Deep Dive: Asia on Points

Author: Matthew

October 29, 2025

My brother just got married in Korea! And of course the year prior I was already planning how to fly there and back using points. Read through this blog to hear about all the nitty gritty details and our reviews of our flights and hotels.

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Top-Level Takeaways

My hope is that this post inspires you to use your points for some aspirational trips in the future. To summarize some key takeaways/learnings

Never use travel portals, except when it's Plan B - I was tracking the flights on Korean Air, but then came a major holiday and there just weren't seats that fit our criteria, so we did end up using the portal to be able to use our points for the flight we wanted.
Children under 2 aren't free everywhere - We paid $2,200 for Noah's lap infant fare for our First Class Cathay Pacific flight. Whoops. Did not realize that when we first booked, I incorrectly assumed children under 2 fly free everywhere.

VLOG COMING SOON - CHECK BACK LATER

Korean Air Business Class - IAD to ICN

Booking

Knowing I would be traveling with an infant, I knew several things while planning this flight a year out.

I want a direct flight
I want a lie-flat seat in business class
I need two adult tickets
I had to be in Korea before October 3rd

If you're experienced in the points world - you'll know that the less flexible your are, the harder it is the find award flights. And with all my stipulations I was very inflexible. But there was still a chance - I was finding Korean Air business class seat award availability on Virgin Atlantic and Alaska Airlines in August/September when I was looking 11 months out. This was the only direct flight from Dulles to Korea. But then came the October dates I actually wanted to book - I couldn't find anything. Korean Air themselves didn't even release award seats on their own program... because it was a major holiday week.

So after desperately confirming there were no transfer partners or award availability, I had to go to plan B - something I tell others never to do - book through the credit card travel portal. Below were my options.

American Express - With my American Express Business Platinum, I could get a 35% rebate when booking with points on business class flight redemptions.
Chase - With my Chase Sapphire Preferred I could get 1.25 cents per point
Capital One - not worthwhile since there aren't any bonuses for redeeming points.

I chose to go with American Express since it had the best value for my points, and I had almost 1 million points saved up for booking this exact scenario as back up. Chase could have been a second choice especially if I upgraded to the Reserve to get 1.5x back - but I had fewer points since all of them go towards my Hyatt bookings.

Cost Breakdown

The flight I booked was for 2 adults and one lap infant was $9,540.50 one-way so I had to redeem 954,050 of my hard-earned American Express Membership Reward Points. But, with the 35% rebate, I got 333,918 points back, so a total of 620,132 points actually used. The cent per point (CPP) calculation on that is 1.5 cpp (which is locked with that 35% rebate)

How did I get all those Amex points? In 2024 I got two Amex Business Platinum that each gave me 250,000 points for the sign-up bonus. Other cards also included the Amex Blue Business Plus and the Amex Gold, and I also earned points from Rakuten shopping and dining, referral points, and normal spend.

Ground Experience (IAD)

Korean Air doesn't have its own lounge since it only has one flight a day. It shares the business class lounge with Air France, which we've been at through Priority Pass lounge access - and it's alright. We first went to the Capital One Lounge for the usual breakfast, then headed to Air France just to make it an easier transition from the lounge to the gate.

Flight Experience (IAD-ICN)

We boarded the plan first with Noah and got ready to hunker down for 15 hours. The business cabin was configured in a 2x2x2 pattern and so we picked the last row on the left side to hopefully get even more privacy.

The Seat

The seats were slightly staggered next to each other, but with the divider down it was still easy to see each other. The outer seat had direct aisle access, and the inner seat had like a mini hallway to the aisle. While the footrest of the outer seat was under the entertainment screen, the inner seat had a small footrest that I could sit on and eat while watching Noah sleep.

Overall it was very spacious and comfortable. With the boy sleeping in the middle though I had to lie on my side on the hard bar to not disturb him. There were plenty of blankets and pillows to keep us comfy.

The Food

We got two 3-course meals with fresh vegetables and hearty Korean dishes. The stewardess kept pouring us nice international wine as well. Outside of meal hours, we ordered ramen that had a great spicy kick and additional snacks.

Overall Take

If it was just the two of us, we would have been able to suffer in economy. With Noah though, it was a lifesaver having a place for him to literally roam around and sleep without us holding him. Being in the back also meant most of the cabin couldn't hear him scream/cry at certain times during the flight - though overall he was happy!

I wouldn't have paid almost $10K for this one flight, but with points, it made the trip not just bearable, but enjoyable.

