MilesBuzz! - help -best way to book these 2 award international trips

I am really new in this, your help is really APPRECIATED!!!
I have read lots of post and got miles from credit card deals. Here is my situation:

We (family of 4) plan to visit London, Paris and Rome in June 2013 (for 2 weeks) from San Francisco. We also plan to visit China (Beijing and Xi'an) in April for one week.

We just accumulated 240K United MileagePlus miles, and will get 240K AAdvantage miles by October 2012. We also have about 160K British Airlines Avio points. And we have 50K Citi Thankyou points. We value UA miles more than AA miles because SFO is a UA hub and we can fly to Asia with 65K miles while AA need 70K miles. We will all travel economy class.

For the June 2013 Europe trip (we don't care which city visit first), what I can find the best plan is to use UA miles as following:

1. SFO to London (LHR) direct
2. Then pay for train euro from London to Paris
3. Paris fly to Rome (FCO), however, no direct flight, has to transfer at Munich (MUC)
4. Rome to SFO, again, no direct flight, has to stop Munich or Toronto.
5. Total cost 60K mile plus $102 fees per person.

My question:
1. Is this the best I can get?
2. Can AA has similar results? I can't find any direct flight available from AA website.
3. Is there any way to have an open jaw which may help our April 2013 China trip?.

For our April 2013 China trip, once again, what I find the best is from UA:
1. SFO to Beijing then to Xi'an (via Air China)
2. Xi'an to Beijing (Air China), stop for 1 day
3. Beijing to SFO, direct flight
4. Total 65K miles with small fee. However, we will not have enough UA miles if we use UA miles for the Europe trip.

My question on this China trip:
1.can I fly from SFO to HK then to Xi'an (use AA mile, I know Cathy Pacific fly this route);
2. From Xi'an, can I stop at Beijing for 1-2 days, then fly from Beijing to SFO (I am OK if we have to stop at Japan or HK on the way to SFO), use AA miles? I really don't know whether it works with AA.

It seems British Airway Avio is useless in these 2 trips.

Earlier this year, we have used UA miles (45K per person) and booked SFO to Cancun for December 2012, all direct flight. I am not sure we can make any changes to create more open jaw opportunities for our April 2013 China trip or June 2013 Europe trip. I am still confused about the stopover and open jaw opportunities even after I read lots of post.

Thanks for all your comments and help!!!

it seems like you have the trips figured out using UA miles. the question is really how to utilitze AA miles for at least one of the trip. Maybe this post is better living in AA forum so ppl more knowledgable in this matter can help?

Check my post on how I utilized AA and Avios to book 4 business class award tickets from SFO to Rome and back for June 2013.

I used AA from SFO to JFK and for JFK-MAD & MAD-FCO used Iberia. You cannot book this online and need to call AA and pay booking fee of 25 $ per ticket. It was 50000 miles each way and well worth.

I am really new in this, your help is really APPRECIATED!!!
I have read lots of post and got miles from credit card deals. Here is my situation:

We (family of 4) plan to visit London, Paris and Rome in June 2013 (for 2 weeks) from San Francisco. We also plan to visit China (Beijing and Xi'an) in April for one week.

We just accumulated 240K United MileagePlus miles, and will get 240K AAdvantage miles by October 2012. We also have about 160K British Airlines Avio points. And we have 50K Citi Thankyou points. We value UA miles more than AA miles because SFO is a UA hub and we can fly to Asia with 65K miles while AA need 70K miles. We will all travel economy class.

For the June 2013 Europe trip (we don't care which city visit first), what I can find the best plan is to use UA miles as following:

1. SFO to London (LHR) direct
2. Then pay for train euro from London to Paris
3. Paris fly to Rome (FCO), however, no direct flight, has to transfer at Munich (MUC)
4. Rome to SFO, again, no direct flight, has to stop Munich or Toronto.
5. Total cost 60K mile plus $102 fees per person.

My question:
1. Is this the best I can get?
2. Can AA has similar results? I can't find any direct flight available from AA website.
3. Is there any way to have an open jaw which may help our April 2013 China trip?.

