Wow, thanks everyone for the great replies so far!
Originally Posted by
rkkwan
One-stop options at PEK are available and may make sense as well. You can fly UA PEK-SFO or CO PEK-EWR and put all the miles in either one of the accounts. The KMG-PEK leg may not earn you miles, since many low-fare internal flights in China earn nothing, but it's only about 1,300 miles which you lose. Not a huge loss.
Originally Posted by
rkkwan
But KMG-ICN is infrequent. Not daily on KE, and not daily on MU. There are also only 3 non-stops a day HKG-KMG, on KA, MU and HX respectively. Compared to about 18 non-stops a day on 4 airlines for KMG-PEK.
The major complication I'm coming across with the flights to and from KMG is that the flights from PEK, HKG, and PVG are all $5-600 when booked via ctrip. Booking the whole way via one itinerary is the only way to get down to a reasonable price. Maybe I'm doing it wrong when I'm checking prices on ctrip/elong? From SZX or CAN it's much cheaper, but there's no way of getting to either of those airports without a) an extra stop or b) flying a mainland chinese airline (CA/CZ/MU).
So practically speaking, what this means is that I need to book either with an airline that has partner nonstops to KMG.
The options:
$1200ish:
CX via HKG
CO via PEK
CO via PVG
$1400-1600ish:
UA via ICN
AA via ORD and PVG
DL via DTW and PEK/PVG (>30 hrs)
KE via ATL and ICN (>30hrs)
DL via ICN costs $2500.
KE via ICN and PEK costs $3000.
I think the routings I'm liking the most right now are via CX, since I hate Newark and people here seem down on CO:
Code:
CX 889 JFK-YVR-HKG
KA 760 HKG-KMG
CX 873 SFO-HKG
KA 760 HKG-KMG
The YVR stopover is worth it since the nonstop JFK-HKGs get in after the daily HKG-KMG nonstop, adding another 12+ hours to the layover.
I already have 45k AA miles, and so far CX is the only TPAC Y product I've liked (have done CA->PEK, UA->PVG, and CX->HKG). They are also the cheapest and have the fewest stops! Not sure how this choice affects upgradability/miles redemption etc. I will go comb the AA forums to learn about ways of getting miles <= 1.5cpm....
Originally Posted by
jiejie
Also look for the few airlines that offer a true "premium economy" product---sometimes can really be worth it on TPAC (UA's E+ isn't really a true PE product but is somewhat better than their regular E). Search the forums...there was a recent discussion on taking CX econ to HKG vs CZ (China Southern) premium econ to CAN.
That thread was not so encouraging. CZ sounds depressing, even in their PE product, and it probably won't help me miles-wise. I do like the idea of the PE on UA, but since UA is already so much more expensive I can't really afford an extra $220 per flight.
More thoughts?
Thanks again!