MilesBuzz! - Want to fly from anywhere in China to SFO in First or Business in the coming 3 months

Since I am pretty flexible on dates and origin cities, I hope to get some inside tips on routes and how to achieve my goal to fly in first/biz. I do have about 80k miles with China southern...

When I was an international student in the US, I regret having never accumulated any miles during any of my twice/trice RTs per year during my 4 years of college...Or this wouldn't be a problem for me...

Since I am pretty flexible on dates and origin cities, I hope to get some inside tips on routes and how to achieve my goal to fly in first/biz. I do have about 80k miles with China southern...

When I was an international student in the US, I regret having never accumulated any miles during any of my twice/trice RTs per year during my 4 years of college...Or this wouldn't be a problem for me...

If you just graduated, on some carriers you have 6 months or a year to claim the miles. Sign up for the frequent flier program of that carrier and then call them and should be able to get miles for those last flights.

... get some inside tips on routes and how to achieve my goal to fly in first/biz. I do have about 80k miles with China southern...

When I was an international student in the US....
(bolding mine)

I assume you are a recent college graduate who's back in China and credit card signup offers in the US are of no good to you.

In that case, if you want to make an award trip in C/F to SFO in the next 3 months, you probably should try to figure out:
1) how many miles you need to fly between China and SFO in either C or F.
2) how far your 80K China Southern miles can carry you.
3) whether you have the means to get extra/enough miles for said trip.

I doubt you could fly RT China-US in C with fewer than 90K though.

Good luck!

Since I am pretty flexible on dates and origin cities, I hope to get some inside tips on routes and how to achieve my goal to fly in first/biz. I do have about 80k miles with China southern...

When I was an international student in the US, I regret having never accumulated any miles during any of my twice/trice RTs per year during my 4 years of college...Or this wouldn't be a problem for me...

Since you only have miles on China Southern - you would need to check their award chart to see if this would do anything for you.

Otherwise, the only way to fly F/Biz China to SFO r/t is to buy a ticket in those classes of service, unfortunately.

If you had flown UA on each of your twice/trice r/t between US and China during your 4 years college in US, you had just about enough miles for one r/t ticket on star A... Assuming 15000 miles r/t x 3 = 45000 x 4 = 180000 for a 140000 F r/t award using UA miles, since UA gives 100% flown miles on UA's own flights on any fare code. If you were flying OTHER airlines, you may not earn any UA miles if the fare was deep discount economy... NOT all flights earn miles on a particular program... you really need to figure out how your chosen program(s) work before picking your pay flights - the cheapest may not always the best choice especially if the fare difference is minimal.

Well, it looks like you'll have to earn miles by flying. In that case, if you manage to fly over 50k miles a year, then AA plat gives you a 100% bonus. They fly from PVG to LAX and ORD. The only other way is to get some family member in the US to sign up for cards and book your flights using their account.