Reader success story: Asia-Pacific on points and miles
Miles & Even More reader Pranay recently took his family on a vacation to the Far East. His trip covered Hong Kong (mainly for his young son), Bali (R&R for the family as a whole) and Jakarta (because he was in the area!). He consulted us extensively in preparation for this trip, and we were able to point him to some great uses for his limited points and miles balances (we did not charge anything, because we don’t run a paid service!).
Pranay was keen that his success story in terms of using those points and miles be made known to the larger readership base of our blog, because of the amount of value one can generate using points and miles, if worked out well.
Pranay was keen that his success story in terms of using those points and miles be made known to the larger readership base of our blog, because of the amount of value one can generate using points and miles, if worked out well.
Over to Pranay...
Given the miles we had, I finally settled on South East Asia, covering Hong Kong, Bali and Jakarta. Hong Kong has been on our radar because of the Disneyworld and Ocean Park as that would be real fun for our son. We’d heard a lot about Bali and its beautiful resorts and locations, and added that into the mix for some R&R. We also added Jakarta just because we were going to Indonesia anyway.
I knew I didn’t have sufficient miles for the entire trip, that too for 3 people. However, based on what I’ve learnt from reading travel blogs like Miles & Even More, I had to maximise value from my limited stash, squeezing out as much juice as I could. I also had the added issue of the timing of some of my flights that my family and I were particular about. This meant that we couldn’t just select a cheap-fare on any airline, but had priorities about what and when to fly.
However, we were also clear that we would be indifferent to our travel between DPS and CGK, which was a rather short flight (only about 600 miles or so). Finally, for our return to India Malindo Air’s timing and fare worked for us. So for these two sectors (DPS-CGK and CGK-BOM), we booked revenue tickets (and of course, paid for those by mileage-earning credit cards!).
Inside Malindo Air (they offer a paid wi-fi service too!)
BOM-HKG
Jet Airways, using 57,000 Etihad Guest Miles (Jet Airways is a partner airline for Etihad, and Jet doesn’t charge YQ surcharges!) + Rs 5,460 in taxes. This would have otherwise required 30,000 JP miles per person or Rs 28,000 per person on a revenue ticket.
HKG-DPS
DPS-CGK, CGK-BOM
I spent a total of Rs 68,840 towards revenue tickets for DPS-CGK and CGK-BOM. This exceeded my budget, but not by much so I was OK with this.
View from the room at the Holiday Inn Jakarta Kemajoran
For all my other stays (2 nights at the SkyCity Marriott Hong Kong, 5 nights at the Cosmopolitan Hong Kong, and 5 nights at Grand Hyatt Bali), I went with paid rates. Not the most efficient, but something I was prepared for, and worked for us in terms of what we wanted to do in Hong Kong and Bali. Also, between getting some benefits for booking using the Entertainer app, and being upgraded to the Grand Executive Suite, we really lucked out!
Hyatt Bali Grand Executive Suite - Bathroom
A saving of Rs 270,000 (roughly $4,050) is absolutely fantastic!!!
In the end, I was more than happy to have spent out of pocket for some of the air travel and most of the stays, because I was able to use my airline miles (especially the Etihad ones that would’ve otherwise expired end May 2016), and we had a really great time as a family for two whole weeks!
Equally important, it gives me new-found regard and respect for the inherent value of points and miles. I don’t think I’d have done this trip paying out of pocket. Also, I realise that there’s detailed knowledge that is needed for stuff like partner redemptions, which actually increased the value I got from my airline miles. I’ll be more careful in future in terms of how I use my mileage-earning credit cards, to save up for another such trip in future!
- Pranay
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Editor’s note: As you can see from the above summary, Pranay was able to get some exceptional value out of all three points / miles uses: Rs 2.44 per JP mile, Rs 1.41 per Etihad Guest miles, and Rs 0.91 per IHG Rewards Club point (over 3x of the value we’ve ascribed to them). Pranay consulted us a lot when planning this trip, was able to get such great value because he was partly flexible with his schedule and also prepared to pay in cash for some of the other costs. He was not unreasonable in his expectations, though the end results were greatly to his advantage!
Pranay says he will also update his personal blog with his stay / trip reports. Do look out for that, here.
I have always been a miles and points collector, with some history of past redemptions. My family and I planned a vacation earlier this summer, and we wanted to use our points and miles for this. However, we had to maximise on what we had, which wasn’t a great deal as you can see below:
- 58,000 Etihad Guest miles (which were to expire on 31 May 2016)
- 72,500 JP miles (across 3 accounts within the family, which I was able to pool together)
- 29,000 IHG Rewards Club points (split as 16,000 and 13,000 – this is relevant for later on)
- Assorted points with Club Carlson and Hilton HHonors.
