7 Day Air Miles Adventure

A new year, a new adventure.

Ed and I started planning a second air miles powered trip back in May. Now, eight months later, we are just a few days away from departure. Our journey will take us to Tokyo, Taipei, and Bangkok, and will include some exciting new airline experiences, including JAL First Class and Starlux.

As before, the trip is just as much about the journey, so we have planned to maximise our experiences both on the ground as well as in the air, whist eating and drinking every good thing that comes our way.

Our flights are as follows -

Japan Airlines First Class from Paris to Tokyo on the A350

Cathay Pacific Regional Business Class from Tokyo to Taipei on a B777

Starlux Business Class from Taipei to Bangkok on the A350

Qatar Airlines First Class on the A380 from Bangkok to London via Doha

Our itinerary gives us 24 hours in Toky0, 48 hours in Taipei, and 48 hours in Bangkok. Not much, but enough!

JAL First Class was booked with American Airlines miles (90k + c$200 in taxes each). At first only Business Class was available, so we started with those (75k miles + $200 tax). Several months later a First Class seat opened up, with the second seat popping up two weeks prior to departure. The other thing that changed was that JAL switched from a 777 to an A350 on this route, upgrading the hard product with it. This is JAL’s new First Class and has been receiving rave reviews. There is so much to look forward to on this flight - this is one of the world’s very best First Class products.

The American Airlines online search tool provides a really good option to search for award space of this kind. It does not require you to log in, and you can (slowly) search months ahead for availability in Business/First, or just First, on direct and indirect routes. We picked Paris as our outbound airport as it was the closest available for the Tokyo route.

The Tokyo to Taipei leg was secured with 32,500 Avios (+$100 in taxes) and was booked via BA. It’s Cathay’s regional business class, so not that exciting. BA’s site is also relatively easy to use and seems to show a lot more premium Cathay availability than AA, where you may have to call and get the agent to book for you.

We had originally booked Thai Airways from Taipei to Bangkok, but switched over to Starlux as this is an airline neither of us has flown but were both very excited to try. Neither of us had any miles that would cover this part of the itinerary with a direct flight so we had to book with cash. Tickets were about $650 each.

On the way back to the UK Ed managed to snag a split First/Business Avios award ticket on Qatar Airways, back to Edinburgh. I used an EU 261 refund from a recent trip to part fund a cash ticket, which I booked at a discounted rate using the Amex International Airline Programme in combination with my Amex Travel Credit, so we’re both in First together through to Doha.

When it comes to booking accommodation, we have maintained the philosophy that these trips are so short that we’re not really optimising for the hotel experience, and therefore choose to stick to a strict budget. However, I take that as a challenge to find places that are both nicely designed and affordable: the designer-budget-luxury unicorn.

In Tokyo we have one night in the Muji Hotel in Ginza. They offer teeny tiny rooms (and bigger ones), but this was a great way to stay in a nicer environment for around $200 for the night. Their smallest ‘Category A’ rooms are 15m² and are perfectly fine for one person for one night.

This is Muji’s flagship hotel, and is situated above one of their large Tokyo stores. Having bought many Muji products over the years it will be very interesting to stay in their hotel.

For Taipei we initially booked Citizen M, but switched over to the Kimpton Da An when I saw a good Black Friday deal there. I’ve not stayed at a Kimpton before, so am interested to see if the boutique chain works under the IHG banner.

This was Kimpton’s first hotel in Asia, it was designed by Neri & Hu and was opened in 2020.

Bangkok is a city, like Hong Kong, that has a really good range of top hotels, many which are excellent value for money. Given that it’s January and we’ll be in a hotter climate for a change, I wanted somewhere we could enjoy a pool and outside space.

Previously, I had stayed at the Peninsula, which was a bit run down. The obvious luxury options of the Mandarin Oriental, or the Capella were way out of our price range for this trip, so we settled on the Sukhothai.

I booked this originally in June (7 months out), but kept checking back to see if the price had fallen, which it did in October, so I managed to switch our pair of Executive Suite category rooms to a new rate, saving roughly 30%.

With just a week to go, I’m beginning to get very excited about the trip.

7 Day Air Miles Adventure

48 Hours in Hong Kong