Flying Business Class from Chicago to Hanoi For Free

For the last year, whenever we've told friends or colleagues that we were going to Vietnam and Cambodia, the most common response was, "Why?" Honestly, all we can say is that we love food, history, and culture when we travel, and these countries seem to have all of that. Also, we were familiar with the company we chose to tour with (Uniworld), and knew they would make our travel experience in developing countries as comfortable as possible.

Not long after we booked this trip, we realized that we would have to spend close to 30 hours in airplanes just to get there. I'm a pretty good flyer, but Aaron gets a bit of flight anxiety and also finds it almost impossible to sleep on airplanes. So, we struck a deal: If we wanted to go on this trip, we needed to find a way to fly there in lay-flat beds. Challenge accepted! First, I looked at prices for business class tickets. The cheapest options were $5,000 each, which was absolutely out of reach for us. So in late September 2014, I started researching ways to accumulate lots of frequent flyer miles, fast. I learned that if you have good credit and a need to charge a few thousand dollars per month (either through personal spending or reimbursed business charges), it's actually quite easy to rack up hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer miles.

Aaron and I each applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card and the United MileagePlus Explorer card, and in just a few months we had over 150,000 frequent flyer miles in my United account. In February 2015, United was having a sale, offering 10,000 miles of each one-way business class fare from the US to Asia, bringing the cost for two people to 140,000 miles. We jumped on it, even though the routing wasn't ideal. For 140,000 miles and $107.60 in fees, we bought business class tickets from Chicago to Hanoi. The cash price to purchase these tickets was $11,000! Here's what our route looked like.

Yes, we were flying the wrong way around the world. But we were doing it in lay-flat seats, so I'd met the challenge.

I'd been looking forward to this flight for almost a year, but Aaron was still a little skeptical, as evidenced in his expression as we're driven from our home in Wisconsin to O'Hare to embark on 29 hours of air travel on Tuesday, December 15, 2015.

This started a travel experience that I could never have imagined. At the curb, we were directed to business class check-in, which had a line of about two people (compared to the seemingly unending, snaking line at the counters next to us). Our bags were tagged "priority," and we were off to security in about 5 minutes. Since we had pre-check, we snuck around back to a short line that seemed to be comprised mostly of business travelers. In 5 more minutes, we were through security, with our shoes still on and my liquids remaining in my backpack. Five minutes later, we were in the United Club. We'd had a taste of lounge life on our way back from Portland in October thanks to some free/reimbursed lounge passes (more credit card perks), and honestly, the United Club is far from tops in terms of U.S. lounges. However, we had fast, free wifi, free soft drinks, beer, tea, and coffee, and food that was good enough for lunch (soup, hummus, cheese, salads, etc.). We ended up meeting a family of three that was taking the same route as us (although ending in Bangkok) because they too had booked with frequent flyer miles.

About 5 minutes before our scheduled boarding time, we left to go to the gate, which was located right outside the club. We got there just in time to hear the United agent say that our plane was "not good," and instruct us to go to another terminal to reach out new gate. I was happy to hoof it across O'Hare to get to a plane that was "good." We stood in line for about 30 minutes until they were ready to board the new aircraft, which was now late, and then we got our first taste of business class.

I could get used to this.

United BusinessFirst Chicago to London

I'm short (about 5'2"), but my feet were at least 8 inches from reaching the console in front of my seat when I extended them straight in front of me. The seat was noticeably wider, and very comfortable even in the upright position. And the TV was like my personal movie theater.

I also had quite a few options to adjust my seat, either manually with the back and leg rest, or to go straight to a lounging or sleeping position. And I didn't have to feel bad about any of it, because reclining my seat had absolutely no effect on the passenger behind me.

Yeah, we were pretty happy with this for our first overnight flight of the journey (it would be about 8 hours to London).

And then they offered pre-departure drinks, so we celebrated with some bubbly. All included in our fare, of course. There's no paying for alcohol in business class.

We were also delivered amenity kits including a sleeping mask, ear plugs, toothbrush/toothpaste, chapstick, and lotion. Also before takeoff (there's plenty of pre-flight time when you're the first to board) we were presented with the menu for in-flight dining.

I believe takeoff was about 45 minutes late, which would have been 4:45 p.m. The in-flight entertainment had a good selection of movies to keep our attention. After 90 minutes after we pushed back from the gate, dinner service started. White tablecloths covered our tray tables, and ice water and warm nuts were delivered along with our choice of drinks. White wine for me, Goose Island IPA for Aaron.

I enjoyed all five (!) courses I was served: salad/bread, smoked salmon, tortilla stuffed chicken, cheese plate with port, and an ice cream sundae with my choice of toppings.

The novelty of a sundae shop in the sky was quite entertaining. And although I only intended to have a taste, I ate every last bit. From start to finish, dinner took 75 minutes.

