Originally Posted by hyperzulu

The website is notoriously inaccurate about pricing out awards. Just go by the chart using the great circle mapper instead for distance between each leg.

SFO-HKG-SYD = 11,507 miles or 110,000 to redeem one-way business
http://www.gcmap.com/dist?P=SFO-HKG-...%23eb151c&PW=3

SFO-NRT goes through HKG as well. At 8,768 miles total, this one accurately prices out on the website as 85,000 miles to redeem.

I booked a flight MLE-HKG-SFO and ran into this issue as well. Originally wanted to fly into LAX but that puts me into the 10,000+ column. SFO is just under 10,000 miles, so it prices out 25,000 miles less to redeem one-way business. But that route is 85,000 asia miles, as opposed to the 70,000 the site was quoting me.

You could go one-way on American Airlines nonstop to LAX. You can also redeem for JAL flights, but RT only I believe.