I’ve never flown internationally in anything other than economy, so when it came time to plan our one-month honeymoon in Asia, my goal was to use points to book the long-haul flights in business. I had plenty of time (almost a year and a half between our wedding in France and our honeymoon), so I dove headfirst into amassing points and learning how to use them. Luckily for a psycho like myself, the timing worked out since many award flights become available around one year in advance.
Before I get ahead of myself, I have to give a shout out to Kyle & Kenz of Adventure_Parks, an Instagram account that demystified award travel for me. Despite years of following along with The Points Guy and other award travel accounts, I never could wrap my head around transfer bonuses, partners/alliances and other baffling concepts in the award space. What do you mean that you’re earning American Airlines points through a shopping portal to book JAL first class to Tokyo? Or that I can book a Delta flight in the US for 150,000 Delta SkyMiles, or the same flight for only 15,000 FlyingBlue points from AirFrance? Kyle & Kenz make it super easy and once I started reading their content, something in my brain clicked and I finally understood how it all works.
After booking Bill’s first leg (he’s heading to Asia a month before me), I experienced my first award booking high and kept chasing redemptions for bucket list business class experiences I had just started to read about and lust over.
Here’s a breakdown of my proud business class accomplishments.
Turkish Airlines Business on A350-900
Admittedly this isn’t my favorite redemption because it was my first and I had so much more to learn, but I think Bill will enjoy himself just fine when he flies Boston to Istanbul in Turkish’s A350 business class with the Flying Chef service and direct aisle access for each seat. The second leg of his flight from Istanbul to Bangkok is in business class on an older A330 so not as flashy, but still swankier than any other international flight we’ve been on.
This flight was booked by transferring 68,000 Chase points to AirCanada Aeroplan when there was a 30% transfer bonus, and then booking for 88,000 Aeroplan points plus $65 in fees.
Vietnam Airlines Business on 787
I just pulled the trigger on this Bangkok to Hanoi two-hour flight for Bill during his solo part of our Asia honeymoon.
This flight was booked for 16,500 AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue points plus $56 in fees. We have a stash of FlyingBlue points (transferred from AmEx during one of heir semi-regular transfer bonuses) leftover from a cancelled trip to Austria, Hungary and Slovakia.
Qatar Business on A350-900 and Qatar First on A380

Scoring an international first class flight was not on my 2024 bingo card, but when I was booking my Qatar business class flight from Boston to Bangkok via Doha (while on vacation in Mexico because it’s not a real vacation unless you’re actively booking another) and realized it was the same number of points to book the Doha to Bangkok leg in first as it was to book business, my beginner’s dumb luck really delivered. Not only would I be flying first class, I’d be doing it on a double-decker A380 plane with an onboard bar & lounge only accessible to people in business and first. Cheers!
This flight was booked by transferring 95,000 AmEx points to Qatar and then booking for 95,000 Qatar Avios plus $206 in fees.
Emirates Business on A380

OK to be honest I was feeling a little guilty about Bill’s flight to Bangkok vs. my flight to Bangkok and I figured it would be a lot more fun to experience an onboard bar & lounge with someone than it would be solo, so I started to seek out A380 flights with a bar onboard. It’s basically Qantas, Qatar and Emirates who are operating A380s with onboard bars, so when I saw a fifth-freedom Emirates flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong aboard the A380, I snapped it up and we added Hong Kong to the honeymoon itinerary.
This flight was paid for in cash for about $400/person. Not a bad price point to experience Emirates business class and the A380 onboard bar for three hours. There is an option to upgrade to first class suites (with an onboard shower!) for about $500 in cash or 16,900 Emirates Skywards (transferred 1:1 from AmEx currently) per seat if I’m feeling greedy… tbd.
Korean Air Prestige on a 787-9

At this point in booking our trip, I had deluded myself into thinking it was business or bust for me. So is this the most exciting redemption for a 2.5 hour flight from Osaka to Seoul? Not really. But we had Delta SkyMiles to burn so it was an obvious one.
These flights for two people were booked using 15,000 Delta Skymiles plus $30 in fees (per person).
Qatar Business Double Bed on A350-1000 and A350-900
Bless Bill’s heart for agreeing to this flight from Seoul to Doha to Boston because there is a non-stop Seoul to Boston option that would have been about 14 hours, instead of this 24-hour trip. But if there’s ever a chance to fly 10 hours Seoul to Doha, and then 14 hours Doha to Boston in business class seats that turn into a double bed, then heading home from your honeymoon is it.
This flight was booked for two people by transferring 200,000 AmEx points to Qatar and then booking for 200,000 Qatar Avios plus $477 in fees.