Originally Posted by
mattp1987
To the OP, if you really want to use DL miles to Australia and aren't opposed to spending a night in China, you might be able to search segment by segment for LAX-PVG-SYD and then get a good agent to put it together for you. IIRC, that route was normally available until a couple months ago (well after VA availability dried up), but the flight timing no longer lines up to do it without an overnight stop. Even if you can get that to work for one direction, that would save you 100k miles or more per person.
Haven't done it myself but I've heard bad things about both flying China Eastern (even with their new business class) and about the airport experience at PVG. I even recently cancelled a DL award I'd booked on MU and rebooked using *A miles that I consider much more valuable because the MU experience sounded bad enough to make it not worth it.
But, to each their own, and these days if you want a low-price Australia J award with Delta miles that is about the only reliably available option.