I’m enroute to Jakarta for the long-awaited 90%-off first class award redemption on Garuda Indonesia. Although I am very excited to try Gardua First Class, I must admit my routing to Jakarta is giving it a run for the money.
When I booked the one-way first class award from Jakarta to Amsterdam in December for 90% off (19K miles instead of 190K miles), I did not even consider how I would get to Indonesia. Finally last month I sat down to figure it out.
My first thought was to take United to Hong Kong, Seoul, or Taipei so I would have a chance to try the new Polaris soft product. But then an unexpected trip Germany gave me that opportunity in late January.
Maximizing Flight Time
When I redeem awards for solo travel, the most important consideration for me is to maximize flying time in premium cabins. If I am going to try out one new carrier, I’d prefer to try two if possible, or even three. Generous routing rules make that possible. Still, award routing rules have tightened up quite a bit. United, for example, does not allow customized routing any longer (searches must be origin to destination).
In looking at carriers I have yet to fly, the Star Alliance and oneworld lists are quite small while the SkyTeam list remains long. Ultimately, I opted to make this a SkyTeam trip. But finding the right product still proved difficult.
I’ve been wanting to fly China Airlines ever since it refreshed its business class cabin and there was award space in business from Los Angeles to Jakarta via Taipei for 80K Delta miles. But I wanted something more.
The KLM delft blue houses interest me and that is reason enough (for me, at least) to fly KLM. The Dutch carrier has a Fifth Freedom flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta so I thought if I could build something like LAX-TPE-KUL on China Airlines connecting to KUL-CGK on KLM I’d really get my money’s worth.
A SkyTeam Epiphany
Just as I was about to book it, I noticed that KLM is operating a 787-9 from San Francisco to Amsterdam. Then I noticed that China Airlines is operating its A350-900 from Amsterdam to Taipei. Now that is a cool routing. But would there be space?
I’d have to book the trip via Air France/KLM Flying Blue for two reasons. First, the KLM space was available to Flying Blue members but not to partners. Second, Flying Blue allows routing to Asia via Europe. The 100K price-tag plus fuel surcharges is steep if you are just flying via the Pacific, but becomes a much more acceptable price when routing the long way.
Booking
Such a routing does not show up online, so I had to pick up the phone and call. The North American call center refused to build my routing segment by segment, but the French call center did. 100K miles and about 500EUR later, I was booked! The final routing would be SFO-AMS in KLM 787-9 World Business Class, AMS-TPE in China Airlines A350-900 Business Class, then TPE-CGK in China Airlines A330-200 Business Class. I later found out that the TPE-CGK flight made a stop in Hong Kong, giving me four flights to get to Jakarta instead of three. Both the KLM and China Airlines longhaul flights advertise wi-fi, so I hope to remain connected during the journey.
Off I go! The trip report will go up quickly for this series of flights.
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Matthew, your blog is a treasure in an over-saturated world of travel blogs filled with dishonesty (looking at you TPG, OMAAT, VFTW)! Thank you for your service. I really enjoy reading your posts.
Care to elaborate on your thoughts on OMAAT/VFTW?
I appreciate Andy reading my blog, but also didn’t get that comment and certainly don’t agree with it.
Is that a standard award fee for Flying Blue award? If so, I’ll be staying away from them. Business class is nice, but over $500 really defeats the purpose of miles for me. Could you have done a stopover in AMS?
It is high, but I figure that is acceptable for four flights in business class that I will write about here. A layover of up to 23hr59min is permitted in each connecting city, including AMS.
It’s pretty standard for an European program. Lufthansa M&M for example slaps and extra couple hundred $ in bogus fees for trips originating in the US (even on top the usual couple hunded $ bogus fees).
Proper stopovers (>24h) are not permitted on one-ways with FB, but you could potentially get one if you added a return.
One program that allows stopover is Alaska Mileage Plan, but they won’t let you route to Asia via Europe (you can do US-AMS-Afria or India/Middle East though).
Nice, but expensive redemption.
I’d be more impressed if you got US-OZ-Asia 🙂
I agree with Matt that for what he gets it is acceptable.
For me, the purpose of miles is just to get me to my destination more comfortably and cheaper.
Paying $500 to get you to Asia in Business Class is not ideal, but also not bad.
This ain’t either. M could have flown across the Pacific more comfortably and cheaper. But not on two brand new planes/products.
Of course he could have flown cheaper. I am flying US-Jakarta RT next week on CX F, using the old redemption chart 138K RT plus about $120 in fees.
The point is that unless your only criteria for traveling is the lowest fees, then you need to get what you can get – in order to reach your destination, even if it is not the lowest cost. For a Business Class seat I don’t think that paying $500 is a bad deal at all.
For business class I think paying $500 PLUS 100k miles (which probably were came from a transfer) for a one way is a bad deal.
I don’t think that M got those flights because it was all he could get or because he wanted to get a deal, but because they were quite interesting from an airline geeks perspective.
You are correct. I could have flown more direct for 80K miles and $23 in taxes/fees but my number one aim was to try to new products. My number two aim was to get the best price and Flying Blue proved a better deal here than using 140K Delta miles (if the KLM flight had been available to SkyMiles members).
what a fun way to redeem those miles! wished I could do that with Delta SkyMiles. it was worth the extra taxes/fees. btw, new reader of your blog here. nice job!