<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Shareholder:
You might consider MEL, which is going for $1275 on the seat sale. You will need to spend 5-nights down there, but otherwise pick up 20,500 Q-miles which would be doubled. [I assume double Q-miles are only for travel on AC flights, and not on those of any other STAR partner. Otherwise, UA from ORD to HKG can be done over a couple of days, only Saturday overnight required for about US$700. Less outlay for hotels and time off work. Cash in 12K for the Aeroplan award flight to/from ORD.] Remember, not only do you get SE next year, but you also pick up a free NAmerican ticket [upgradeable to J for just 10K] at 70K. All in all, not a bad return on the investment, even if you pay the higher cost to get a shorter stay YYZ-HKG ticket.</font>
You forgot one thing. L class fare does not earn double miles nor double Q miles. It has to be V class or higher. The Melbourne seat sale wouldn't work.
The best way to cash this promotion is to buy two trips to Asia (NRT or TPE) have the best price for less than $1,300 per trip in V
with some travel agents. That way you can still travel in C class up to Vancouver and then continue on V class to Asia, which would earn double Q miles for the entire trip. For a cost about $2,500 for two trips (say Taipei), you can earn about 17,144 Q miles X 2 = 34,288 Q miles per trip, then times by 2 again for two trips = 68,576 Q miles. This would put you in extreme close distance to SE if not already there for only about $2,500!