I've been working on this for far, far longer than I care to admit:

Oct 25: SFO-GUM

Oct 30/31 GUM-HKG

Nov 4 HKG-SFO.

I'm prem exec with about 140k miles in the bank and 48k EQMs so far this year. With a screaming bad back, I'm largely looking for the best combo of pacific upgrade and good connections. Wouldn't mind bagging the united EQM's as 1K isn't beyond reach, but it's definitely going to be a major stretch. In order for this itinerary to work I assume I'll need to break up the ticket and use another carrier for portions of it, but I haven't found a price point that works. Any help at all would be appreciated. I'm open to any combo of paid and award tickets.