Royal Orchid Plus

THAI Airways

02-356-1111, www.thaiairways.com

To get a free room
12,000 miles/night, 22,000/two nights, and 32,000/three nights for domestic destinations and three-star hotels elsewhere; from 14,000 miles/night for five-star hotels in Thailand and three to five star hotels in other countries.

Hotel partners
Aloft, Dusit, dusitD2, Dusit Princess, Royal Princess, Centara Grand, Centara, Mercure, Novotel, Imperial, Fourpoints, Sheraton, Anantara, Le Meridien, Westin, Pullman, W, Langham, Eaton, Shangri-La, Traders, Sofitel.

Destinations
More than 30 cities across the globe. See website for details.

To earn miles
Actual miles. For example: Tokyo is 2,879 miles and Paris 5,853 miles, one-way. Business and first class passengers earn an additional 10-50% on miles along the same routes.

EXAMPLE
Nuch has 32,000 miles. She can choose to redeem them for either: (1) a three-night stay in the Ibis Shinjuku (or Centara hotels in Phuket) or (2) two roundtrip tickets to Thai destinations (15,000 miles each).

VERDICT
A room at Ibis Shinjuku is around B3,000 while a roundtrip ticket to Phuket costs around B5,000. So they are pretty comparable and it’s not a bad deal, but we’d rather redeem our miles for flights anyway. One good thing is THAI partners with many more hotels than other Thai airlines.

FlyerBonus

Bangkok Airways

1771, Flyerbonus.bangkokair.com

To get a free room
From 150 points for domestic destinations, from B450 for other countries.

Hotel partners
Centara, Centara Boutique Collection, Away, Imperial, Marriott, JW Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott, Renaissance, Langham.

Destinations
Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Hat Yai, Hua Hin, Khon Kaen, Krabi, Mae Hong Son, Mae Sot, Petchabun, Phuket, Rayong, Koh Samui, Trang, Trat, Udon Thani, Hong Kong, Beijing, Boston, LA, London, Melbourne, Shanghai

To earn pointss
5-10 points for domestic flights and 10-25 for international flights on economy class. Business and first class earn 5-20 more points per route.

EXAMPLE
Nong has 300 FlyerBonus points. she can choose to redeem them for either: (1) a roundtrip ticket to Luang Prabang or (2) two nights at Central Duangtawan Chiang Mai.

VERDICT
A roundtrip ticket to Luang Prabang is usually around B8,000 while a rack rate for a night at Centara is B4,500. But as Centara usually have room promotions meaning you nearly never spend full prices, it’s better to redeem your points for flights. Unfortunately, Bangkok Airways doesn’t partner with hotels at their popular destinations like Luang Prabang and Maldives.

BIG Point

AirAsia

www.airasia.com

To get a free room
250 BIG points.

Hotel partners
Tune hotels, present in 13 global cities but offering barebones amenities.

Destinations
Bangkok, Pattaya, Hat Yai, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor Bahru, Jakarta, Bali, Cebu, Manila, London, Edinburgh

To earn points
One point for every B20 spent on AirAsia flights, AirAsia Megastore (www.airasiamegastore.com), Tune hotels, AirAsia Redtix (redtix.airasia.com) and AirAsia Go (www.airasiago.com).

EXAMPLE
Nana has 10,000 BIG points. She can choose to redeem them for either: (1) a two-night stay at Tune Kuala Lumpur (4,511 points x 2) or one-way ticket to Kuala Lumpur (8,716 points [promotion]).

VERDICT
An air ticket to Kuala Lumpur is normally B1,800-2,000 while a room at Tune starts from around B500. So we’d rather use our points for flights and sleep elsewhere with better facilities, unless there are BIG point promotions that let us redeem a room at 0-5 points.