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Asia Kids Trip with Shabbos Minyanim, Excellent Food & Private Family Swimming!

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Denverite:
1st Segment- Trip Planning:

This trip all started after I did a trip to the Maldives (My TR is here: http://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=66086.0) in 2016, which was the first high-end, all on points, not just eating tuna and crackers and cheese, trip that I planned after seeing all the cool stuff other people were doing and realizing I could do it too!  So after I got back from that trip, I was trying to figure out, where I wanted to go next and somewhere that would be fun for my whole family, kids included.  We see a lot of cool trips, on DDF, to amazing places for couples or with babies and toddlers but I wanted to write this up for other families to see what I planned for a far off trip with older kids.  I didn't bring a single pot on this trip, although I did bring snacks and milk and except for our first stop we did have a microwave (which is really important for me).

Once you throw older kids in the mix, it made everything SO much more complicated for me, with the extra points and seat availability, dealing with food for 5 people (and picky eaters) and also as my children have gotten older it's very important to me to help them have great adventures while also trying my best not to put them unnecessarily in inappropriate settings and environments.  Add to these issues, that I have very little desire to go to Europe, wanted somewhere warm over winter break, we had just had an amazing family trip to Panama (TR for that one is here: http://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=75186.0) so I wanted somewhere not in Central/South America, oh and on top of those things my husband said I could knock myself out planning whatever crazy vacation I wanted as long as a he got one hot, fresh, meat meal per day (that took out Hawaii, unless I wanted to kill myself cooking)! SOOO, where to go?!?! ;D

I decided Asia.  Here is the itinerary I booked and I hope you enjoy this trip report!

Most airlines open a max of two or four J seats so I looked toward Cathay Pacific from the beginning because they often open five seats.  Since they also have the best deal in J when booked with Alaska miles (50k OW pp), that is what I worked toward amassing points and then booking.  We wanted to have our Shabbats with a minyan and heard both Hong Kong and Singapore were great.  We could also eat both meals in the synagogues there so that also led us to those cities for both weekends (Thailand sounds like they also have amazing Shabbat experiences so I'm not trying to discount them, I just thought our family would enjoy these cities more). 

This is what we ended up with (ideally the trip would have included more Thailand time but because of time restraints we couldn't add more onto this trip):
Denver-Hong Kong (stayed three nights)- Koh Samui, Thailand (stayed 4 nights), Singapore (stayed 3 nights)- Denver

Den-SFO (had to purchase)
SFO-HKG CX J  50k AS plus $61.10 so 250k for 5 people and $305.50
     Used Hotels.com nights for 3 nights at the Royal Garden and it was a perfect location to Kehillat Zion in Kowloon

HKG-BKK CX included in the above mileage ticket but I ended up cancelling once I booked the direct flight from Hong Kong to Koh Samui

HKG-USM   Bankok Airways Y, Only 10k pp and 50k total AF miles
     Used HHonors for 4 night at the Conrad Residences Koh Samui

USM-SIN Silk Air Only 10,625  miles pp so 53,125 total SQ miles  (booked before award chart change so got the 15% discount but paid a little YQ)
      Used HHonors for two nights at the Hilton Garden Inn near the shul for only 10k HHonors a night (one of my best ever redemptions) and the last night was paid (yes, it was horrible to pay but fun to stay) :P at the Marina Bay sands

SIN-HKG-LAX on CX J  Again only 50k AS

LAX-DEN originally booked on American for 7500 Avios and and 5.60 fees pp for a total of 37.5k and 28.00 but then I cancelled them when those same tickets went on sale for $44 per person.

All together, I spent:
500k AS I was able to take advantage of that short-term deal where I transferred to Virgin with the SPG bonus and then got another bonus when exchanging to AS so those tickets really cost me about 300k SPG or 60k SPG pp RT (yes, I know that's not going to happen again)!!  That's more than an $.11pp redemption of SPG points for those CX flights.

50k AF
53,125k SQ

Even with all this planning, no large YQ, etc.  the total taxes, fees, and tickets from Denver to California was still about $400pp and $2000 for the family.  I'm not complaining, just trying to give the true costs, when I put every together.

I'm going to work on uploading my pictures and get started with the next installment soon!

mmgfarb:
Wow, great redemptions! That's pretty difficult to do for five people. Looking forward to the rest of the TR, yours never disappoint

EJB:
Looking forward to your TR, especially your stay at the sands!

tzifanya54:
All 7 of you in one room?

sam28:
wow cant wait for more

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