All of this is a bit of guessing (not experience), but...
1. The easiest J route is MEL-BKK-NRT on TG. I dont expect this would be difficult to get. However, the current TG J is angled-flat beds which don't look particularly comfortable for overnight flights (theyre quite an angle).
They
are angled, but to be honest I find they're comfy enough. Of course, if you can't sleep on one, you can't sleep on one - too bad.
There's a lot of sentiment out there (particularly from "distinguished" FF bloggers) who believe that the only way to go in J is a fully flat seat parallel to the floor - anything else is criminal. Personally, I think that view is over the top and dismissive. With a bit of adaptation, it is not difficult at all to be comfortable on an angle flat seat, and TG J is no exception.
Having flown in TG J before, I think it's adequate. Leg room is quite good.
Luckily, BKK-NRT is a long-ish sector (about 6-7 hours), so there's a chance to get some decent rest (unlike, say, BKK-ICN, which is similar to an Australian transcontinental red-eye Eastbound).
As far as J on *A
within Asia is concerned, I think none of the airlines offer flat beds. Not sure about the Chinese carriers. If you can book on SQ's longhaul aircraft (77W, A380), their J will be flat, but otherwise their regional J is angled flat, too. NH I believe is angle flat.
Note that for getting
to Asia, NZ has flat beds in J in herringbone configuration (the latter being another debate on its own). However, you must fly on the 777 services to get these J flat beds (NZ "Business Premier"). The 763 services have Millennium style J seats.
2. I could do F on TG SYD-BKK-NRT (NRT is one of the few Asian destinations TG offer F on). Presumably I would have to make my own way to and from SYD? It would be impossible to ticket MEL-SYD-BKK-NRT because no *A carriers fly (or hub) DOM in Australia right?
Yep, you'll need to make your own way to SYD.
Trying to tag off the UA flight between MEL and SYD is just too risky IMO. I don't want to get into an argument as to whether UA have the proper rights to convey passengers unconditionally between MEL and SYD, but given that it's only
supposed to be for pax who must connect to or from MEL on the same UA service, I wouldn't start doing the very American thing of pushing the legal boundaries and fare rules (and subsequently complaining about the injustice of it).
3. If I wanted a few days stopover somewhere, could I ticket, say MEL-BKK-HKG TG then HKK-NRT on ANA? Could I ticket MEL-BKK-HCMC on TG then HCMC-NRT on ANA (as I assume they would be the only *A that would fly this route?)?
Ho Chi Minh City is SGN.
As
MEL_Traveller mentioned, this breaks the "not a *A hub" rule, so you may have trouble trying to create this itinerary.
Is this getting way too complicated (should I stick with option 1) or is it worth it to be as creative as possible because there is some flex in the booking process?
You can get creative within some reason. You can put in a stopover here or a transfer point there, but if your itinerary starts to look ridiculous then it mightn't pass mustard.
The idea of creativity is usually a bit easier with longer itineraries, because on shorter ones it's much harder to believe that you can slot cities here and there.
If you are interested in going to SGN for a side trip, you may have to consider your stopover at a nearby Asian city / *A hub, then finding a cheap tag flight to SGN.
I assume Australia to South America star alliance travel is almost impossible because there are no South American based alliance members? (Im guessing you would have to go via LAX with United or something like that?
You can try your luck on a few things.
North America (over the Pacific then South) is the obvious choice, if only that UA wouldn't be the first airline that I'd run to, especially when burning points for J or F.
The more novel choices are:
- SA via South Africa, viz. something like MEL or SYD -AKL-PER-JNB-GRU. J only.
- Go via Europe. LH, LX and TK all fly to GRU from their respective hubs.
- SQ and CA fly to GRU from their respective hubs, but they make a stop along the way. Not sure how US would price / ticket this up (more important about how many points you get charged).
- TAM Airlines (JJ) are, for the moment, still a member of *A. Many options to fly into either GRU or GIG from North America or Europe.
Generally you've got a better chance getting into South America via GRU (Sao Paolo) or GIG (Rio de Janerio).
I can see availability on the longest haul flights being at a premium, especially the F options (I would, however, hypothesise a better chance at an F seat to South America than a regular TATL).
(although I think it was transferring from any hotel program)
