How I’m Flying to Hong Kong in Business Class for Less than the Cost of an Economy Ticket

Next week, my daughter and I are flying to Hong Kong in business class seats. After I published a post last week about the Benefits of Flying Kids in Business Class, one comment in particular on social media caught my attention:

“What out of touch rich a**hole wrote this??”

It became evident to me that:

a.  Some people only read the headlines and not the content of the article

b. I haven’t been clear enough about how I’m using miles and points for these flights and not paying ridiculously high cash prices

I’ve never paid cash for a long-haul international flight. My husband and I participate in this fun miles and points “hobby” that enables us to collect miles and points from credit card rewards (see Beginner’s Guide: 7 Steps to Free Travel with Miles and Points). We pay off our credit card balances in full every month so we don’t have interest charges.

The cash price for a round-trip ticket in economy from Dallas to Hong Kong is roughly $1200. I’m paying less cash than that for a seat in business class by leveraging miles and points. (FYI–cash price for business class round-trip ticket is over $6000!)

Flights to Hong Kong in Business Class 

In summer of 2023, I applied for and was approved for the Chase Ink Business Preferred card (my personal referral link) when the bonus was 100,000 points. The annual fee is $95. Note: The current bonus is 90,000 points. In addition, my husband and I each own personal Chase cards that enabled us to grow our balance of Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Then last November, Chase offered a 25% transfer bonus to Air France/KLM Flying Blue program. Air France/KLM partners with China Airlines. I found award availability in business class on China Airlines from Ontario, California to Taipei and then on to Hong Kong for 86,000 points per seat after the transfer bonus. Award taxes were $158,50 per ticket.

Flights Home from Hong Kong in Business Class

Last year, the Barclays Lufthansa Miles and More credit card (non-affiliate link) had an elevated bonus of 100,000 miles after spending $3000 in the first 90 days. Note: The current bonus is 80,000 miles. My husband and I both applied for the card, charged and paid off our normal monthly bills, and got a total of 200,000 miles (100,000 X 2). We did have to pay the card’s annual fee of $178 ($89X 2).

Lufthansa is a member of the Star Alliance network, which enables us to use Lufthansa miles to book award seats on many partner airlines. I found award availability in business class on partner Asiana Airlines from Hong Kong to Seoul to SFO for 71,000 miles plus $164 in taxes per ticket.

Cost of Positioning Flights to/from California

Since I couldn’t book nonstop award flights to Hong Kong from my home airport of DFW, I have to factor in the cost of flights to and from California to position ourselves for our business class award flights. We paid $309 per person for round-trip flights in economy, which isn’t great, but we are flying during prime holiday dates.

Total Cash Outlay

When I add up the award taxes ($158.50 X2 + $164 X2) plus the annual fees of 3 new credit cards ($273) plus cash price for positioning flights ($309 X2), the grand total is $1536, or $768 per person. That’s less than the cash price for two economy flights to Hong Kong.

If my entire family of 5 was going on this trip, we likely would not be flying in business class. That’s a lot of miles and points, plus award availability to Asia in business class is difficult to find. But for just the two of us, we’re splurging.

Flight time fro the West Coast to Hong Kong is roughly 15 hours. That’s long, no matter what seat you’re in. But hopefully, the flights will be more enjoyable in the lie-flat seats we have booked in business class.