Huang said he was impressed by the first-class service on Garuda.

Sam Huang and his father recently flew first-class with Garuda Indonesia from Jakarta to Tokyo to see the cherry blossoms in the Japanese capital.

On his blog Top Miles, Huang explained the first-class tickets were priced at more than US$7000 ($9300), but he bought them using a 90 per cent off flash sale the airline held in December last year.

He then put 13,500 points towards the cost of the airfares, leaving him with just US$76 ($100) to pay.

“In the US the same amount of miles would barely get you an economy flight on United,” Huang told Travel+Leisure.

Top Miles blogger Sam Huang has revealed the secrets of his incredible airfare hack. Picture: TwitterSource:Twitter

As part of the first-class service, the airline arranged for Huang to be taken to the airport in a complementary Mercedes car and he was able to breeze through a VIP security line and waited for his flight in a private lounge. He said entering the lounge was like “rolling into your own private VIP mansion”.

Huang said the first-class treatment on the flight was among the best he’d seen, with champagne served on arrival and a flight attendant ready to take his shoes off for him, replacing them with comfy slippers.

He said the flight seat could be controlled in a variety of ways with a touch pad, and could also provide massages.

During the flight he feasted on caviar, “phenomenal” satay chicken, salmon sandwich and mango dome cake. He was then able to use the sliding doors on the first-class suite to create his own private cabin as he slept fully horizontally on the red-eye flight.

And Huang’s money-saving ways extended to his stay in Tokyo, too, where he used hotel rewards points to pay for lavish rooms.

A highlight was the Park Hyatt Tokyo — which was made famous in the film Lost in Translation — where he paid for his $1300 room using 30,000 Hyatt points.

So, there you have it — those points you’ve been saving up can really be of use.