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    Bali: The Island of the Gods

    icon-user Andy Shuman icon-comments Comments July 31, 2018
    Bali: The Island of the Gods

    Bali is a tropical island in Indonesia with beautiful landscapes. Mountains, beautiful beaches and world-class diving make it a paradise for many travelers.

    Accommodations and food on the island are quite reasonable, but Bali is far away and very popular with tourists so airfare can cost $1,500 or more. But miles can get you to exotic destinations like this for next to nothing.

    The bad news about flying to Bali on miles is that there are no direct flights from the U.S. The good news is that there are plenty of options. If you want the easiest way—with one short layover—you should use American Airlines AAdvantage miles on partner Cathay Pacific.

    Cathay Pacific flies to Denpasar Airport in Bali via Hong Kong from:

    • New York
    • Newark
    • Chicago
    • San Francisco
    • Los Angeles

    Unfortunately, you cant search for Cathay Pacific flights on American’s website, but if you go to the British Airways website (you must have an account with them) you can search for the following city pairs:

    • U.S. departure city – Hong Kong
    • Hong Kong – Denpasar

    You should see the results like this:

    Reward seats availability for JFK - HKG flight
    Award seat availability for JFK – HKG flight

    Award seat availability for HKG – DPS flight
    Award seat availability for HKG – DPS flight

    After you find availability in both directions, write down the flight numbers and the dates and call American Airlines to complete the booking. An economy roundtrip ticket will cost you 70,000 miles, business class, 110,000, and first class, 135,000. If you have a lot of AAdvantage miles, you might want to experience the legendary Cathay Pacific premium-class service before upcoming devaluations.Do not ask the agent to book these segments separately or you will end up paying for each.

    Other oneworld airlines that fly to Bali are:

    • Malaysia Airlines
    • Qatar Airlines

    If you do not have American AAdvantage miles, but have US Airways Dividend miles, you can still book this flight since US Airways is also a member of the oneworld Alliance.

    No AAdvantage or Dividend miles? Airlines from all alliances fly to Bali, so getting there is not hard. But you may have two connections.

    Star Alliance to Bali

    If you have United Mileage Plus miles you can fly on one airline or any combination of partners. The cost is 80,000 miles per roundtrip.

    • Air New Zealand
    • Asiana Airlines
    • China Airlines
    • Singapore Airlines
    • Thai Airways

    Sanur Beach in Bali
    Sanur Beach in Bali

    Below are the airlines from SkyTeam that fly to Bali. Use them if you have SkyMiles. Delta tacks fuel surcharges onto many of its partners. The roundtrip cost is 80,000 miles.

    • Aeroflot
    • China Airlines
    • China Eastern Airlines
    • China Southern Airlines
    • Garuda Indonesia
    • KLM
    • Korean Air

    Its always nice to have choices.

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