I have been reading this thread with interest and I have a few questions. I have been reading through PEK posts here since January when my father moved to Beijing. I am hoping to get to PEK from MSP sometime between now and Dec. 2012 with my daughters (we have lots of flexibility). I was hoping to redeem miles. My husband is the FF and has about 291,xxx miles, but they are on Delta. After reading through the DL threads I realize that using DL miles to Asia may be an exercise in futility, but we are stuck in snowtown (both figuratively and literally at times). This thread has opened my eyes to other possible options. I say possible because we have very few miles on any other airlines (about 14,000 each on United and that is it).


BA has been posted as the way to go and I want to understand why. Here is what I gather: BA miles go 'further'

I advise you to trade these for BA miles because US to China is only 25k miles each way (and the taxes are a whopping $5 as long as you use AA metal).

As I understand it, BA miles can be used on AA metal, but why are they 'better' than AA miles? I know this may be a matter of option, but being stuck in snowtown has given us tunnel (snow tunnel) vision for DL. So kindly enlighten me.

CZ was also mentioned as an option and after reading this thread I tried looking at the skyteam award chart posted on CZ, but I will need to look into that further. I also understand that when I am ready to move on something that I need to call, not go online.

So that is what I have gathered so far. Thanks for your kind advice and opinions.