Planning
Our choices (for a family of 3 including myself) in order of priority were: South East Asia, Europe, or a place with a visa on arrival (we didn’t have enough time). I got a bit late in planning so prices were already on the higher side for flights and hotels since it was summer vacation time in India.Given the miles we had, I finally settled on South East Asia, covering Hong Kong, Bali and Jakarta. Hong Kong has been on our radar because of the Disneyworld and Ocean Park as that would be real fun for our son. We’d heard a lot about Bali and its beautiful resorts and locations, and added that into the mix for some R&R. We also added Jakarta just because we were going to Indonesia anyway.
I knew I didn’t have sufficient miles for the entire trip, that too for 3 people. However, based on what I’ve learnt from reading travel blogs like Miles & Even More, I had to maximise value from my limited stash, squeezing out as much juice as I could. I also had the added issue of the timing of some of my flights that my family and I were particular about. This meant that we couldn’t just select a cheap-fare on any airline, but had priorities about what and when to fly.
However, we were also clear that we would be indifferent to our travel between DPS and CGK, which was a rather short flight (only about 600 miles or so). Finally, for our return to India Malindo Air’s timing and fare worked for us. So for these two sectors (DPS-CGK and CGK-BOM), we booked revenue tickets (and of course, paid for those by mileage-earning credit cards!).
So, here’s what we finally booked (remember, this is for 3 people total)
BOM-HKG
Jet Airways, using 57,000 Etihad Guest Miles (Jet Airways is a partner airline for Etihad, and Jet doesn’t charge YQ surcharges!) + Rs 5,460 in taxes. This would have otherwise required 30,000 JP miles per person or Rs 28,000 per person on a revenue ticket.
Cathay Pacific, using 72,000 JP Miles + Rs 6,204 in taxes. I had no CX miles, but Cathay is a partner airline of Jet Airways. This was a critical element of the trip, because we were particular about the flight timings. Revenue tickets on this route would’ve cost us about Rs 181,000 in total, which was a massive saving!
DPS-CGK, CGK-BOM
I spent a total of Rs 68,840 towards revenue tickets for DPS-CGK and CGK-BOM. This exceeded my budget, but not by much so I was OK with this.
Hotels
For hotels, because my stash of points is so diverse, I had very few options. Properties in Hong Kong can be quite expensive sometimes, as I’ve learnt! However, the Holiday Inn Kemayoran, Jakarta was on offer as part of IHG’s PointsBreak that was announced at the time I was booking hotels, and I immediately booked 3 nights here (total 3x5000 = 15,000 points. As a category 2 hotel, this would have otherwise cost me 15,000 IHG Rewards Club points a night). Also, the going revenue rate was US$68 a night, so the 15,000 points saved me $204 (roughly Rs 13,500).
For all my other stays (2 nights at the SkyCity Marriott Hong Kong, 5 nights at the Cosmopolitan Hong Kong, and 5 nights at Grand Hyatt Bali), I went with paid rates. Not the most efficient, but something I was prepared for, and worked for us in terms of what we wanted to do in Hong Kong and Bali. Also, between getting some benefits for booking using the Entertainer app, and being upgraded to the Grand Executive Suite, we really lucked out!
In all, I spent...
In all, here’s what I spent, and the value I received, for the flights and the stay at Holiday Inn Kemayoran, Jakarta (basically, all aspects of the trip that were booked using points/miles):
A saving of Rs 270,000 (roughly $4,050) is absolutely fantastic!!!
In the end, I was more than happy to have spent out of pocket for some of the air travel and most of the stays, because I was able to use my airline miles (especially the Etihad ones that would’ve otherwise expired end May 2016), and we had a really great time as a family for two whole weeks!
Equally important, it gives me new-found regard and respect for the inherent value of points and miles. I don’t think I’d have done this trip paying out of pocket. Also, I realise that there’s detailed knowledge that is needed for stuff like partner redemptions, which actually increased the value I got from my airline miles. I’ll be more careful in future in terms of how I use my mileage-earning credit cards, to save up for another such trip in future!
- Pranay
----------
Editor’s note: As you can see from the above summary, Pranay was able to get some exceptional value out of all three points / miles uses: Rs 2.44 per JP mile, Rs 1.41 per Etihad Guest miles, and Rs 0.91 per IHG Rewards Club point (over 3x of the value we’ve ascribed to them). Pranay consulted us a lot when planning this trip, was able to get such great value because he was partly flexible with his schedule and also prepared to pay in cash for some of the other costs. He was not unreasonable in his expectations, though the end results were greatly to his advantage!
Pranay says he will also update his personal blog with his stay / trip reports. Do look out for that, here.
Great stuff.. it's very nice and inspiring to read more such success stories.. and good use of the entertainer app.. I din know people in India also use that.. wondering how come u did not use the app for the Hong Kong Bookings..??
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