Originally Posted by
moondog
I think BA miles might end up being your best bet. BA doesn't charge expedite fees, so you can cross that worry off your list.
From LAX, you can fly CX to HKG and onward from there to everywhere on your list. Alternatively, JL to NRT and to everywhere except maybe HAN (check jal.com).
I would book one direction at a time. In addition to giving you extra flexibility, this would allow you to fly CX over and JL back or vv.
Whatever you do, be sure to limit yourself to one airline in each direction. The pricing is 50k in C and 75k in F. For F, AA only charges 67.5k miles and you could tack LAX-JFK on as well, but they do charge expedite fees, you might want to think about using AA miles for your flight home. Oh, and AA also doesn't care how many different airlines you use.
Even though July and August are big travel months, CX and JL are pretty good about releasing award inventory ~7 days out. For example, CX has lots of availability using BA miles in C this week and next. (I didn't check JL.)
Wow! Good stuff here. Thank you. I was beginning to think that the 50k far east award was a myth but there it is, LAX-HKG, tomorrow even. I hadn't ever plugged in HKG on a BA award search.. just because I dont think of it when I think Southeast Asia. But it's close enough, and I could hop an Air Asia flight from there to wherever. I wish I had asked this question weeks ago. I'd probably already be gone. I really wouldn't want to backtrack to HKG to return.. and I'm not finding any return flights from the other cities on BA. Might some open up just a few days out like the CX inventory? I would feel a bit nervous heading over without having my flight back lined up though..