For our April 2013 China trip, once again, what I find the best is from UA:
1. SFO to Beijing then to Xi'an (via Air China)
2. Xi'an to Beijing (Air China), stop for 1 day
3. Beijing to SFO, direct flight
4. Total 65K miles with small fee. However, we will not have enough UA miles if we use UA miles for the Europe trip.

My question on this China trip:
1.can I fly from SFO to HK then to Xi'an (use AA mile, I know Cathy Pacific fly this route);
2. From Xi'an, can I stop at Beijing for 1-2 days, then fly from Beijing to SFO (I am OK if we have to stop at Japan or HK on the way to SFO), use AA miles? I really don't know whether it works with AA.

It seems British Airway Avio is useless in these 2 trips.

Earlier this year, we have used UA miles (45K per person) and booked SFO to Cancun for December 2012, all direct flight. I am not sure we can make any changes to create more open jaw opportunities for our April 2013 China trip or June 2013 Europe trip. I am still confused about the stopover and open jaw opportunities even after I read lots of post.

Thanks for all your comments and help!!!

You are correct not to use Avios on a transcon, however Avios can be sufficiently used on short Asian hops (don't know about your particular city pairs--better ask or check the BA forum). You could also use them on Eurostar from London to Paris, and it can be done for 9,000 Avios. Check this link (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-express-membership-rewards/1368611-better-way-traveling-eurostar-points.html).

Other than that, do it the way Concordian suggested--use AA with Iberia for your European trip and United with partners to go to Asia. Of course, if you want to experience almost legendary Cathay premium class to HK, then you'll need to work further on it.

Funny thing is, I have been researching trips to Europe and Asia as well. United is good for Asia due to availability and you can get an international stopover.

AA is good for LHR and we usually just take the train within Europe. The downside of AA international awards is that the stopover can only be in the international departure city in US. Like Miami, NYC, etc.

The flight arrangements you have on UA seem good to me, and the price in miles and $ is reasonable. MUC is a good airport to change in, though ZRH might also be a possibility.

Yes, you can do an open jaw on AA, AA treats your trip as 2 one way trips, even if you reserve it as a round trip. The downside is that you can only book the stopover in the US gateway city.

If you are booking on United metal, you can book one way trips, but then you can't use the stopover. Booking a roundtrip allows you to use a stopover and an open jaw, and if you are flying on a foreign carrier, you are required to book as a round trip. SFO is a hub for United, so you get more flight options.

You are limited by the network of the airline you are reserving on, and United has the most international flight options from the west coast. AA tends to have most of its Europe flights depart from Chicago or JFK. My brief search shows 2 BA nonstop flights a day between SFO and London, but you would pay fuel surcharges on them so the fees are higher.

I would consider using your AA miles on the Asia trip, just realize that you won't get a stopover in Asia, only an open jaw. But I fully admit I have not researched flights to Asia.

Good luck!

If you are booking on United metal, you can book one way trips, but then you can't use the stopover. Booking a roundtrip allows you to use a stopover and an open jaw

Good advice. The OP specifically asked about the possible use of an open jaw to combine his two trips. I don't think this is going to work - generally speaking, both cities involved in an open jaw must be in the same award zone.

If you could extend your time away you could combine the 2 trips into 1, i.e., using UA miles for a round trip to China (Peking or Xi'an) via Europe at the same cost of 65k miles per person. UA rule actually allows one stopover and 2 open jaws for round trip award redemption. An example in your case could be SFO-LHR(stopover)//LHR-XFN(open jaw)//PEK-SFO, and you could either pay cash for low cost carriers or trains within Europe and within China respectively or use BA Avios for some of the short haul flights within Europe or China. If you can find availability to other Europe city instead of LHR as your stopover place, you could save some fees as well. The other issue might be finding 4 mileage seats on the same flights however since you travel in coach (less tricky than trying to find J/F award seats) so probably doable.

unfortunately I can't extend the trip:mad: -have to come back to work.

I guess I just need to focus on finding ways to use AA miles for the China trip.