I have skymiles from Delta and would like to use them to travel to Bangkok business class. Are there any non-stop flights? What would be the best way to use these miles? I have about 120,000 and am a gold medallion holder.

The only non-stop flights from JFK to BKK are on Thai.

Your choices are basically:

Korean
China Airlines
China Southern
Singapore
Northwest Airlines or Continental/NW mix.

Technically, they are all 120,000 for business class. As Kathie says, no non-stop.

Oh, Malaysia is another possibility, I believe.

Does Thai take skymiles?

Nope.

Thai is part of Star Alliance (United, etc.) and thus will not take the miles. Delta is part of the Sky Team Alliance. I am not very knowledgable about the rules of that program (you'll have to call Delta or someone else may chime in) but it is possible to get to Bangkok flying east on Air France, Alitalia or KLM or flying west on Northwest or Korean. All of the airlines I have mentioned are members of Sky Team. Singapore is a member of Star Alliance, not Sky Team as far as I know. Not sure about the two Chinese airlines.

Flying KL or AF through Europe will require more miles, in general.

China Airlines and China Southern are not Skyteam members, but they are DL partners.

SQ is a Star Alliance airline, but it is also a non-alliance partner with DL.

rkkwan is correct. If you can get SQ business class, it would be the next best thing to flying direct on Thai.

I am surprised how lousy the Delta website is when it comes to information on redeeming miles on alliance/partner airlines.

We've used Delta miles to fly on Singapore before. If I were you, I'd try to take the Singapore nonstop from Newark and connect in Singapore to Bangkok. I think this would prove to be much nicer than any of the alternatives.

Consider Thai in Premium Economy and save your Delta miles. It is almost Bus.Class and 17 hours non-stop from JFK.

I also recco Thai Premium Economy for the direct flight JFK~BKK. It is a great deal, very very comfortable, and a really a good flight/value. I am a big fan.

We took the Thai PE last November, and as Bonita says, it was a great deal.

For flight schedule and routing options on skyteam try http://www.skyteam.com

bill---thanks for the site....might be handy some day...

I should add if your Delta miles expire in Dec. 2007 then you have a problem. My miles ~(105,000) do not expire until Dec. 2008 so I will use them for Contintental to the Caribbean and South America.

how do you know when the miles expire?

Nevermind...they expire in 2009.