I am shopping for tickets from Detroit to Jakarta, Indonesia for Dec 15 departure, and Jan 15, 2006 return date. I was able to get the following quotas from Oregon-based travel agent who specializes in Asian travel:

Korean Airlines $1109+tax
(There will be overnight forced stay where I will be responsible for my own lodging - which I've never heard of before)

Singapore Airlines $1540 + tax

EVA Airlines $1365+tax

I flew China Airlines before going to Indonesia in 2003, and it was a nightmare. Everything was fine from Detroit to Chicago, and then Chicago to SF, but then from SF to Taipei was horrible (the flight was overbooked, the OJ was warm, and I had to beg to get an OJ). So with that said, I prefer not to go with China Airlines again even if I had to pay a little bit more.

Any suggestions? Thanks!!

I forgot to add the overnight stay is outbound from Seoul Korea.

What FF program do you belong to? This may aid in your decision. The EVA option I assume this is their coach fare? They also have an Evergreen deluxe class which we have flown several times and swear by it. (Its almost Business class- bigger seats, more legroom, amenity kits etc. but at an affordable price- if you are over 6 feet tall you want to give serious consideration to flying this class)
EVA partners with Continental (for sure) and Northwest I believe.

Hi Bill, I belong to the Norhtwest FF and yes, the tickets quoted above all are coach. I am only 5'3" but I definitely prefer more leg room, because that's a 24 hr flight total from Detroit to Jakarta.

Have you flown any of the airlines I mentioned above? I also inquired about Lufthansa, and they told me it costs about $5000. And then NWA only flies to Singapore ($1090), which I think should be fine as long as I can find reasonably priced connecting flight from Singapore to Jakarta.

We have flown Singapore Air and EVA Air.
Singapore is the gold standard but not always the best value.. We really enjoy EVA Air Evergreen Deluxe- we find it delivers the best value. I would avoid Korean and China Air as I have heard that these do not deliver good service.
If you can get FF miles and fly EVA Air I would say that is your best value!

How much more did you have to fly when going with the Eva Evergreen Deluxe?

I meant to say how much did you have to pay extra for the Everygreen Deluxe. Of course, we all be flying the same duration of hours regardless of the price of the flight

Of course it depends on the time of year- high season vs. low season but as I recall it was about $250 more to fly Evergreen deluxe class vs. coach. You can go on their web site and do the comparisons- you may have to use LA-Jakarta route as I don't think they have Detroit on their list.
We flew Houston to La on Continental and then La to Taipei to Bangkok last year.(Manila as well this year).

What you want ideally is a good fare and FF miles.Thats what I call value. Thats what we got- Evergreen deluxe over the ocean and Continental miles for the entire trip!

In Evergreen deluxe you can get the seating where its two by 4 by two. In the front of the 747 its actually two by two! We have always been able to get the two seats- window and aisle. I am 6'2" and can cross my legs and actually sleep in this class!!! Service was great food was fine. Having flown coach to Asia several times I now only fly Evergreen deluxe to Asia! It makes a big difference.

I will definitely check out that Deluxe Evergreen directly from their website. I just called my TA again and she quoted me for $1692 + tax. She called this economy deluxe class.

I definitely want to be more comfortable this time around because that flight home on China really kicked my butts.

Should I wait until let's say fall to purchase my tickets? I know they probably wouldn't go down any lower, because it's the high season with the holiday etc.

You can wait a bit but as its high season availability becomes an issue as we get further along into the year.

