With United Airlines set to resume San Francisco – Hong Kong flights in March, business class saver award availability is wide open. You can book use the space to connect onward in Asia on airlines like Singapore and Thai.
As of this writing at least two business class award seats are available for every day except one March 24, 2023 – October 28, 2023. On most dates there are at least 9 saver awards in business class on the route.
This is bookable using United’s miles (transfer from Chase or Bilt), LifeMiles (buy cheap or transfer), Air Canada (Capital One, Chase, Amex, Bilt) or others like ANA which charges just 136,000 miles roundtrip to South Asia.
United Polaris Lounge, San Francisco
United Business Class
It’s actually possible to travel to Hong Kong now. There’s no more hotel quarantine. You have to be vaccinated, do pre-travel testing, and basically do testing once you’re there and have to wait 3 days before entering restaurants and bars. Of course this could become stricter (no fees for cancel and redeposit of United miles) or less strict by the time you travel.
While Hong Kong still requires masking, international transit is permitted, so this is an opportunity to visit places (other than mainland China) in the region.
Does UA require masking to/from HK on their own metal? That would be a dealbreaker for me. Otherwise it’s a great way to get to BKK.
To be clear, the current HKG entry rules are still a nightmare. We were going to go there for a week this Xmas, and cancelled due to the fact that this would have involved 8 rapid tests, 4 PCR tests, mandatory government supervised quarantine if you fail any of those tests and even if you pass every single test you get 3 days of banishment from any restaurant, bar or even hotel lounge. So effectively the first week would be miserable and not something any sane person should even consider for a leisure trip. So far no signs of any of this madness changing any time soon.
UA resuming HKG is fake news. Clueless journalists think “becomes bookable” means “resumption”. Especially SimpleFlying: “February just axed” should mean “oh, another month gone, just like how it happened for the 30th time” instead of “wow, resumption in March!”
Ya’ll crazy going to mainland or HK. Is it worth the risk of getting locked down without notice, even in HK? Transit HKG – ok. Enter HK? No way, no chance
Very dangerous going to mainland or HongKong. If you are suffering from yellow fever and need your fill of Asia stick with Singapore, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.Some bad things are going down still with the CCP so stay away.
HkCaGu: SimpleFlying “journalists” are clueless, but they aren’t journalists. They’re people who rewrite press releases and in many cases don’t even file the numbers off to make it abide by journalistic principles like objectivity. What makes SimpleFlying worse than the other avgeek sites is that they’re pretending to be objective and journalistic. They’re not. They’re the Delta and Airbus suck-up website. Live and Let’s Fly tends to lay it on a little thick with the United/Star Alliance praise, but they at least criticize when it’s appropriate.
I’m sure there will be great deals flying to Hong Kong available for quite some time. Who on earth would want to visit Hong Kong??? You won’t catch me anywhere near Asia for at least 3 more years.
Definitely not a country you want to be in, honestly even if this was discounted first class I wouldn’t touch that country.
Was able to book 4 from SIN-SFO via HKG with Aeroplan points. If UA pulls the flights, what are the chances that AP will or can rebook me on the direct SIN-SFO United flight?
No Japan, no dice. Nobody going to stopover in China these days until Xi crackdown and nonsensical COVID policy ends.
Looks like CCP just started transitioning away from covid zero in the mainand which might mean further loosening of restrictions for HKG in near future.
I’d be willing to bet award tickets for March/onwards next year if had spare miles and redeposit/cancellation is free.
“Huey Judy” says “You won’t catch me anywhere near Asia for at least 3 more years.”
Love people like you who allow me greater award selection to SE Asia. Leaving in three weeks for my third trip this year to Philippines. Going to Bali next year along with Singapore and Philippines. Keep up the fear mongering. Love it.
a lot of Ukraine bargains too.