My parents are hitting their 50th anniversary next year and my sister and I would like to send them to Taiwan. I've been looking for business class tickets for them, but they are frighteningly expensive at $5500 each.
My parents don't travel much nowadays, but they are excited about the prospect of introducing their granddaughter to the country, so we'd like to send them during her spring break. I'm looking for cheaper ideas or options.
It's an especially difficult task because they want a specific time frame, and since comfort is the main issue, they would want to avoid layovers too.
I looked into package deals, but those seem to save more on the ancillary items like hotels or cars rather than the flight.
I know there are three airlines that fly direct from SoCal to TPE, and we have some miles with each to play with, but probably not enough.
For China Airlines, in the Sky Team alliance, my sister has 100k miles with Virgin Atlantic, and I have 60k with their partner, Delta. There was no availability with Virgin in Business Class at 100k a seat, one-way, for LAX or ONT to TPE the last time I checked. Delta had none either but asks 320k.
For Starlux, I have 12k miles on American and 18k on Alaska. A business class seat costs 165k.
And for EVA Air, which is in Star alliance. I have 30k miles in United and my sister has 20k. They seemed to have availability at 75k. I have considred getting a credit card with a 60k bonus, but that would take roughly two months and there's no guarantee there would be availability.
I have yet to investigate other West Coast airports for possible availability, but that seems like a stretch already.
One option to economize that I've been considering is flying them out via ZipAir to Narita, which has lie-flat seats, getting them a commuter flight to Taiwan ($250-$500 at 4 hours) and then economy home.
Or, my sister and I could shell out for retail. It's their 50th anniversary after all. But with such a short trip of roughly a week, it also seems counter to the principles of frugality they raised us with.
Do you guys have any other ideas or suggestions? Thanks!