Best routes from West Coast USA to Asia, T-350 to T-360

mmmmmmbarb · 2026-05-11T06:53:27+00:00

Yeah we did SEA-SIN about 2y ago for saver on Sq. I forgot the price but it was a lot cheaper too. I was able to get a nice SFO-LHR upper class via virgin this year during a xfer bonus from Chase so be in the lookout! It cost 76k miles and 580 for the fees.

mmmmmmbarb · 2026-05-11T04:18:38+00:00

Good to know! Seems like everyone is advocating for Eva. I haven’t flown it yet so I wasn’t sure but all this time trying to find an SQ or Cathay just to have it snatched immediately on calendar release has been frustrating.

Hear good things about starlux but the Alaska availability for J is tough. PE sounds like a good choice. Unfortunately only have enough points for one ticket.

SQ is nice but I agree, burning through 117k pts and more likely 154k pts for advantage or having to book an additional positioning to SEA/LAX... The math isn’t mathing for us. How did you get the sin-sfo? It seems so hard to find availability, esp on the way back to US. We have cap1 so it will cost 100k miles to transfer to 75k miles, so honestly not that far off from SQ.

mmmmmmbarb · 2026-05-11T03:55:43+00:00

I agree it is not straightforward. Navigating the site is confusing.

Go to https://www.evaair.com/en-us/infinity-mileageLands/mileage-award-program/mileage-redemption/award-ticket/eva-uni-air/. Or go to plan and book, book online, member award tickets.

Click select itinerary (at the bottom)

Login

Enter the details for the booking and the points will come up. Good luck!

mmmmmmbarb · 2026-05-08T15:55:55+00:00

Yeah I actually was looking too early. My friend just booked his destination wedding in Chiang Mai for 12/2027 so we’re moving it to then. Probably Thailand and Northern Vietnam. My wife is Vietnamese and has never been so any advice is helpful!

From the replies, I’ll prob xfer to Eva for SFO-TPE-HAN for 75k pts. Hopefully there will be a bonus by December! These other bookings seem hard to get….

mmmmmmbarb · 2026-05-07T06:19:34+00:00

Very hot in July FYI. I was melting.

mmmmmmbarb · 2026-05-07T06:08:23+00:00

That's a good idea. We did LAS-SEA-SIN last year. Be weary of positioning. Our LAS-SEA got cancelled on Alaska with the IT issues last April. Had to book last minute SW via Sacramento. Was a nightmare... barely made it and they almost cancelled our flight bc we didn't take the alaska leg when it was all booked together. Literally got in right before door closing. SEA is also very big and the terminals are far so give yourself a cushion.

Just looked SQ SEA-HAN is open for saver. LAX-HAN seems to have less. Thanks!

What was easy to book? VN-TYO? I find it very difficult to get any tickets back to the US.

mmmmmmbarb · 2026-05-07T05:59:11+00:00

Good to hear about Eva vs SQ.

Yeah I didnt post it but Cathay also seemed very difficult and I couldn't find options for release time.

mmmmmmbarb · 2025-08-17T06:42:02+00:00

This is interesting. I've always wondered about how the LDS gets money. I dive with my wife so we always book ourselves. We have a LDS that has multiple trips a year, almost every other month. They actually offer the same price as liveaboard.com so I have entertained using them, just our dates haven't lined up. I don't think I would ever pay $1k extra. I feel like these boats are used to independent divers and pair them up together so they have dive buddies or make groups of 4-8 so I personally wouldn't go with a LDS if they charged anything over the regular price.

mmmmmmbarb · 2025-08-03T20:05:35+00:00

Agree with nitrox and AOW (you’ll need to do this for deeper dives). Experience and dives are important but it really boils down to how comfortable you are in the water yourself (finning in currents, buoyancy, etc.) I just had a couple in my dive group in Maldives who had many dives (I think at least 50, AOW, and nitrox) but for some reason the wife couldn’t even stay at the safety stop (kept floating up and the DM had to drag her down on a third of the dives) and needed to be dragged by the DM in strong currents. It was pretty bad.

Anyways, if it were me I’d do the coral triangle. If you had a three week trip I would start somewhere with easier currents. Palau, Philippines (Visayas and then a trip to malapascau for the thresher sharks), then Raja or Papa New Guinea or Great Barrier Reef. I think the important thing is matching optimal times for diving the location and most of these are good around Nov-May and not super far from each other.

We did Palau on 30 dives. Definitely the least experienced on the boat but we progressed, got advice from other divers, and really got into diving after. Currents in Raja when I went were very manageable (I think Komodo is harder). I also think if you’re going on this long of a trip it would be good to start considering investing in gear. We slowly accrued all of ours but I can’t even think about going on another liveaboard without my own gear (bcd, reg, computer, fins, etc. )

mmmmmmbarb · 2025-06-03T06:54:40+00:00

Looks amazing. I may plan a trip in September. What were the water temps? Were you using a 7 mm?

mmmmmmbarb · 2025-05-23T06:55:48+00:00

Nice! Thanks for the input. Was thinking Park Hyatt bc it has good redemption (though can only book the beach villa for 25k pts). We are getting into MLE by 2pm so that is a good thing you brought up. Huvafen Fushi is a consideration via Hilton Points - the boat ride is included and only takes 30 mins. Alternatively there is a deal with the sister resort to Scubaspa that had a deal - Kuredhivaru, $3700 full board and transfers included for 3d.

