Thank you guys so much for the insightful information.
I think I'm trying to do too much at once so I decided to focus on figuring out the yearly China trip first.

Fuelsurcharge was something I had not considered. My main destination will be WUH but I don't mind using another city as a gateway if it's more cost efficient. Can anyone recommend an airline that flies to China that does not charge a fuelsurcharge...or at least not as high?

I don't mind flying economy but the upgrade option is always nice to have.
I am not enrolled in any FF programs or and rewards/airline CC's that can translate into miles. It seems like UA and AA may be the better option compared to Delta.
If I'm looking at this correctly, it'll cost 70,000 miles + ($2-$98 charge) with AA and 65,000 miles + ($2 - ??? charge) with UA?
The 2 links I've looked at.
http://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/f...ward-chart.jsp
http://www.united.com/web/en-US/apps...ardTravel.aspx