Some may recognize me as a longtime OMAAT commenter (and ostensibly Air India cheerleader)… 😅 I digress. The fact remains that, in the decade of reading OMAAT, I’ve long remained fascinated by how miles and points can get your foot in the door to some incredible airline redemptions.

However, since I’m not US-based (in fact, I never set foot outside Asia until last month), reading about Chase and Capital One cards and lounges has decidedly low utility for me. As such, I’ve been far more interested in OMAAT’s airline/aviation stories — and the more outlandish an itinerary (such as the latest Saudia/Riyadh Air trip report series), the better — than anything to do with US credit cards, hotel loyalty programs or ultra-luxury (Airelles, Capella, etc.) travel. Moreover, I use the same username on flight-report.com, where I’ve published dozens of airline reviews.

For context, I’m an Indian currently pursuing an MBA from IIM Bangalore, one of India’s top business schools, though since I studied and worked in Singapore for several years until 2025, most of my credit cards and points are with Singaporean banks like HSBC Singapore and UOB. That doesn’t mean that you won’t be interested in this redemption story, because given that I was flying from India to Europe for the first time, I might as well make the aviation side of it count — and in spectacular style, on perhaps the best all-round airline to fly Business Class on!

As I said, I’ve travelled exclusively within Asia, and only got into the Singaporean miles-and-points game in late 2023, following local blogs like The MileLion. However, I will concede that OMAAT singlehandedly shaped my perceptions of most premium products out there. It’s the reason I know so much about Qatar being perhaps the world’s single most desirable airline in Business Class (pre-Riyadh Air) — between the Qsuite, the Al Mourjan Lounges and many other things — and about Taipei, despite its rather small hub airport, being the next premium battleground thanks to the battle between EVA, Starlux and China Airlines.

It’s also why I went out of my way to buy Alaska miles during a promo sale — since they don’t partner with any transferable points currency in Asia — just so I could fly Starlux’s A350 from Taipei to Ho Chi Minh City in Business Class for a mere 15,000 points!

Over a year and a half from 2025–26, such OMAAT-inspired award redemptions made me get my foot in the door to several of East Asia’s best airline lounges: Cathay Pacific’s The Pier Business Lounge, Starlux’s Galactic Lounge at TPE T2, a cluster of Star Alliance lounges at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi — and, on one occasion, even Singapore Airlines’ The Private Room ! (When I permanently left Singapore in June 2025, returning to India, I could’ve just booked SIN–BLR direct. Instead I booked SQ’s First Class to Jakarta (so as to enter The Private Room), followed by SriLankan’s Business Class from Jakarta to Colombo, and Economy to Bengaluru. All with miles. Yeah, don’t ask.)

All of this pales in contrast to what seasoned travellers from the Western (and also East Asian) blogosphere have achieved, with their combination of multiple credit cards, stronger passports, more relaxed work schedules and plain old cash. But I can confidently say that, at my young age (mid-20s) and with my weak Indian passport, I’m proud of what I’ve done — and that (to me) working in Singapore was the springboard to making any of this possible.

With an academic term coming to an end in late August 2026, and a month to go before an exchange semester at Melbourne started at the end of September, I decided to go for a two-week solo trip to Greece plus some Central European countries. Both because I wanted to see that part of the world after all my intra-Asia travels, and because countries like Czechia, Poland and Hungary offer better bang for the buck than the likes of Paris, Amsterdam and (especially) Switzerland.