I need to travel from MEL to Koh Samui for a wedding in March 2014 and considering the various options we have to get there. As I understand it USM airport is owned by Bangkok airways? so TG have very, very few flights into there (as opposed to HKT etc). We don't want to spend more than $1,500 pp but also do not want to fly overnight Y again ever. My options:
1. Buy a Y rev ticket there and back - prob around $900(?). We would try and get a daytime flight on the way back even if it meant overnighting in BKK. I've flown TG and SQ Y before and thought it was fine - will be VA WP and have *A SG.
2. J reward through LM's (around $1250 + taxes - much cheaper than US-DM). Bonus is it's J so we can fly overnight if necessary, downside is we're restricted to TG - very easy to get to BKK but very few options BKK-USM (sometimes only 1 flight per week I think because of the awkward connections). We would prob have to pay for a separate BKK-USM-BKK rev Y ticket in order to travel on our desired dates.
3. Using VA points for a J reward MEL-PER-HKT then make our own way HKT-USM (is this difficult?) - I think it's about 90K points pp with the current discount? I know PER-HKT is a truly horrible flight but we would at least be on the A330 J MEL-PER-MEL.
4. Using comp WP upgrades MEL-PER-MEL from a 2-4-1 Virgin CC Flexi fare then either use points for a Y or J fare PER-HKT-PER. The PER-HKT is a day flight so prob not a huge need for J. I know the overnight back in Y would be horrible (we may look to try and snag a cheap Y day rev ticket on another airline for the leg back). This would be the cheapest but most complicated option.
Suggestions?
1. Buy a Y rev ticket there and back - prob around $900(?). We would try and get a daytime flight on the way back even if it meant overnighting in BKK. I've flown TG and SQ Y before and thought it was fine - will be VA WP and have *A SG.
2. J reward through LM's (around $1250 + taxes - much cheaper than US-DM). Bonus is it's J so we can fly overnight if necessary, downside is we're restricted to TG - very easy to get to BKK but very few options BKK-USM (sometimes only 1 flight per week I think because of the awkward connections). We would prob have to pay for a separate BKK-USM-BKK rev Y ticket in order to travel on our desired dates.
3. Using VA points for a J reward MEL-PER-HKT then make our own way HKT-USM (is this difficult?) - I think it's about 90K points pp with the current discount? I know PER-HKT is a truly horrible flight but we would at least be on the A330 J MEL-PER-MEL.
4. Using comp WP upgrades MEL-PER-MEL from a 2-4-1 Virgin CC Flexi fare then either use points for a Y or J fare PER-HKT-PER. The PER-HKT is a day flight so prob not a huge need for J. I know the overnight back in Y would be horrible (we may look to try and snag a cheap Y day rev ticket on another airline for the leg back). This would be the cheapest but most complicated option.
Suggestions?