The last time I went in December, I purchased my tickets in October. But I agree with you, availability will become an issue if I wait until the last minute. I think I am going to do mine this year a month or two earlier.

one way to save money when flying out of singapore is to cross the bridge into malaysia and fly out of JB...you may save over 40%...

does garuda fly to the usa? i would think you would get cheaper flights out of bangkok...have you thought about that option...?? northwest flies to bkk...
unfortunately you are going at the worst time of the flying year for price---christmas...even though asia countries are not christians, their people here go home during holidays...

did you ask for ice for the oj?? doesn't surprise me it was warm...you sould not judge the airline by that alone...its always terrible anyways imo....

rhkkmk -

I dont think that Garuda flies to the US. I was told that I could fly Northwest to Singapore ($1099) and then connect to Jakarta using Thai Airlines ($250-ish) but I am concerned that Thai Airlines would be a lot similar to China Airlines.

Do you fly China Airlines on regular basis? Maybe I just had a bad experience that one time, and like you said, it's the most hectic time of the year because most people go home during that winter break. But I dont want to take a chance on another potential for miserable 14-hr flight from CA to Taipei. I guess, I know it might sound petty to some of the other folks here on the board, but I didn't have the easiest time getting services when I flew the last time. At first, they told me they didn't have OJ. And finally when someone else did a round, I asked them, and they brought me OJ, and

I am working with an Oregon-based travel agent, she's Indonesian, and I will see what other options she has.

opps sorry that one got accidentally posted when I wasn't finished. I think it wasnt just the OJ deal but the whole experience was not pleasant. Maybe it will be better during a low season?

Garuda doesn't fly to the US at this time. They may restart US routes in the future I heard some time ago...

Thai Air...we've used them 3 times between Japan and Bangkok. We found it excellent.

You could fly NWA to Tokyo and connect to Jakarta on Garuda. This way might result in an overnight in Tokyo on the way to Jakarta. You earn NWA mileage on Garuda. You can also redeem miles for flights on Garuda. We used Garuda from Japan last December to go to Bali and were pleasantly surprised at how good the service and food was, and even the economy class seats seemd roomier on Garuda's A330 than on NWA's 744 across the Pacific.

I'd not hesitate to fly either Thai or Garuda again.

Kim, thank you for your suggestion. Do you recommend that I seek my itineraries on my own, or through travel agent? I guess I can travel to either Taipei, Korea, Singapore, or Japan and connect to Jakarta from any of the cities above. The question would probably be which airline offers the best deal?

Travelling from Detroit to Jakarta would require at least 4 connections, and this is why I have only used travel agents in the past to help me make sure that I dont have any connection glitches.

You know, what I always do is search out my own itineraries AND ask a few travel agents, then buy the best deal (most convenient, best value, best mileage earning flights). http://www.flyaow.com/classcwt.htm is a tool I use quite often for checking times and routings, but it doesn't show the lowest available price many times. Travelocity and Expedia are also good sources for research. We use Northwest to travel to the states so I know the most about Northwest routes, miles, and partners. If you actually call Northwest they can help you with routings. I do know they can ticket award tickets on Garuda, but I don't know if they can do revenue tickets...we booked our Garuda flight on-line directly with Garuda Japan.

Honestly, I don't see why you couldn't fly DTW - NRT - CGK...with an overnight in Tokyo on the CGK bound flight...using NWA and Garuda. Return would be a midnight or so flight out of CGK, 9 am arrival in Narita and 3 - 4 pm departure to DTW. Going home is a breeze this way...to Jakarta there is that pesky layover. You could also go DTW - NRT - SIN - CGK...but looks more time intensive...you earn more miles though.

Here is a value measure- however you decide to go realize that if you go with an airline that is not on your ff program- you may be losing about 20,000 miles. Yes you get those miles on that airline's ff program but if you don't fly that airline much this may not mean a whole lot to you. Those 20,000 miles are 1/3 of the way towards a trip to Asia.
Coach flights to Asia run about $800-1,000. So that 1/3 is worth about $275-$333.

i like the idea of switching to garuda in tokyo...makes lots of sense and cuts out one stop....the miles are always an issue for me however, so that often determines on whom i fly...

china air does not interest me for a number of reasons....their fares are often the best and maybe for a reason...
there seems to be lots of complaints on this board about them too,,,