Bangkok Airways awards can be booked using SPG points transferred to JAL miles, and through December 31, 2014, there is a JAL Discount Mileage Promotion for Bangkok Airways available, via Amol.
Usually my recommendations for intra-Asia flights are:
- British Airways Avios awards, for short nonstop flights on Cathay Pacific or Dragonair or even Japan Airlines domestic award flights with no taxes
- Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® for cheap paid flights, since the bonus is 40,000 miles after $3000 spend. You can redeem those 46,000 miles (40K bonus + 6K from $3000 spend) for $460 in travel statement credits.
That said, when flying to or from Bangkok, Bangkok Airways is a good option–my family and I flew it to get from
Koh Samui to
Singapore, as part of our trip earlier this year to
Amanjiwo–and Bangkok Airways is a Japan Airlines (JAL) partner. Normally award flights are rather pricey to the point where you're better off paying with the Barclays Arrival Plus and getting a travel statement credit, but there are discounted awards until the end of the year. Here are the details:
Bangkok Airways Discount Awards with JAL Miles
- Trip Distance up to 1000 miles: 5000 JAL miles (usually 15,000 JAL miles)
- Trip Distance 1001-2000 miles: 8000 JAL miles (usually 20,000 JAL miles)
- Must complete travel by December 31, 2014
- Must book at least 4 days prior to departure
- Cancellation/mileage redeposit is 3100 JAL miles or 3100 JPY (opt for JPY–it's about $30)
- One way awards are allowed
Where Does Bangkok Airways Fly Within 1000 Miles of Bangkok?
JAL used to require roundtrip awards, but now permits one way awards, which means you can take advantage of the discount 5000 JAL miles award for destinations within 1000 miles of Bangkok. Good candidates include Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, in addition to closer cities such as Phuket, Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Siem Reap, etc. Here's a map of some of the possibilities:
Transferring SPG Points to JAL
Ensure that you check with JAL that there are plenty of award seats before you initiate a transfer of SPG points to JAL, since SPG notes transfers can take 10-14 business days, and typical transfer time is 5 days – 2 weeks. If you're booking several awards or know you can use JAL miles in the future, make sure to take advantage of the 25% transfer bonus on each transfer of 20,000 SPG points, such that 20,000 SPG points = 25,000 JAL miles.
Worth It?
Always check the paid ticket price–I'd recommend making sure you're getting at least 2.5 cents per JAL miles/SPG point in value, taking into account any taxes on the award ticket, and hopefully more, since SPG points are quite valuable. Of course, if you have some stranded JAL miles that you have no other plans for, this could be a good way to use them up.
Do you plan to take advantage of Bangkok Airways discount awards with JAL miles via SPG points?
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