Originally Posted by
bluto
I agree with the fellow commenters when they say that the lowest miles to Asia isn't the key question (the answer by the way is US Air miles program 120k miles to Asia). The key is availability.
I had lots of difficulty finding star alliance availability during the dates my dad wanted. I searched first class availability from the major gateways: ORD, JFK, LAX, YYZ, LAX. we also have a nonstop from our hometown to FRA so I checked connections via FRA too. Unfortunately nothing worked. I noticed during this search that LAX availability was in general worse than others.
Were you not able to find anything using AC, NH, SQ or TG? I know it would mean some creative routing especially your need is to PVG. I believe AC flies YYZ-PVG, and CO/UA miles can book that.
Originally Posted by
bluto
The best availability I found was on one world. AA had availability out of ORD to shanghai. More importantly there was reasonable availability for cathay pacific flights out of ORD and JFK to hong kong. HKG is cathay's hub so that is the carrier I would focus on. I did not see LAX availability to HKG but maybe you'll have better luck.
ORD-HKG is CX new route starting Sept 1. It was wide open on both J and F when I looked a month ago for November travel. JFK has not had much availability, but YYZ has some. If you ask for JFK departure, it actually routes through YYZ - i.e. AA JFK to YYZ, then CX YYZ-HKG. This would / should change as it comes much closer to departure time. CX is very good at opening up award seats when it sees there are empty seats going out.
LAX is hopeless but YVR did have some availability on the flight that arrives HKG at night. The other flight has no availability every day in whole November at the time I checked.
You can use either AA or BA miles for CX flights - problem is with BA miles, unless you are already at the CX gateway - otherwise you would need to pay your own way to get to the CX gateway for the outbound. Same for inbound you would need to pay your own way from CX arrival to your home airport.
Originally Posted by
bluto
The CX flight cost 135k AA miles for first class plus $36 tax and $25 in booking fees. It would have been 150k if I had used BA miles. I am not sure what the taxes would have been under BA but I think they do charge surcharges now for Asia redemptions.
BA would cost about $400 roughly from East Coast, and slightly cheaper from ORD and West Coast.
Currently I am holding a November ticket outbound in J from ORD and inbound in F, to YYZ, originating city is MIA. The tax is $80.50 with $59 of it due to the expensive taxes and fees at YYZ where we want to have a few days stopover to visit relatives.
But have you tried AC to NRT, then NH to PVG?