Thanks. I'm aware of the Tibet travel permit issues. I am in contact with a Tibetan tour agency and have everything set to go once the TAR (hopefully) opens up for foreign travel and they start processing permits again in late March.
I am trying to stay in the front cabin through the entire trip and use points/miles whenever possible. Since only one seat has opened up so far on my itinerary, I'm exploring the lowest cost/least disruptive options to complete my arrangements - could be buying a Y ticket or getting a Y award, or could be buying an F ticket if I can manage it. I had seen references to the effect that one could ticket Tibet travel on travelzen before actually getting the permit, even though elong and ctrip aren't possible.
My current plan is, get an F award CTU-LXA on a flight that has a departure only 10 minutes earlier from the current flight - perhaps if I beg/whine/demand they will let us actually fly on the same plane, but even if not we should be fine.
For LXA-CTU-HGH, I will probably buy the additional ticket and apply some Chase Ultimate Rewards points to the cost. Travelzen now has a small "discount" on the LXA-CTU leg that brings it to approximately the same cost as CA's Chinese website. I guess I will find out if they are willing to ticket flights LEAVING Tibet without the permit.