Today we’re featuring a Travel Freely member success story from Asia! Travel Freely member John has also served as a mentor for Travel Freely and has been using points and miles for free travel for over 13 years. He and his wife are retired biologists who have traveled extensively in Asia, especially during their five years living in India.
Here is John’s story, in his own words, on how he saved over $4,500 on his most recent trip to Asia…
Hi Travel Freely community! I’m excited to share about our most recent trip to Asia.
My wife and I are avid snorkelers and wanted to get as close as possible to the most southern islands of Thailand, so we used American miles to book DEN – LAX – HND (Tokyo) – NRT (Narita, Japan) – KUL (Kuala Lumpur) – LGK (Langkawi, Malaysia) for only 37,500 miles (plus $30 each in fees) to get to the island of Langkawi at the northern edge of Malaysia (Malaysia Airlines is in the OneWorld alliance with American). Traveling from HND through Tokyo to NRT on the train was interesting.
Langkawi is very touristy, so we had four possibilities for Marriott free-night redemptions. We chose an Aloft using a 35K free night certificate, and a Ritz-Carlton using three 50K free nights, topped off with additional points. We wanted to avoid being jet-lagged during our time at the Ritz, so we spent our arrival night at the Aloft. It was surprisingly good, particularly for breakfast. We then walked to pick up a rental car with Kasina, highly recommended, and moved to the Ritz for three nights.
While Langkawi’s water is too murky for snorkeling, the Ritz was remarkable for its wildlife: dusky langurs (shy), macaques (mean), hornbills, and even a sea otter during a dinner at the beach. We had considered hiring a guide to do birdwatching, but the hotel grounds were great. Unfortunately, hotel restaurants were expensive (more than US$30 for a huge breakfast), so we hopped in the car for most meals.
As I am a Marriott Platinum, we were upgraded to a junior suite. The only problem with our stay was a too-thin door connecting us with the room next door, which had literally screaming children. From what we could hear, the parents weren’t doing anything to quiet them, so we called the front desk and got to sleep in a different room, leaving our baggage in the suite as the offending family was spending their last night. We told a manager about this the following day, and he got my wife a superb massage at the hotel spa as compensation. She loved it. Other than that glitch, I highly recommend the hotel.
From Langkawi, we took a ferry west to Koh Lipe, at the south end of the Trang Islands. We spent a week at the Adang Resort (highly recommended) in neighboring Koh Adang, then ferried to Koh Kradan (best from-the-beach snorkeling and expensive), then took private longtail boats to Koh Libong (poor snorkeling, but we saw a dugong – a marine mammal similar to a manatee – on a boat trip) and Koh Ngai (good beach snorkeling). All were 3-4 days each. Unfortunately, none of these islands are sufficiently developed to have chain hotels, so we used cash instead of points.
We then took a longtail to the mainland and spent a night in Trang, a surprisingly pleasant city surrounded by rubber plantations. After the islands, everything was very affordable. We flew AirAsia to Bangkok.
In Bangkok, we first visited the Thai Travel Clinic for the second time, as it is a great place to get travel vaccinations that are not covered by US health insurance. We stayed in the Sukhon Hotel to be close. We then spent a 35K Marriott point (+5K) night at the Athenee Hotel in the embassy district. This was easily the best value I have encountered for 40K points to date. We had early check-in and late check-out. We had a room on the Club floor and had access to the Club for complimentary breakfast and afternoon tea, as well as evening cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. The staff and facilities were superb.
Finally, we spent our last night at a cheap airport hotel. We flew out using Capital One Venture X points transferred to Avianca LifeMiles (Star Alliance, not recommended for beginners) to book BKK (Bangkok) – NRT (Narita, Japan) – LAX – DEN for 47,000 miles plus $100 in fees each. The first two flights were on ANA, which was great for service and a 34″ regular economy seat pitch. Flying the last leg on United was a big letdown after ANA.
