I'm ticketed, though my routing is now SFO-HNL-KIX-PEK, and the same airports on return. Won't have to go to Shanghai which was in the plans last night, and have first choice of travel dates in both directions. I've probably driven AA nuts the last two days trying to piece this together. I'll do one night in HNL to avoid an 80 min connection there from the west coast, and one night in KIX en route to Beijing. On the flights home, no layovers.

In all the efforts to find something into Osaka, I don't think the agent I spoke with yesterday knew about the HNL-KIX flight, and I came upon it browsing the JAL website last night for options. Figured that KIX-PEK flight was still going to be my best option into Beijing, and it was still available.

I had to move the return date ahead one day as swimming runs one extra day in Beijing (9 days versus 8 in Athens), and I just caught that this morning and confirmed it.