fishywang

Now that CZ is going to operate WUH-SFO non-stop on 787 [1], as my parents live in WUH and I live around SFO, I'm considering stock some miles for them to visit me.

I don't really fly SkyTeam, so what's the best program I can stock by credit card spend or transferring SPG points to redeem CZ business or premium economy tickets? For credit cards I know there's Delta and Flying Blue (transfer partner of Citi ThankYou points), but I can't find flying blue award chart and have no idea whether it's easy to get CZ business or premium economy tickets from them.

[1] http://airlineroute.net/2014/09/04/cz-wuhsfo-dec14/

hiima

I'm certain that Delta and FB are not Citi TYP transfer partners.

fishywang

Delta is not, FB definitely is: https://www.thankyou.com/pointsTrans...itemId=1867357

dvs7310

FlyingBlue's award chart is ridiculously difficult to find, not sure why they don't make it easier. In theory though, partner awards are generally equally available across the board to all alliance carriers. That "should" be the same if you use DL, CI, AF, etc., miles, it's been a little while but I remember generally CZ availability is pretty good. I forget how bad CZs fuel surcharges are but DL will be the one with the lowest fees if YQ exists, I don't think their mileage requirement is significantly different than other easy to transfer to programs.

As for credit card programs, you won't find more transfer partners than SPG but it's up to you and your spending habits if you can't do better points wise with other cards... any Amex MR card for example.

SteamyUncle

http://www.flyingblue.com/award-tickets.html

dvs7310

Only covers from/to Europe unfortunately, heaven forbid anyone try to use FB miles from say directly Asia to Africa on KQ. (just one of a multitude of examples). I'm sure that somewhere out there exits a typical grid style award chart that covers to and from all zones but for whatever reason FB doesn't make it easy to view.

fishywang

Thanks. Yes I know despite CZ itself, availability should be mostly equal to all partners. I'm just trying to find out if the China-US route is a "sweet point" to any of the SkyTeam plans

dvs7310

I strongly suspect that even if you find one that has a sweet spot, DL will still end up being the better deal, depending on how you value your miles/dollars. Just as an example if DL offers US to China R/T fro 120,000 miles in C and only has $50 in taxes added to the ticket, or let's say GA charges only 100,000 miles in C but has taxes and fuel surcharges of $650, I personally value the $600 in my bank account much higher than 20,000 extra miles. This is assuming that all other partners charge YQ for CZ which I believe is the case.

fishywang

Yes that makes sense. Thanks!

SteamyUncle

If you use FB miles China-US on DL 100000 miles ow and taxes are around 50$ as well.
Award chart is difficult to find indeed for these flights but FB website award booking isn't that bad.

MSPeconomist

You can't use DL miles for premium economy. DL doesn't offer it (as a separate cabin; DL does have the extra pitch EC seats that come with an extra fee for nonelites rather than separate fare classes), so your choices would be either low coach (where you could pay the EC fees, but it's not a real premium economy experience) or low business class award tickets. Who knows what availability will be for award tickets to/from Wuhan, but it's reportedly been good on the A380 CZ routes. Of course, you could also route the parents on connections through PVG, CAN, or PEK using CZ or MU with DL miles, including the DL flights exPVG or exPEK if desired.