A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how we leveraged partner rewards to book flights to Asia. This was part of a larger upcoming vacation. Matt and I are somehow celebrating our tenth anniversary in July. We have discussed going on a special overseas trip to celebrate for years. We wanted to go somewhere new and far while we were still young enough to enjoy it. Well, we have booked it! In July 2024, Matt and I will be traveling to Thailand, Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv.

 

How Did We Choose Thailand?

Truthfully, we were struggling to pick a destination as we have been to Europe and South America many times together. We wanted something new and did not know where to start. Good news is I wrote a blog post about how we choose our destinations and used it as a guide! We threw things out like the Maldives, Dubai, Thailand, Vietnam and Bora Bora. We narrowed it down to Thailand as it is in Asia, on the water and gay friendly for that part of the world. As discussed, we used 150,000 Capital One points to book business class seats on Cathay Pacific, operated by Japanese airlines to get to Bangkok. However how would we get home without going bankrupt as we wanted to go somewhere else while on the other side of the world.

Tel Aviv

Originally the plan was to fly from Thailand to Singapore and spend a few days there. However flights between Koh Samui (where we are staying) to Singapore were about 1200 dollars for the two of us. Just to give you an idea, flights between Bangkok and Koh Samui are less than a 100 dollars. Hotels in Singapore are quite expensive. I could not find any good mileage redemptions to get us back to Boston from there. We concluded it wasn’t worth thousands of dollars for a few nights in Singapore. 

I thought about our objectives and thought, where else can we go that is far, but also easier to get home from? Then I thought about the Middle East. Being gay limited our options to Israel, Lebanon (sort of) and the UAE if we are quite about it. I realized that Etihad Airlines is a partner of American Airlines and they put aside two business class seats per flight for American Airlines Award redemptions. I also noticed despite Israel being almost 7 hours from Bangkok, it was only 40,000 miles a ticket to fly Etihad Business via Abu Dhabi. The only drawback was an overnight connection there, but that’s okay as it allows us to briefly see a new place. Because Etihad only holds two business seats for AA airlines I watched it like a hawk on a daily basis for the airline to release those seats. 80,000 miles for the two of us to fly in Pods for 7 hours is a steal. Go on AA.com right now and search award space between two US cities and I guarantee you it is quite close to 80,000 miles.

How Will We Get Home

Flying home from Tel Aviv is much easier than Singapore as every American and European airline flies there. Competition means cheaper prices or award redemptions. United Mileage plus points came to the rescue. If we booked ourselves on a United Flight via Newark, it would have cost us 400,000 miles ☹. However, we scrolled down on United.com and saw for 80,000 miles we can fly Lufthansa. Better airlines for a fraction of the miles? Yes, thank you!

Why Am I Posting This Now

I learned several valuable lessons through this booking process that I will share in future posts to help you plan similar luxurious trips on a budget. 

How Much Would These Same Flights Cost in Dollars?

$26,000 ☹, or free with miles/points 😊

Flights (all business class and pods)

Japan Airlines from Boston to Bangkok via Tokyo

Bangkok Airlines roundtrip from Bangkok to Samui (we just paid for this as it was cheap, business class, but not pods due it only being a 45 minute flight)

Etihad Airlines from Bangkok to Tel Aviv via Abu Dhabi

Austrian/Lufthansa from Tel Aviv to Boston via Vienna

Hotels

St Regis-Bangkok

Vana Belle a Luxury Collection Hotel-Koh Samui

W Hotel Abu Dhabi 

Sheraton Tel Aviv (Don’t judge, much nicer than most Sheratons)

 

I cannot wait to celebrate our 10^thanniversary with Matt! 

Bon Voyage,

Andrew