About two years ago, I flew HND-SFO on JL (midnight departure) followed by a red eye on AA to BOS... never again; the AA flight was torture in comparison to JL.

By contrast, CX888 (with the YVR stop en route to JFK) isn't horrible because at least CX's plane is quite comfortable.

When flying between Asia and the US East Coast, I now always try to fly to ORD, DTW, IAD, JFK, or EWR... sometimes YYZ. Award tickets to JFK are actually usually pretty easy to snag on CX if you're patient (888 typically opens up before the nonstops).