Originally Posted by
Stgermainparis
Excellent advice. I will pop over to KE to see what I can find. I did find PLENTY on DL search engine, so felt more hopeful. I can do two one ways to create open jaw, but I wish I could do a stopover (DL no longer allows them) so I wouldn't have to fork out more for "interior" flights.
I'd actually like the A380 JFK route b/c that's such a fun airplane. We flew in AF's 380 from CDG-JNB last year. Incredible! One thing that's frustrating is that on ANA and various others, if there's no business space for a 2 flight segment, then it only offers economy. I'd be happy to do econ to JFK, then biz on out, but the search engines are difficult. ANA won't let me portion out within US b/c it reads the domestic stops as stopovers.
I do have enough for the 700k if I combine MR and DL. Would prefer to do 85k x5 on ANA and use points for interior flights, but I'll have to call in to ANA to see what they can come up with. 425k sounds so much better! And I can do a PVG stopover.
Thanks for the advice!
Given the difficulty of 5x longhaul business class, I'd say this is a "beggars can't be choosers" situation, unfortunately.
One thing to keep in mind, Delta does now allow one-way awards, so if you can find something else good in one direction, you could pair it with a Delta award on KE in the other direction. Note that Delta charges fuel surcharges on KE on awards originating outside the US, but not on awards originating in the US, so if you were going to do a DL award only in one direction, it would be best to do it on the outbound. Similarly if you were going to do a multi-hop award using DL miles, best to book it as a single multi-city award originating in the US, not as multiple one-ways. (On other Asian partners like China Southern and China Eastern, and probably also Garuda Indonesia and Vietnam though I'm not sure on those, Delta charges fuel surcharges regardless of origination point. So if your middle segment is into or out of PVG on China Eastern, it won't matter whether you book it independently or not.)
Depending how many stops you're considering, it may not be *too* painful to do a multi-city Delta award. I believe it should just be 20K miles for a one-way business class Asia-Asia award, so US-Asia-Second Asia-US in business class should be doable all for 160K. Not great, but again, not so many choices out there for 5x.
One other place where 5x business class seats are routinely available is VS, on JFK-LHR in particular. Delta's award engine isn't likely to present you with a JFK-LHR-PVG routing, but you could search segment-by-segment, and if you find something then you could book it with ANA miles if that proves to be cheaper miles-wise. Though, unlike DL, ANA charges fuel surcharges on VS, which tend to be very high ($1000 US-London alone), and you would probably end up with an awkward overnight layover somewhere along the way using VS.
BTW, KE's A380 is much better than AF's. Much better business class seats (fully flat instead of angled flat), much more spacious/open cabin, and awesome lounge area at the back of the upper deck. If you liked the AF A380 you'll love KE's.