Originally Posted by
herculesc
Thanks for the feedback.
In 2012, I'll likely to fly to US for 4 times (2 to the east coast, 1 to Chicago, 1 to San Diego), Japan for 3-5 times (mostly to Tokyo, one to Osaka), China for 2 times (Shanghai and Nanjing).
If you made 5 trips to the US instead of 4 and booked almost everything with AA flight numbers, you could qualify for AA EXP. EXP status gives you SWUs you can use to upgrade AA operated flights from NRT, HND, PEK or PVG to the US with no fees or copays. AA miles are also quite useful for booking flights on CX and JL with almost no taxes or fees.
Originally Posted by
herculesc
Thanks, neighbor.
For USA bound flights, I'd prefer making connection in NRT in stead of HKG.
You may also want to look at MH and their flight from TPE-LAX, since they will join oneworld in 2012.
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Since I posted this, AA has announced a system wide double elite qualifying miles promotion through the end of January. If one of your roundtrip flights to the USA is AA operated and in January you should make EXP with the travel you originally listed.