DFW-PEK in June - Best OW options for J or F award

I just found out that I'm posibly going to Xian, China in June (probably around June 7-16) flying into Beijing.

I am trying to find the best routing/points possible to fly in Business or First Class on a award seat. At first glance I'm not finding many options.

FWIW I have:
200K American
160K BA


I also have some miles with United and US Air if that alliance works out better and some Sapphire points that I could transfer if needed.

Thanks for any help!

I would advise you to use ba.com to check all CX gateways, starting with JFK (the easiest).

Short of that, LAX-PVG is usually a pretty easy redemption (though AA is a far cry from CX or JL in terms of service).

Is DFW-ORD/JFK-AUH-PEK a valid award routing? If it is EY has a pretty sweet J class. EY offers F JFK-AUH but not between ORD-AUH or AUH-PEK...

Also, it would definitely not be the most comfortable ride but DFW-NRT-PEK on AA/JL but it would be the most direct.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Not a valid routing (as a single award) with AA miles.

FYI, KA (subsidary of CX and OW affilate) will resume XIY service in April, so you may want to fly to XIY directly instead.

The Middle East / Indian Subcontinent is not a valid connecting point for a North America -> Asia 2 "oneworld and other Airline" award using AA miles.

Thats what I'd thought but not what I'd hoped!

US-Asia awards must be TPAC. Interestingly, when you check KVS for OW award availability, you often see connections through LHR; but you can't actually get them because it would violate the TPAC requirement.

If you don't need to fly via Beijing, this would seem best since CX F is the most enjoyable way to go. You'd fly AA to SFO, LAX or ORD, then CX to HKG, then KA (aka Dragon Air) to XIY. Otherwise you could fly as far as Beijing on that AA, CX and KA combo, and then hop a domestic paid flight to XIY.

I suspect that redeeming your AA miles will cost you less in extra fees than doing it with BA (now renamed Avios) miles. The only reason to redeem your Avios miles is that it costs far more to redeem them for flights to/via LHR and possibly other parts of Europe, so you might want to put them to use now.

CX award availability comes and goes. You might want to join awardnexus.com both to search for award availability (whether via CX, AA or JL) and to sign up for email alerts to let you know if the award flights you want open up.

Good luck!

^ CX F seems to be easily ahead of BA and AA - I have no direct experience as all my long haul F is only on CX. But if there are no KA flights to Xian, then going to HKG and on to PEK isn't worth it - best go direct to PEK via NRT.