After all the dishes were cleared, we were given bottles of water and the cabin went dark. I stayed awake and watched movies (Bridge of Spies, Paper Towns, Minion), dozing off for only about 20 minutes when Minions got particularly boring. This was part of my planned sleep schedule to better transition to Vietnam—I wanted to stay awake until we boarded the plane in London, and then sleep as much as possible on that flight.

About an hour before landing, we had more food brought to us: fresh fruit, yogurt and granola, and pastries. I picked at mine because I wasn't very hungry yet.

Deplaning was a breeze, since we were at the front of the plane.

United Club London Heathrow

During our 20-minute trek through Heathrow to get to the United Club, we saw some unexpected London ambassadors. Considering we'd just flown overnight, Aaron was looking pretty chipper.

After an unimpressive lounge experience in Chicago, we were definitely impressed by the United Club in the Heathrow international terminal. It's huge, has a wonderful food selection, clean, spacious bathrooms, and ... private shower stalls stocked with amenities. A 5-hour layover seems so much better after a long, hot shower and the chance to change into a clean set of clothes.

Bathroom in the United Club Heathrow

Private shower suite

Provided toiletries in the shower suite

After a refreshing shower, I grabbed my version of an English breakfast, while Aaron had his first London lounge beer.

This lounge was great, but if we sat there for five hours we were sure to fall asleep. Our Star Alliance boarding passes gave us access to two other lounges in the terminal, so we lounge hopped—first to the Silver Kris lounge (Singapore Airlines) and then to the Maple Leaf Lounge (Air Canada). Silver Kris had smoothies (turns out Maple Leaf did too), and Maple Leaf poured the biggest free beers. These visits kept us busy until about 30 minutes prior to boarding, when we decided to just go to the gate.

Thai Airways London to Bangkok in Royal Silk Class (A380)

Now we got a glimpse of the plane we would be flying on. Wow, it's big. Our seats were on the upper deck.

The boarding process of this Thai Airways flight can best be described as a cluster f*ck. There was one announcement for a specific set of seats at the back of economy class, and then everyone just mobbed the gate, and what appeared to be an unannounced line of business class passengers formed. We found our way, made it to the gate agent, and were told they needed to reprint our boarding passes and check our visas. Then they gave me the wrong boarding pass. When we finally got on the plane, I was a little nervous wondering if the luggage transfers worked the same way the people transfers did. But my worry didn't last long, because this seat was even more amazing than the last (and much more purple). We had what they call "honeymoon seats" - two business class seats in the middle of the plane with the storage areas towards the aisle, so we're closer together than unrelated passengers might want to be. I was concerned that the lack of window would be a problem for Aaron, but he never even mentioned it.

Another pre-departure beverage (no photo), and hot towel was offered, along with the menu for this 11.5 hour (!) flight. Takeoff on the upper deck of an A380 barely even registers to passengers. It's quite and smooth sailing.

Shortly after takeoff (around 11:00 a.m.), lunch service started. I had the blanched pork with chili lime dressing (heavy on the chili), mixed seafood soup, and roast duck curry. All of these choices were delicious, although I didn't really care for dessert (mung bean custard). Before our chosen lunch, they surprised us with a beautifully plated salad of beats, some sort or cheese or crème fraîche, and a seafood mouse.

After a few bites of dessert, I changed into my sweatpants and moved the bed to the lie-flat position to sleep. I wanted to sleep as long as possible, but I think I managed about 6 hours, waking about 3 hours prior to landing. I even have photographic evidence that Aaron was able to sleep on a plane.

About 90 minutes from landing, breakfast was served. Everyone got fresh fruit, and then we had our choice from the "all day dine" menu. I chose the Thai breakfast soup, which was ok but a but bland. This was my third breakfast since leaving home!

We'd made it through the longest flight of the trip, and Aaron was feeling pretty good. He slept for 6 hours!

Landing was quite abrupt, but that's to be expected when a giant bird like this comes back into contact with earth. It was slightly awkward to deplane, as they held the economy passengers at the bottom of the stairs to wait until we'd exited the aircraft. I appreciated it when we were able to pass through security before the rest of the gigantic plane and find our way to the Royal Silk lounge, where we connected to wifi and had some juice before catching our final flight, which was only 80 minutes from Bangkok to Hanoi.

Thai Airways Royal Silk Class Bangkok to Hanoi

Boarding for this flight was much more orderly than the previous flight. Business class passengers boarded first, and we were ushered to a bus that drove us about 7 minutes to our plane. I was expecting the equivalent of U.S. domestic business class on this plane, but the seats were once again impressive. While they didn't lie flat, they were angle-flat seats.

We once again had pre-departure beverages and hot towels, and were presented with a menu for the breakfast we'd be served on this flight. Remember, it's only an 80 minute flight! And I pretty much just ate!

Given the abbreviated nature of this flight, all of the food was served at once, and we weren't really given a choice of entree. It seems everyone had the chicken and mushroom dish.

Right before landing, the flight attendant presented me with a hand-crafted brooch that featured a fresh orchid. 

Looking out the window, there was Hanoi! We made it! And for traveling 29 hours, we felt absolutely amazing.

Share this post