Hi ozmark007, there are two 50% award offers, one from TG and the other from Amex. The best procedure is to decide on the trip you wish to take, eg you might decide on PVG to CDG. Open the TG pages and work out the mileage, in the example, that adds up to 7641.
PVG-BKK is 1788
BKK-CDG is 5853
Refer to the chart for return air fares, and the zone 5, covers you up to 8000, so this is the one. Scan across and the business class fare works out to 130000 and the First class is 185000. Your cost is 50%.
All being equal, you have the points and you know the dates, give TG a call and book the ticket. They will tell you straight away if they can't do it, otherwise they will say they will check with BKK and advise you within 24 hours once approval is given. It is very simple.
I always do a dummy run on the day I need, to make sure seats are available. You can also check availability of awards on the TG site, but if you are gold, the best practice is to assume if paying seats are available, they will give you an award. Now if you are using the Amex 50% for a companion, tie this in with the TG award, but to avoid dissappointment make sure there are plenty of seats available and book in advance. Best of luck, if you want First class, TG is the airline to fly, nowadays they have F on many routes, it is not the best F in the world, but it is very available to ROP members, PM me if I can help further.