I have enough points for a trip to SEA but I must book within the next 24 hours or my miles expire!

This hasn't even been on my radar... so can any of the experts here help?

I looked into LAX-BKK-Phuket-BKK-LAX. But unfortunately, the flight times are awful!!! Such as 1:30AM flight then a long layover to get back home.

I'm trying to maximize by adding a layover somewhere...

We are in our 30's/40's, active and enjoy just about everything!

Thailand? Vietnam? Or somewhere else through Singapore? Help!!!

Well I don’t like to do anything in a panic as poor choices are often made. But, first look at the time of year you would be going. I would not go even on a free flight to Phuket in July where you would have rain, when you could go to the east coast of Thailand or Malaysia and have great sunny weather. Parts of Vietnam are quite rainy in the fall months. Also, there may be a major festival or holiday you want to observe or avoid in a place, like seeing fireworks for Chinese New Year, Thaipusam in Singapore, or making a splash during Songrkran in Thailand (next month). India in February is just about the best weather you could ask for. See weatherbase.com for weather and check guidebooks and country guide websites for major festivals.

It appears you have been to Hong Kong, Bali, Polynesia and Japan, so you may want to exclude those or perhaps go back to see places you did not get to or revisit favourites.

You might consider using the international flight to go to Kuala Lumpur, which could then be a base for using Air Asia for cheap flights to numerous places all over Asia. KL is certainly “worth” a few days in itself. They have decent service to many cities out of Bangkok as well. Bangkok Air has some cheap flights too, but seems to be mainly within Thailand, Air Asia covers a huge range of countries in Asia. S’pore is not such a great base for getting cheap flights out, although Air Asia does have some flights in and out of there to other destinations. See their websites.

If Australia or New Zealand is part of the mileage program, I would seriously consider either, as you can cover a lot of land area by car and train in some case once you get a free flight there.

Also, I would try to stay for more than 2 weeks, as you can cover more areas.

What are you interested in? Your proposed flight into Phuket suggests you want some beach time - is that true? Anything else?

If you want a layover somewhere choose a major city such as Tokyo or Hong Kong or Singapore Or even, as Cicerone suggest, KL. There are inexpensive flights within SE Asia (for instance, Bangkok to Phuket, so don't waste your layover on a place you can get to for under US$100).

Bangkok is my favorite city in the world, so I can certainly recommend that. Using Bangkok as a base you can see other parts of Thailand, visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia, take a trip to Luang Prabang, Laos, or visit VietNam, for instance.

We have photos of all of these places (and more) on our website www.marlandc.com The photos may help you find some places that appeal. Then come back here and read some trip reports.

What a delightful dilemma!

Cicerone, thank you as you have helped me greatly in our planning for Hong Kong. We are planning to go in October because it works best within our job schedules. We would love to go for more than 2 weeks but we are leaving tomorrow for another 2 weeker... so that's all we can manage.
We have been to Sydney and we're really facinated by SEA so we're hoping to see more of that area. I will look into KL as that's somewhere we'd like to visit (even if for just a couple of days).

Kathie, I've thought about Singapore... but am wondering, what's another feasible city to choose with that? Yes, we would love beach time but it's not mandatory.

We'd like to limit this trip to just 2-3 cities max. We are planning to explore SEA a little more extensively next year so this is not a "final" trip for us... more of a "hey, we've got free miles that we need to use up, how about a trip to XX?"

So, I will look into perhaps Singapore to Phuket? Then buy our own flight to BKK and fly home from there.

or Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok? And buy our own flight to Phuket?

October is not the best time for a beach in Thailand. Both sides of the peninsula are rainy at that time. But - if you don't mind rain (maybe an intense shower every afternoon, not common for all day rain) you can get great prices at resorts in Phuket. If you don't want a beach, don't visit Phuket.

If you make Singapore your layover city (often the layover is limited to two nights), you could then have your onward flight to Bangkok and return from Bangkok. Buy a separate ticket to Phuket (very inexpensive) if that's where you choose to go, or a separate ticket to another place in SE Asia.

Do you only want cities or are you also interested in countryside?

OK, just got off the phone with India.

The best flight options (either nonstop or quick stop in SFO) is either going to Singapore and Bangkok... or Ho Chi Minh and Bangkok.

I think we've ruled out Phuket because of time constraints.

We have not been to any of the above... so we're just as happy with either option.

Would you recommend one over the other: Singapore vs SGN?

It seems a bit pointless to respond now as it would seem that your 24-hour window to buy the mileage tickets is up, and according to your message above you probably have already left by now for your vacation. But if you still have time to considering options for the SEA vacation next year with mileage points, let us know.

singapore is perhaps the most expensive city in SEA....and probably one of the least interesting, sitewise, in comparison to all the others...

bkk is very central allowing easy access to all other places...

bali might work as an add-on to singapore however, also solving the beach question

Bob, they've been to Bali.

Thank you for your help. Not sure if this is a loophole but I placed a reservation on hold (in which they deducted the miles) but it is not ticketed... so I have a few more hours to make a final decision.

We are leaving later today for Santiago, Chile.

We would like to definitely include Bangkok... but the 2nd city option is either Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi.

Which would you choose/why?

I just searched and it seems that Hanoi seems to be the pick... so I think that's what we'll settle on.

LAX-Hanoi-BKK-LAX.

Thank you so much for your help in such a short period of time!

Incase anyone is interested, it seemed that one of the better flight options using Mileage Plus economy was LAX-Seoul-Hanoi-LAX. or stopping over somewhere in Japan. We choose not to go this route because we spent 2 weeks in Korea/Japan in 2007.

Now, we're off to our cruise around Cape Horn!

Bangkok and Hanoi will be a good combination.

Enjoy your trip to Chile!

perfect combo....better hanoi---more to do and see