Seems OP wants to min.total spend on flight to PVG from N.CA, which can be expensive during summer. If you need lowest revenue fare for EQM elite qualification, and want to use some miles to offset base fare or upgrade, then need flexibility to travel usually weekday and look for routing via SEA or LAX, which often are cheaper than SFO to PVG nonstop.
If you don't care about EQM status, then use miles to book award seat, and again need to be flexible with date and routing since award seats (especially saver award level coach and biz. seats) are scarce during peak summer travel. *A partners offer more seat options than UA flights.
Last edited by npei; Mar 25, 2012 at 8:21 pm