We are planning a trip to Southeast Asia for January 2009 and intend to use frequent flier miles for business class. Do you have a recommendation of an airline/partner airlines to research for flying from the US(Pittsburgh, PA) to Bangkok. We are intending to fly home from Singapore.

What miles do you have?

If you are Star Alliance (US Air), then you will use some combination of US Air, United, Lufthansa, ANA and/or Thai. Flying west you go through Tokyo Narita. Flying east you go through Frankfort.

If you are Sky Team (Northwest, Continental, Delta) you'll fly Northwest via Tokyo or Delta and Korean Air via Seoul.

If you are One World (American) you'll fly American and/or JAL via Tokyo.

Do a search on Kayak.com for options.

I much prefer the Asian carriers over the domestic carriers.

Since you are leaving next month, book your tickets fast or there will be none left, also some FF miles only allow roundtrips.

United offers open-jaw itineraries on ff miles , but Shanghainese is right - not all do. ANd getting ff tickets so close to your date may be difficult.

Oops- I hit post too soon,

I'd start calling right now. Most people book those Biz class ff tickets a full 330 days in advance, as soon as they are bookable. I doubt that you'll have any choice - you'll be lucky if you can find seats.

I am so sorry. We are not going until January 2010-not a great proofing job. We can just transfer miles from our American Express account with flexibility to most airlines so that is the reason I asked about the preferred airline to travel on.

If you want to go via Singapore, I'd try with Singapore Airlines although it may be difficult to get 2 biz seats-I've usually been able to find 1 biz or F/C seat even with just 3-4mos of time. They are imposing some hefty fees now but it's still worthwhile! NWA is ok in biz, upstairs especially, just nowhere near the service of what the Asian carriers are known for.

The best bet is to call exactly 330 days from your trip. Note that they may or may not use 330 from your return flight, but you can reserve the outgoing flight 330 days from then and leave open the return, hopefully. Try to get the Newark to Singapore non-stop at least for your return on singapore Air.

You should check out flyertalk.com each airline has its own forum with tons of people willing to help. You can figure out which airline would not only offer the best flights, but also which one you can actually use the miles after they post to your account.

330days out is the key. Put the outbound on hold till the 330day window opens up for the return.

We booked through Delta 330 days out for our upcoming trip to Thailand and were told we could re-bank our miles at no charge if we were unable to get the return trip for three weeks later. They changed their policy the next day, although they honored the old one for us. Delta's new policy is that if you are unable to get your return flight, there is a charge to re-bank your miles. They suggest not booking your tickets until 330 days from your return date. They certainly don't try to make it easy.

I always use eva-air to get to bkk...fly the evergreen deluxe class ...its like a business class seat....also try air brokers dot com...they have great rates in business class also,and Im using them for my next trip...sfo-tpe-nrt-nix-bkk-mnl-tpe-sfo...good luck

the very best trip to bkk we had was on air france from boston, but it would work from philly too i am sure....full day stop in paris on way over...both nite flights going and nite flt from bkk coming home...perfect!! booked through northwest...