HarryTheSpider

Any air travel experts: suggestions on Phoenix-Osaka-Hong Kong-London-Phoenix?

I'm focused on carriers and routes. I'd like to rack up BA miles/points etc along the way, and I also need to know what options to reject/avoid when I go and see our friendly travel agent lady!

It could even be Orlando-Osaka etc etc etc...

Mucho grassy arse in advance

cindyabs

Harry, speaking as a friendly travel agent lady, SHE's the pro, let her do the work.................

tonrob

What class of travel are you intending to use? Different carriers have different strengths in different cabins. As a general rule of thumb on quality/experience Asian-based carriers will beat European-based carriers who will beat American-based carriers on any given cabin and route although there are exceptions to the rule within this.

If you really have to have BA miles then make sure the TA looks at One World alliance carriers, although if I were you I'd think twice before saddling myself with American Airlines... (Japan Airlines and Cathay are OW but you might find them more expensive).

cindyabs

A GOOD agent is aware of the little peculiarities AND the routes AND what is most friendly to the budget. Also, always make her aware of your "affiliations" and preferences, because she's NOT a mind reader. There's always more than one way to skin a cat.

Yorkieabroad

I find it hard to use travelocity and the like for planning "out of the ordinary" trips. I found these websites last year that were more suitable for planning the sort of thing you're looking at.

http://staralliance.innosked.com/

http://www.oneworld.com/ow/air-trave...lobal-explorer

http://www.airtreks.com/

http://www.roundtheworldflights.com/

If the links are still valid (I haven't checked them since last year!) they may give you some ideas.


PS - will add that whenever we have done round the world oddball trips, we've usually ended up booking with a travel agent!

HarryTheSpider

Hi Cindy - I understand the sentiment, hope you are right, AND from what I've seen & heard so far from colleagues, this may not be true in this particular case - I do not have a choice of travel agent...

That being said, I'll happily take the suggestion from several to give her as much information as I can on my preferences, requirements etc etc. I also know that some of my colleagues DO expect travel agents to be mind readers and this may be behind the less than stellar reports I've heard - AND, I appreciate that such reports are very possibly not representative.

I know we use Cathay in Asia, and JAL too, and BA from UK to US. I'm not sure I'd appreciate the AA experience from what I've heard...

We'll soon see!

Thanks everybody for your suggestions.

cindyabs

Having done corporate travel for some years (to include overseas companies), yes indeedy I had my share of folks that figured I should know what they wanted without asking.

HarryTheSpider

You mean YOU didn't?

penguinsix

One of the tricks on BA is to use AA for domestic US fares, but look for Y-UPgrade fares. These are basically a coach class ticket upgraded to first class. This used to give you tier points for BA status with each first class leg flown (though I'm not sure of the current post-Avios setup). Can be pretty advantageous.

Cathay in business is nice, though coach can be a bit more of an adventure. JAL is ok. Only been on them once or twice. They do have 'look down' and 'pilot view' on the TV screens though, which can be kind of fun when coming for a landing. I think you can also look at Dragon Air out of Japan to HKG, but you might need to use Tokyo Narita or Haneda. You can BA out of HKG to LHR if you want, but that flight is often pretty crowded. I think BA also goes out of Beijing to LHR as well.

cindyabs

Most of the time I did, I would do what I thought I'd want if I was the client.