Originally Posted by margarita girl

I got my ticket booked and was able to get the IAP discount. The reason the pricing was all over the map (with fares of up to $8000 on Amex) was my original itinerary was not bookable even though it was showing up on ITA and Priceline. When I clicked through to purchase last night, it timed out. So I kept playing with cities/dates and had to go right through the booking process at Priceline to find out what would work. I booked and canceled 2 tickets.

Anyhow, once I found an itinerary that worked, I called Amex and they were able to book it for me. Priceline price was $1951. Amex quoted me $1704 + $39 booking fee (so $208 savings). This is what I ended up with:

JFK-YVR CX889 biz class
YVR-HKG CX859 PE
HKG-MLE CX601 biz class
MLE-HKG CX602 biz class
HKG-YVR CX838 PE
YVR-JFK CX888 biz class

I've initiated a transfer of points to my Asia Miles account and will attempt to upgrade the 2 PE segments for 20K pts each.

I expect to earn:

35,400 EQMs
$5,269 EQDs
54,700 RDMs *

Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions! ^

* Updated per information provided below.