Recently while trying to book a flight back to Asia from North America I was happy to find that there were a lot of award seats available right now. I mostly checked departures from the West Coast of North America, traveling from Vancouver, San Francisco or Los Angeles, to destinations such as Tokyo, Singapore, Malaysia, and Taipei. Primarily served by United, ANA, EVA, and Air Canada.

UPDATE: SAS announced that will leave Star Alliance and join SkyTeam after being acquired by Air France/KLM and others. Check out these other posts to stay up to date

Historically Lufthansa First class partner award redemptions have only been available 14 days in advance, making it a little difficult to plan trips with them. However, it seems that has now been extended to up to 30 days in advance. We’ll have to wait and see whether or not this is a permanent change.

Today’s journey started months ago when I read that Taiwan’s flag carrier, China Airlines, would be arranging a special 747 farewell flight as they would be retiring their 747 fleet. Furthermore, this wasn’t just a regular “flight to nowhere”. The goal was to fly to Japan, passing the iconic Mt. Fuji, and then return to Taiwan. Since I’m currently living in Taiwan I thought I would try to get a ticket on this special flight.

A simple tool that helps you analyze and forecast your SAS EuroBonus activity. Simply import your point activity from your EuroBonus profile. All calculations are performed directly in your browser. Your data is kept private and is not uploaded/processed by our servers.

Big news at AwardFares! Despite the current situation we’ve been hard at work building new features. One of the most requested improvements over the years has been to be able to search for full trips. You asked, and we listened. Introducing search with stops!

We’re making some adjustments to the pricing of AwardFares (only affecting new subscribers), but are have also released some useful new features that are available now to all Gold and Diamond subscribers.

Earlier during the year SAS stopped the ability to book Star Alliance awards using EuroBonus points. However, SAS have now (partially) resumed the ability to book these flights. The service is currently only available by phone. The online booking service is unfortunately still closed at this time.

On a trip back in March I was able to upgrade from their premium economy (SAS Plus) for a relatively low cost (About 20 000 Eurobonus points). I’ve flown SAS Business a number of times before and as a result this review will be a mix of my different experiences, however with focus on the latest flight.

Update (April 17, 2020): Award space with United MileagePlus is now wide-open on the Cape Town and Cancun routes. Interestingly only Business awards are available on the Cancun route.

Back in January I flew Japan Airlines (JAL) from Seoul Gimpo (GMP) to Tokyo Haneda (HND). It was definitely one of the better economy flights I’ve experienced recently. From the crew and cabin, to the seat and food, everything was excellent. My only complaint was not being able to choose my seats in advance. Read more about that below.

The recent 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak (SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19) is definitely having a large impact on the travel and airlines. Whether you’re currently travelling or planning to travel there are many different aspects that may affect you, including suspended flight services and country travel restrictions.