experience, do you think i'll be able to at least lock in my flight 3-4 months before the trip? I know usually mid week flights are more readily available.

My experience is limited, but I doubt you'd see much change 3-4 months out, the changes usually happens 2 weeks or closer to your departure date. If you have the flexibility of mid week then the options would be much better.

I flew CX in Dec 2014 and Oct 2015. Got 5 J seats in Dec 2014 about 2 weeks before flight (LAX-HKG-KUL) which I upgraded happily from LAX-SAN-NRT-KUL. Outbound KUL-HKG-JFK flights in Oct 2015, not a single J seat cleared the week I was flying out, even a few days before and after were completely full up to departure date. The inbound EWR-HKG-KUL had several J seats open up pretty early, but I was on an Asia Miles award ticket so it would've been expensive to upgrade only one flight to J so I stayed in PE.

Yeah my biz travel is pretty flexible I'm not sure if it'll last a while. BA is also much easier to upgrade than on CX, and AA's PE plans aren't concrete yet.
Really like Delta as an airline but unfortunately Skyteam is too broken for ASEAN travel.

I'm not really sure what I want to do with ~60-80k miles honestly. Not particularly clamoring for biz seats here; grew up in steerage, still feels more familiar to me when I'm flying leisure.

Can you route KUL-LHR-YVR? Yes it's the long way round, yes it's lie-flat... and you'll be staring into the missus' face so you know when you're getting slaughtered

I'd say your chances at CX J is better now because AA redemptions are inflated steeply that it's no longer the good deal it was. You'd have much better availability to LAX though, from my experience with searching.

This post has been edited by X.E.D: Mar 4 2016, 05:34 PM

the miles required for KUL-LHR-YVR would push me out into zone 7.. which exceeds my available miles budget.

Guess just have to play by ear when nearing to the date. I check for flights 6 months ahead (Sept - Oct) and they have some award space available.

Btw, how does MAS calculate the tax? do they follow the tax charge by CX or it is calculated differently?

1 issue that you might need to consider is that you'll probably need a visa to transit in the US since your final destination is Canada.

CX awards are extremely tight right now since all the AA members are trying to burn through their stockpile of miles before the devaluation. Unless you're willing to wait till sub 2 weeks to book the award, might be safer to go with JL. I highly doubt CX will release anymore award space until its much closer to the flight.

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I didn't win (yet?)

It's still a long way to go to May '17; AA members can only book a year upfront so they can only book until March 2017 at pre-devaluation rates.

After this there's bound to be people changing travel plans, can't make trips and whatnot... so it's not as tied down as we all think it is.

i was actually referring to @raist86 in regards to CX awards since his/her target is for sept/oct this year.

You're right about May'17, AA can only book awards 335 days ahead. It was actually just nice for a CNY trip prior to devaluation (last day to fly with old rates i think is 2/23/2017) but due to a change in plans, that went out the window and i'm now sitting on a pile of AA miles thats soon to be devaluated

Yea, i gathered most of the bookings are AA milers cashing out before devaluation. Anyway, most likely planning the trip for Oct 2017 to coincide with the Autumn period in Vancouver.

Been looking forward to try out CX J class since i last flew on CX Y to SFO... always have a jealous eye on those extra space for long journeys.

I did more research in regards to trying to book an award via Alaska for Emirates.

My original problem was that i was able to see F award availability from LAX-DXB but limited supply for DXB-KUL (vice versa). Searching on Qantas i do see availability for DXB-KUL.

So it seems that Emirates gives Qantas better availability for award seats compared to other partners. So using Qantas to search for awards might not work when using Alaska miles. Using Expert Flyer for Z inventory might not also work because Alaska might not have inventory to those awards.

Even searching for Jan-30-2017, i cant find F availability from DXB-KUL. I think Emirates is blocking/limiting the KUL route.

I have an option to cash out lump sum and pay it back with 12 months installment from my credit card for 1.90% processing fees, however every dollar cash out equivalent to one Krisflyer miles, after doing calculation, one Krisflyer equal to about RM0.057, and lump sum free to use for a year.

Is it a good deal?

What's your objective? Want to fly one of the longest flights in the world in SQ Suites and you have enough (~200k miles return)? You'll end up paying RM200k x 1.9% = RM3,800 + airport taxes and fees (RM3k?) ~ RM7k total.

Don't have enough points? Yes a KF mile may be RM0.057 but if you don't have enough miles or don't know what to do with it that's an opportunity cost not worth paying for.

Ask yourself what your objective is, and if you have enough miles to reach that objective. Miles are worth something only when redeemed (says yours truly with far too many points already )


This post has been edited by tishaban: Mar 8 2016, 09:34 PM

Thinking of cash out about 100k and I earn 100k miles
Put that 100k into 3% FD for the first month
90k 3% at the second month, 10k go to monthly repayment
80k 3% at the third month .....etc

The interest pretty much cover back my 1.90% charges

This post has been edited by terence_say: Mar 8 2016, 11:12 PM

I'm not sure how you do your calculation. RM100k x 1.9% = RM1,900 fees up front.

RM100k in FD for one month earning 3% annual interest = RM3,000/12 = RM250 only. If you take RM10k out each month, after 10 months I calculate that you earn only around RM1,375 from interest, far less than what you pay up front.

Personally though I would do it, paying RM 525 for 100k Krisflyer miles is worth it IMO. Which bank is offering this?

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