Cathay Pacific Business/Economy - ICN to HKG

Booking

Within Asia, it's a lot easier to find award seats since there are so many flights available. The best deal I found was on Cathay Pacific - where I could book Sarah business class for 28,000 points + $37.20 and me and the rest of my family in economy for 10,000 points + $37.20per person. I quickly transferred points from Capital One to book this flight. The flights would have been $600 and $250, respectively, so we got pretty standard value for our points.

One thing to note is that Cathay Pacific only gives you 5 companions a year that you can book points for. I could only add my grandparents and aunt, and then my parents had to book themselves.

Ground Experience (ICN)

The airport was large, clean, and easy to navigate. We all went to the lounge closest to our gate through Priority Pass. Though there was a line, we were able to get in after 30 minutes and eat lunch there. It was crowded, noisy, but hey great Korean dishes and drinks - enough for what we needed. After a while I set out with Noah to check out some of the other lounges that were pretty much the same set up, but actually less crowded.

Sarah got access to the OneWorld lounge which was a lot nicer and quieter. She got premium drinks and food to enjoy.

Flight Experience (ICN-HKG)

It was a pretty quick and normal flight from my end on economy - at least I got an aisle during check-in.

Sarah got a very nice meal with wine. They placed a bassinet on top of the bulkhead for Noah, so she was actually afraid Noah was going to crawl out since he could stand. So he mostly just slept with Sarah in the seat.

Cathay Pacific First Class - HKG to JFK

Booking

Since there are only a few direct flights from Asia to IAD (e.g., Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing) I expanded my search just to return to the US with cities like Chicago, Dallas, and New York to increase my flexibility. After searching through some options, Cathay Pacific seemed the best choice for its amazing product, more time in international business class, and wide availability on points.

I was able to transfer 330,000 Capital One miles to Cathay Pacific to book First Class + $356.98. The process was very smooth. On Wechat, later I had to add my lap infant once he was born, and that's when I found out lap infants are 10% of the adult fare.. so I had to pay $2,200 for him to not even have a seat! Overall it's still "worth it" in terms of value, but I'm sure Sarah and I would have just a good experience in business class.

The Ground Experience (HKG)

We took the subway all across the airport to go to the full-service first class lounge for Cathay Pacific. And it was worth it. They had shower rooms that had all the amenities you needed. We ordered Chinese breakfast sets that came wtih dim sum, noodles, and fruit. And on the other side of the bar they had a full-service bar with expensive champagne.

Unfortunately there apparently was no subway back so we had to walk all the way to our gate - so I was sweating again before boarding.

Flight Experience (HKG-JFK)

The First Class cabin only had 6 suites, and we decided it'd be nicer to sit in front/back of each other rather than across the aisle, and it was a good choice since each seat was very private.

The Seat

I could fully stretch out and still have some room to wiggle around. The seat was also pretty wide so Noah and I could both sleep together when he wasn't in his bassinet above Sarah's feet. The crew provided a mattress pad when we wanted to sleep for a while. There were plenty of places to put Noah's toys and snacks. Finally, we got soft pajamas and a nice amenity kit to round out the experience.

The Food

The food was served from two Michelin star restaurants and tasted like it. While Noah slept, I was able to sit on Sarah's footrest (very spacious) and we were able to have a dinner date together! In between meal hours there was so much we could order and drink. We were so full and slept actually through the second meal service.

Delta Economy -JFK to IAD

Booking

Knowing we were arriving back in JFK, I saw my only option to fly back directly to Dulles was on Delta. No partners had that availability since were had to fly back in the evening, so I decided it was finally time to get a Delta credit card (plus it would help with checked bags). Sarah got the Delta Gold card because the annual fee is waived for the first year (so we'll cancel it), the bonus had a high promotion to help cover this flight and some upcoming ones, and we got the business version to avoid Chase 5/24.

It was not a great deal, but hey, at least we only paid 77,000 Delta Skymiles + $11.20 for a $978 flight back home.

The Ground Experience (JFK)

We had to switch terminals, but it wasn't too bad of a walk and train ride. In Terminal 4 there were so many lounges, but we decided to go to the newer Capital One Lounge. It was very spacious and we were thankfully able to shower. Food-wise, it was solid, but not amazing. What helped us out a lot was the private room we could book for 30 minutes where we could put Noah on the floor and let him explore and get his energy out. They also had a bagel/coffee bar that made things to order and you could also order hot food to your table.

I did try a Delta Skyclub lounge just to see and it was way more packed and not as nice.

Our flight was delayed a few hours so it was nice to continue staying in the lounge before our flight.

Flight Experience (JFK-IAD)

Initially I actually booked Delta business class to DCA, but switched it due to timing and wanting to fly back into Dulles. So on this flight we were economy all the way back, but it was such a short flight it didn't matter too much. We just wanted to get home.

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