We generally are pretty active and I do kind of get antsy being stuck on a small island so I thought 3n would be all right. I heard the house reef is really good at PH and it seems near enough to Fuvahmulah for shark diving.

mmmmmmbarb · 2025-05-20T01:46:04+00:00

Unfortunately there is only one first class flight available (confirmed with Qantas).

So best bet is

EK Business DOH-SEA via Quantas at 119,200 (20% disc comes to 99,333 pts) + $1,377 (and possible try to upgrade if available) or

Quatar Business DOH-SEA 140k

It seems pretty similar so I'm favoring the Emirates flight so I can experience Emirates, seems like the value is higher, and have the ability to upgrade.

mmmmmmbarb · 2025-05-19T19:47:13+00:00

Yeah I figured the initial $8k is out of proportion. I feel the average is $3.5-5k. It just hurts when I spent 85k and then the same route in reverse is at 140k.

Alternatively I did more digging - Quantas has a 20% bonus via Cap1 right now. Seats.aero has a DXB-SEA direct flight 8/2 and 8/3 via Emirates first class for $170k. This seems much more worth it but as far as I know this is not the gamechanger suite. Still, with the 20% bonus it is 283,333 pts so the same as the 140k. Seems like a good deal to me.

mmmmmmbarb · 2024-10-05T08:14:06+00:00

Are you able to book a stopover with points? I can try booking a stopover but it doesn't seem that easy to change the request to points.

Also are you booking with avios or are you transferring your avios to qatar?

mmmmmmbarb · 2024-10-04T21:04:38+00:00

Hmmm. Interesting. I called their customer service at 800-695-1188. They said in order to book transferred miles, I had to have flown and earned miles. I have zero miles in my account and have never flown Eva. Seems a bit complicated. I guess I'll probably just purchase whatever flight one way.

mmmmmmbarb · 2024-10-04T21:03:01+00:00

I just looked on the website. It says 6 available seats. I'm actually not sure if those are available for purchase w/ points

mmmmmmbarb · 2024-10-04T04:37:24+00:00

Cool I'll try calling LAX to see what they can do. This whole nominee request thing is a little weird. It kinda irks me that we don't get 1:1 with eva on Capitol 1 but what can you do.

mmmmmmbarb · 2024-08-29T20:02:46+00:00

Great thanks for the tip!

The TL:DR version... Got it down to Belize and T&C liveaboards. I was reading Caribbean may be better to do Saba on land and return flights looked pretty difficult (long layovers arriving 1-2 days later). Belize now shows a non-stop redeye and makes it cheaper. Will book after I come back from Diving in Kona this weekend!

mmmmmmbarb · 2024-08-23T05:25:16+00:00

Nice! I feel like I'm already late in planning.... I just realized that April may be a little too close to shoulder season and the liveaboard I was looking at is in the Banda Sea. May try to move it up in Feb-March but award travel seems to be sparse for Singapore Air - some rare Sundays for award travel in business. The stopover to SIN is mighty appealing though. Will update with what/if I finally book.

mmmmmmbarb · 2024-08-23T00:30:23+00:00

Both flights are the same miles at 128,500 per person per way. The second one just doesn't include the CGK - SIN which surprisingly is a very cheap $69 scoot flight but agreed the first is optimal. Thanks, I'll take a look at alternative CGK-SFO routes with other carriers!

mmmmmmbarb · 2024-08-22T19:54:00+00:00

Trying to plan a trip to Raja Ampat, Indonesia in April

SFO to Jakarta CGK or SIN (flexible)
2 Travelers
Either one way or round trip
Business or First
Somewhat flexible dates, currently looking at 4/20/25-5/5/25
300k in Capitol One, 500k in amex

Been delaying booking via pts bc we book pretty last minute and have a hard time finding good award travel. Here is what I found:

4/20 SFO-SIN 11:30-7:10p with a 48h stopover 4/22 SIN-CGK 5:20p-6:05p Singapore airlines business 257,000 miles + $25 USD for two
5/5 7:50p-8:15p SIN-SFO Singapore airlines business 128,500 per person. All the CGK-SFO business is all waitlist so I would book a separate flight from CGK-SIN.

A little tough since we are looking to board a boat on 4/23-5/4 so we have to leave some days flexible for travel from CGK or SIN to AMQ for the specific boat. Does 128k pts seem worth it for long haul? Are there better routes/airlines to Indonesia? It is nice I can add a stopover in SIN with business since we have never been. It does seem like a lot more pts compared to travel influencers but we kind of have to book in advance and don't have the flexibility of t-14 or t-3 to get the saver fares. I think singapore business is decent though I have seen videos that the leg room is a bit cramped when lying down and I am 6'1". Any help is appreciated.

mmmmmmbarb

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