That poster wold be me - we got back from that trip last week. It was really not very complicated but you do have to be willing to make a stop somewhere. Ours was obviously London for our Newark to Paris flight.

In our case and looking at Business Class,, you would have to go online to Cathay Pacific and join their Asia Miles program. Then you cold immediately call Asia Miles and ask to reserve flights pending transfer of points. They would look at what airlines they are partnered with that run those routes and tell you about availability.

We chose First Class, but if it was Business Class, our EWR-CDG itinerary wold have cost 60,000 Asia Miles. That would have cost 50,000 StarPoints. Others can speak to upgrade availability since your emnployer would pay for coach. But 50,000 Starpoints for BC ain't bad!