Originally Posted by
edotzaue
Seems like your best bet would be to book the entire itinerary on United, transferring your UR points to your account giving you 210 UA miles. You could book the following:
Business Class - LAX ->ICN (Open Jaw), then BCN -> RDU
This itinerary would cost 110,000 UA miles and is bookable on the UA site using the multiple destinations function.
Then book 2 one-way tickets to get to BCN to complete the first ticket.
Business Class - ICN -> PVG
One way ticket booked online on UA would cost 20,000 UA miles
Business Class - PVG -> BCN
One way ticket booked online on UA would cost 65,000 UA miles
Seems to be plenty of availability if your dates are flexible and would cost 195,000 UA miles + taxes.
OP could do LAX-ICN(stop)-PVG//BCN-RDU (connections omitted) on a single UA award and save 20K. (Just pulled it up on united.com to confirm that the stopover and double open jaw are allowed, and it priced at 110K.)
If the OP wants a challenge, I think ICN-PVG(stop)-BCN-West coast (with an overnight connection on the east coast where you forget to fly to the west coast) is possible with that pile of SkyPesos. In particular, ICN-BCN-SFO is a legal open jaw, and a stopover can be taken at PVG. Fly ICN-KE/MU-PVG/SHA-MU-PEK-AZ-FCO-AZ-BCN, taking a stopover in PVG. Looks like SHA-PEK on MU is all economy, but it's a short flight with lots of award space in economy. AZ runs their new A330s with staggered flat bed seats (and food that gets great reviews) on PEK-FCO. Could use a Chinese carrier from PVG to Europe, but then there'd be a fuel surcharge.
The return could be BCN-JFK-RDU-SLC-SFO if award space permits. Since that's depending on DL flights to have award space, it could be really dicy. Easier would probably be BCN-AMS/CDG-IAD-MSP/SLC-SFO. You really don't even need to book a long layover at the gateway (I mention IAD, but JFK and a number of other cities should work as well), since bags will be collected there and walked through customs. Just forget to re-check them and walk away from the last two segments. This should price out at 110K in J with DL, since the unflown bit (SFO-ICN) is shorter than ICN-BCN and BCN-SFO.
If I were sitting on the OP's award balance, this is the route I'd go (using the existing UA miles plus a few UR points for LAX-ICN), as who knows when DL's next devaluation will come.