Originally Posted by
decibel08
i haven't flown much AA (or BA) in at least a decade, but i now find myself with a small pile of AA and BA miles (thanks citi/chase!) that i'd like to turn into a multi-city trip from SFO to Japan and HKG, probably next spring or early summer. i am sort of excited about the redemption possibilities on Cathay and JAL.
my uneducated first stab at a plan would be to try SFO-NRT on JAL and HKG-SFO on CX. not sure what the intra-asia options are but i assume connections from NRT to HKG are plentiful.
first off, does that sound like a good way to use AA or BA miles (in biz or FC)? and secondly, does this fall under the 'one-world award' category of mix and match, or can i simply call up AA and ask for this kind of multi-city trip?
any redemption tips/advice appreciated. never been to asia, figure it's about time!
Congrats on taking the plunge to spend miles! Finding availability in the premium classes can sometimes be tricky, but with some flexibility and patience, you'll have a higher likelihood of findingthe seats you want. For the nominal mileage difference between J and F, I'd personally go for F since the experience (both hard product and soft product) is usually significantly better than J. (Granted - finding the award availability can sometimes be a challenge.)
I think your plan sounds solid - try out both JL and CX...see what you like and dislike about each.
That will also give you a chance to visit their respective first class lounges, too (esp if you go through NRT and HKG).
If you're doing two cities (HKG and NRT), I think doing two long-haul mileage redemptions for the transpacific flights + either A) buying a cheap repositioning flight or B) using miles to book a intra-asia flight is a good idea. If you were planning on doing a whirlwind tour of Asia and Pacific Rim, then I'd consider looking into a oneworld award.