Award Travel

This winter break trip home was decided at the last minute. From booking to boarding, there were only a few hours, so I didn’t have much time to think through the award search. Since my return date was still undecided, I could only book one-way for now. I first checked cash fares, and because it was peak winter-break travel home plus a one-way booking, economy class was already over $1,500+, which was really not worth it (time was tight, so I didn’t take any screenshots at the time). If I could find saver award space, then miles would be a great deal.

  • Virgin Atlantic (VS): The first idea was to use 60,000 VS miles for Delta One. At the time, there was also an extra transfer bonus on MR. Since Delta doesn’t fly nonstop from JFK back to China, I would have to book a separate segment to a hub myself, or use 82,500 miles for the whole trip, which would be about 64,000 MR. Then I would still need to use additional miles or cash to book the trip home from PEK. All in all, if neither side of the U.S.-China trip is at a hub, it would take at least 60,000-70,000 miles or points. But I couldn’t find award space on the routes mentioned in the previous article, so I gave up on this option.
  • Alaska Airlines (AS): The easiest way is to search directly on the official site. If there is space, you can find Hainan, JAL, and Singapore Airlines awards, but not Cathay, so I had to look at AA later. Still, if I can’t make use of the stopover policy, using AS miles always feels a bit uneconomical, and AS miles are hard to earn, so they’re pretty precious. But in reality, no matter how much you think about it, if there are no seats, it’s all for nothing.
  • American Airlines (AA): When I was searching, I didn’t think about the issue of my account being locked. The official site could search JAL, Cathay, and AA’s own flights, but none of them had award space. In addition, AA can be used for China Southern flights, and you can search for space on China Southern’s website. Ticketing requires calling in, which I mentioned in the Australia trip planning article. The result was still no award space.
  • United Airlines (UA): Searching on the official site is very convenient. The good news is that there was space; the bad news is that, like MB, it required a routing through Europe. I had already routed through Europe once during summer break and tried Swiss, so this time I chose a combination of Lufthansa and Air China. Since UA recently replaced the close-in fee with miles, the whole itinerary cost 83,500 miles.

The final itinerary was LH405 JFK-FRA, CA936 FRA-PVG, HO1265 PVG-HRB.

JFK Lufthansa Lounge Experience

Right after security, I saw this lounge, and it was also pretty close to the gate. You can buy access to this lounge through LoungeBuddy and use the AMEX Green reimbursement, $59. The overall environment was okay, but the food was pretty average. I forgot to take photos of the lounge itself at the time, so I borrowed a few pictures from the internet.

In addition, PPS can also access Air France in T1 (the access hours aren’t great), KAL Business, and Primeclass (newly opened and reportedly pretty good). I was short on time then, so I didn’t go around checking out the other lounges.

New York–Frankfurt (JFK-FRA) LH405 Business Class Experience

The aircraft was an A340, with 8 first-class seats and 56 business-class seats. The business-class cabin is arranged in a 2-2-2 layout, with absolutely no privacy, and unlike Swiss, there isn’t a throne seat (a solo window seat) to choose from. My seat was 11A, a window seat, but not very convenient for getting in and out.

Boarding was actually quite early, but several families with children pre-boarded, including the seats around me and next to me, and business class was basically full, so it was hard to take a full-cabin shot. I could only take a few quick photos.

The space wasn’t large, storage wasn’t abundant, and privacy was poor, mainly because there wasn’t a throne seat like Swiss offers for solo travelers. The amenity kit/bag contained L’Occitane products.

The food was also pretty average. Maybe because it was a red-eye flight, everything was served on one tray. I forgot to take a photo of the nuts at the beginning; they were cold, and I didn’t really eat them. After the main course, I fell asleep and completely missed breakfast.

Lufthansa does have an arrivals lounge, and the exact location is listed on the menu.

Summary

Maybe my expectations for Lufthansa were a bit too high. I felt that neither the lounge nor the flight lived up to Swiss, and the overall experience wasn’t good enough.