My daughter and I have a trip to Thailand booked for next summer. I was so excited to find award availability for 2 people in business class both ways across the Pacific Ocean!
Unfortunately, due to some scheduling conflicts, we decided to change our return date. Thankfully, it wasn’t too difficult or expensive to change our flights.
Changing Award Flights
Originally, I booked business class flights on Vietnam Airlines from Ho Chi Minh City to San Francisco using Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles. However, this award flight was not available for our new date.
So, I went back to the drawing board. At this time, I can’t find two business class award seats for our date. Business class seats to/from Asia are very hard to find unless you book right at schedule release or very close to travel dates.
But, I did find some premium economy award tickets. I’ve flown in premium economy to/from Europe and Asia before. While the seats are not as spacious as business class, I love the smaller cabin size, extra seat pitch and recline, and rows of two seats that most premium economy sections offer. See my recent reviews of AA premium economy and JAL premium economy.
Our new award flights: Cathay Pacific premium economy Hong Kong to Seattle. I used British Airways miles at 62,000 Avios + $159 per person. We had accumulated Avios from a welcome bonus and 5X dining on the Chase Iberia card, so this was a decent redemption. This Cathay award space was not available on partners AA or Alaska. The bonus of this different route is that I’ll hopefully get to see my friends who live in Hong Kong!
Now, I do have to call Air France/KLM Flying Blue to get my old award flights refunded. I will get the miles and taxes back minus a 70 Euro cancellation fee per person.
Will I keep searching for business class seats to open up for our desired date? Probably. But, I’m happy with premium economy, and cancelling our new award flights has a penalty of $55 per person. Even though that penalty isn’t too high, I’d rather not rack up too many of those charges.
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Premium economy isn’t bad if it’s day time hours. EVA air always has business class space for their members even those without status. Just booked 4 business class tickets for spring break March 25th to TPE 75k each last week. They are the only partner I use my Citi points for.